Once upon a time, a girl named Christina read my blog. We chatted a few times on various internety places. She contacted me wondering if I would be able to photograph her wedding.
Now, normally brides scare me. What? Yes. I am admitting that. Brides have been told that this is their day and their expectations are sky-high and that intensity just scares me. I am a pretty laid-back and down-to-earth person, and I always worried that won’t mesh with high-strung brides. But I could tell Christina was different.
After I blogged about the no-electricity wedding (great wedding! but photography was a challenge), she emailed me to reassure me that she wasn’t looking for anything crazy intense. Her thoughtfulness and kindness was so unexpected and sincere that I knew immediately that I wanted to meet her.
I was a hot mess of nerves, if we’re being honest. I couldn’t sleep well the night before the wedding, waking up to worry about everything going wrong. But as soon as Melanie (my sister and second shooter) and I met Christina and her bridesmaids, I felt at ease. They were welcoming and kind and utterly down-to-earth. And Drew! Oh, he was so sweet and hilarious. I mean, he went to Toys R Us the morning of his wedding to buy a toy. It’s hard to be around him for more than a minute and not have him make you laugh.
Melanie and I had more fun photographing a “stranger’s” wedding than I have had at most weddings of people I know. This is partially due to the fact that their friends and family were incredibly welcoming and warm to us (photographers! I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone talk to the photographer at a wedding. At yet, we were chatting with people all night long.) and partially because it was just a great, intimate wedding. The reception was at a bike-slash-coffee shop and full of sweet, beautiful details, like the typewriter guest book and cake-made-by-Christina favors.
I feel beyond lucky to have been a part of Drew and Christina’s day. You guys, these two are wonderful together. Within the first few moments of seeing them interact, I could see how perfectly they compliment each other.
I was thinking all day long about if I’d want to do this whole wedding photography again. I’m still not sure. It was seriously so fun and special being a part of a wedding in a different capacity. But, it’s sort of stressful to have once chance to get each important shot, you know? Plus, I still feel that gap and slightly inadequate. And also, what if every bride is not Christina? (I’m kidding. Mostly.)
The pictures are absolutely beautiful!
Awesome pics and a beautiful bride!
I was in Chicago last month, what a great place for a wedding.
These photos are fabulous! It sounds like such a great wedding!!!
The pictures came out SO great! I definitely would be a little scared of brides too, people can be so intense :)
Thanks, Kelly!
Right?? I’m glad I’m not the only one. I feel like a grinch about weddings, but sometimes it can get intense up in there!
I think the photos are phenomenal and you did an awesome job. Looks to me like you captured the spirit of the day which is pretty darn important and not always easy to do! I was thinking that if I had known you did wedding photography I would have asked you to do ours. Maybe someday I can meet up with you and get some photos taken by you of my little blended family =)
Thank you, Nora! I would love to take your photos. :)
This is the sweetest post! Thank you for saying such kind things about us. It was really so nice to read. I may be partial, here, but I really do think that this is my favorite photography work that I’ve seen you do so far. It really captures what the day felt like to us, and that’s exactly what we wanted. Also, I feel the exact same way about brides as you do – and I also tend to feel that way about people working in the wedding industry, including photographers. But you and Melanie blended in so well with our friends and family and matched our “this is a big, fun party with people we love, not a day with a ton of pressure for it to be the best day of our lives ever vibe” perfectly. Someone commented to me this week that if you hadn’t been there with a large camera, he would have thought you were there as friends. You were exactly the right person to be there. Thank you so much!