I lost my favorite roommate to a boy.

Heather and Jeremy's wedding.

Heather and Jeremy…and Bill Murray.

 

Heather and I moved in together when we were both going through some of the toughest times in our lives. It occasionally made for a pretty depressing (and very messy) apartment, but it was good for us both. We needed each other. We understood when one of us needed to talk or to drink or to stare blankly at a television. I didn’t judge when she’d eat Mexican food in the bathtub. She didn’t judge when I’d go through a box of cookies in one sitting. We helped each other get through.

Though we had gone to college together, we didn’t really know each other then. We knew of each other, our crowds overlapped, but we never hung out. It was after college, after we started reading each others livejournals, that we started to bond. We both were afraid of heights. We both knew New York geography from a Baby-Sitters Club Super Special. We determined that we were basically twins. And, when the two of us ended up in Vegas at the same time, we confirmed it.

 

Me and Heather in Las Vegas.

 

When Heather moved to Chicago we started hanging out more. And, when we both were looking for new places to live, we decided to move in together. We were both complete messes at the time. But it worked. We’d spend weekend mornings at the corner Starbucks as I blogged and she graded papers. We’d go out at night for meatloaf at Four Moon, a bar down the block. We’d hang out in the apartment, just doing nothing together. And she became one of my best friends, the person I’d go to for everything. And she was always there for me.

 

Pretty sure this is the first photo I ever took of Heather and Jeremy.

 

I met Jeremy near the beginning of their relationship. I mean, it’s kind of hard to ignore when your roommate starts bringing home a boy. He quickly became a permanent fixture around our place. They were great together. They had similar personalities and the same sense of humor. They could get in heated arguments over Meet the Press and both come out fine. Sometimes he would cook us both dinner and often we’d have nights where the three of us would sit around the apartment talking.

He was funny and sweet and they were perfect together.

And then they broke up.

It was hard for Heather, but, at the time, it was the right thing to do. The timing just wasn’t right yet.

 

New Years Eve 2012/13

 

I was there when they got back together, on a New Years Eve two years ago. A moment I knew was coming for a very long time. Because they were perfect for each other. They belonged together. And because, looking at them together, you would have never guessed that they were ever apart. Because, in the entire time the were broken up, they never were apart.

 

Heather and Jeremy on their wedding day.

 

A few weeks ago, Heather and Jeremy got married.

There was a ceremony in Jeremy’s family’s church in Skokie and a reception in Glenview, where we danced all night and ate everything at the mashed potato bar. It was the perfect wedding for them. And I was more than thrilled to photograph the day.

I couldn’t be happier to see my best friend, two of my best friends, marry each other.

I guess, as they say, I’m not losing a roommate, I’m gaining a roommate…in-law? Something like that. In any case, those two better have a couch for me whenever I need a place to crash.

So many congratulations of Heather and Jeremy. I wish all the happiness in the world to you as you begin your life as mister and missus. Love you both.