The first dances are one of my favorite parts of a wedding. Sometimes it's parent and child enjoying a song together. Sometimes mom cries. Sometimes it's the small things--dad holding back tears, or laughing, or gripping his daughter just a bit more than usual. They're all so different.

Down at Black Butte Ranch for Heather and Steve's wedding, I was photographing the end of the mother/son dance where they invited all the mothers and sons to come up and dance. After a couple of minutes, I took this photo of a woman standing at the edge of the dance floor, gently rocking her baby and singing quietly with the song. It took me a second, and then it hit me. And then I started to cry.

Mother, son. I know why it hit me so hard. A client and friend of mine recently lost her baby after one month. Seeing this mom dance with her son at a wedding, and thinking of all the other dances, the life experiences, and maybe his wedding someday--it really choked me up. I love that she stepped out there with him and shared that dance with all the other moms and grown sons.

I hope they can share that photograph later in their lives and remember their first dance. I sure won't forget it.