Bride Shares Memorial Photo Shoot One Year After Fiance's Death
The couple was set to marry on Nov. 8, 2014.
— -- A Washington bride's beautiful, yet emotional photo shoot, is breaking hearts of Internet users globally, after she and her photographer shared the photos one year after the death of the man she was set to marry.
Stephanie Jarstad, a photographer and longtime friend of former bride Lauren Reynolds, said Reynolds' fiance Tristan Woods died unexpectedly in a car accident while visiting family in California last October.
The couple was supposed to marry on Nov. 8, 2014.
This past spring Jarstad photographed Reynolds holding photos of her late fiance in the gown she would've worn on the big day.
"Her wedding was the only thing on her mind and she wasn't expecting anything tragic to happen," Jarstad said. "We were sitting around with our other best friend thinking 'Is there something she could do to get closure for her wedding?' We kind of landed on the idea of doing a memorial photo shoot for Tristan in her wedding dress."
The photos were recently shared on Jarstad's photography website along with blogs from Reynolds and excerpts from her journal to commemorate the one-year anniversary of Tristan's passing.
"Neither of us did it for the exposure or for the credit. It was something sweet and we kind of kept it private for a long time," Jarstad said.
Jarstad also shot a video of Reynolds prepping for her shoot and discussing her reasoning behind it.
"All of this today is kind of just a tribute to Tristan," Reynolds said in the video. "And just to help me and my healing process and to help Tristan to know that I'll never stop loving him...I just want other people to take this and try to have a new outlook on life."