Inayah & Safwat’s Styled Vow Renewal and Celebration of Life, Remembrance, & Love

Image: Marianne Blackham

Trying to get back to blogging and not spending my day glued to social media. A sweet styled vow renewal with a beautiful story behind it, is helping for sure. This amazing couple, Inayah & Safwat brought on a collection of fabulous DC wedding vendors, to style a gorgeous vow renewal for the couple, after going through an extremely tough event in their lives. The photographer, Marianne, first met the couple as part of the Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep organization – a nonprofit that pairs couples with remembrance photographers, for those that lost a baby. This resilient couple had a photographer capture the birth of their “sleeping” baby boy, Aariz, whose heart stopped at 37.5 weeks.

After spending 3 days with their son, they said their goodbyes and knew that having dealt with such a challenging time, meant their love was only made stronger. Early this year they discovered they were pregnant again, with a child that will make them a family of four and “is not a replacement for Aariz.” They are so excited to have a little girl join their family this past September.

I cannot imagine grieving the death of a child you carried for 37.5 weeks, but couples like this show us that even in truly difficult times, happiness can be found.

From the photographer: Grieving a child is unending, though happiness can be found, and they will always love and remember him. They renewed their vows in front of their 2 best friends to demonstrate that couples can get through losing a child, but only by continuing to love each other and by leaning into each other in their grief, and to celebrate the upcoming birth of their daughter. They are excited to continue on this journey called life together, “hand in hand always.”