I’m not sure where to start with these two.
Taylor and Lissa have known each other since they were four years old, and if you spend even five minutes with them, you can tell. There’s an ease between them, a shorthand, the kind of connection that only comes from growing up alongside someone — and then, somewhere along the way, falling for them too. They’ve been dating since their sophomore year, and now here they are, crossing the graduation finish line together.
Lissa is a theatre major who has poured herself into her craft, and she’s about to take the stage as one of the narrators in CBU’s upcoming production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Taylor is in the show too, because apparently getting straight A’s in Mechanical Engineering wasn’t keeping him busy enough. He’s spent all four years doing theatre alongside his coursework, and I’m tired just typing that.
A special blessing is that both of them are walking straight from graduation into full-time jobs. The Rickert/Byrd and Gray families are bursting with pride.
For their session, we spent time around the theater with the big banners showcasing the season’s shows and then wandered over to that gorgeous palm-lined drive that is just so perfectly CBU. The light was beautiful, they were hamming it up, and these two made my job easy.
No big announcements here, folks. Just two incredibly talented, hardworking people celebrating a really big milestone. And that’s more than enough reason to celebrate. 🎉













Go see the show! Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is running the next two weekends in April at CBU. Trust me — you don’t want to miss it.









































