Seconds after I walked through Claire's door on her wedding day, she handed me a CD and told me this is what she wanted played in my car, while we drove from location to location during the portraits. Here's the playlist:
1. This is how we do it - Montell Jordan
2. No diggity - Blackstreet
3. Shoop - Salt-N-Pepa
4. Beautiful - Snoop Dog feat. Pharrell
5. Trick me - Kelis
6. Return of the Mack - Mark Morrisson
7. Hey Mr. D.J. - Zhané
8. Get busy - Sean Paul
9. One thing - Amerie
10. You can do it - Ms. Toi and Ice Cube feat. Mack 10
11. Holiday - Naughty By Nature
12. Too close - Next
13. Touch it - Monifah
14. No scrubs - TLC
And even though I'm listening to Vampire Weekend as I type - Claire's playlist, aptly titled 'Gangsta Cruisin', couldn't have been closer to my heart. You see, at the age of 11, I requested 2Pac and Dr. Dre's Runnin for the year 6 formal. I was listening to Rap and Hip Hop, while my friends were listening to S Club 7 (no disrespect because we all know there ain't no party like an S Club party).
We already knew we had a lot in common and Kesh and Claire had become amazing friends through emailing, facebooking and yep, we even met in real life. Roo was born on Claire's birthday, which she was super excited about. Claire shared words of love and support when we put Troop down (Gus, Claire's bulldog features heavily in the images below), when we were broken into and when she felt like we needed some happiness. And that's what Claire's always given us - happiness.
I realised that's what Claire does for everyone.
The day Claire married Paul, I saw that happiness in each of them. During her speech, when Claire announced to all her family and friends that they are having a baby, her happiness was inexplainable. I just don't have the words in me.
Claire and Paul - we are so happy that you guys got married are going to be parents. I know you will raise very happy humans who do so much good in this world.
