Marissa & Charlie

Marissa and Charlie met at eighteen years old at a training camp in Minnesota, the summer before starting their college careers at WashU — both athletes, both on the brink of becoming. Marissa, a soccer star. Charlie, a basketball player. The meeting was unexpected. “I didn’t want to date anyone,” Marissa told me, “but then along came Charlie.”

We talked about what it’s like to spend your formative years alongside another person — growing into yourself while also growing with someone else. How important is to be beside someone who you can really be yourself with. There’s an ease between them, a comfort that only comes from time; maybe it’s the choosing each other again and again. Their intimacy feels playful and steady.

After graduation, life carried them to Chicago, and then most recently, to Denver for Charlie’s job— along with their two cats, Lola and Honey. Their blue-door Wash Park bungalow, with sunlight pouring through the dining room windows, a cozy fireplace, and a welcoming porch with windchimes, is their first home together in Colorado. They’ve settled in — with art collected from vintage markets, a hutch painted green, an office chair on its last life, and Marissa’s sourdough starter in permanent rotation on the kitchen counter.

We ended the shoot outdoors, Charlie in his oversized boots and Marissa in her grandmother’s fleece. They sat in their rocking chairs, reflecting on their move and on this chapter together.

It got me thinking about how love is built in the details — the consistency of the ordinary moments, the choices we make over the years that quietly, and inevitably become everything.