Sweet Sixteen

Tonight we celebrated the Sweet Sixteenth birthday of our dear friend Victoria.  We’ve known her for practically forever and she is an incredibly amazing and beautiful girl.  She is an active and important part of our youth group and she adores our Ellee girl (the feeling is quite mutual on Ellee’s end).

I’ll be honest.  Before we moved to New York, I had never really heard of people throwing big Sweet Sixteen parties.  I figured it was merely the age right after fifteen and before the slightly less exciting age of seventeen.

However, in the past ten years, I’ve had the privilege of attending a good number of Sweet Sixteens.  I’ve photographed some and considering the fact that we continually work with teenagers, we have been invited to quite a few as well.

Victoria’s party was fantastic.  I knew most of the kids because most of them are a part of our youth group.

It was so fun to see them all dressed up and having a great time.

Ellee played shy for awhile, but it didn’t take long before she was all in.

Victoria is such a wonderful girl.  She also has wonderful friends as well.  Friends are such an important thing when you’re a teenager, and it always makes me so happy, when our students surround themselves by good friends.

It was so good to see Victoria’s mom and when she introduced me to her sister, I figured I’d better take a quick picture.  I love sister shots and it always reminds me of how much I love and miss my own sisters.

Later on in the evening, everyone gathered around as Victoria did her candle lighting.

This is by far my favorite tradition of most Sweet Sixteens.  I love hearing the stories and memories and what makes her friends and family so special.  Victoria was so sweet too, as she shared a candle with Jer, Christian, Ellee and I.  It definitely made me tear up to hear the kind words of our dear friend.

Victoria had many special candles and many friends to share them with.

Ellee loved watching the candle lighting.

More Candle Lighting fun.

After her candles were all lit,

it was time to make a wish and then blow them all out.

Victoria then shared the sweetest dance with her Dad.

Followed by lots more dancing.  We all had a great time celebrating Victoria’s big day.

I’ll finish up with one more shot.  How amazing is this cake?  Since it was late, we had to leave before they cut it, but it was so incredible that I can’t imagine eating it after admiring it all in one piece.  Happy, happy birthday Dear Victoria!  We love you so much and are so thankful for your special day!