Julie and Rob’s wedding was spectacular, and I was fortunate enough to have Erin Antognoli of Halo Photographic shoot alongside me at this beautiful event.

Julie is this incredible woman with an amazing eye for detail, and a ridiculous ability to locate and coordinate the most outstanding talent (wow I’m pulling out all the adjectives!). She is an event coordinator by trade, and she managed the coordination of one of the most beautiful and elegant weddings I have ever had the honor of photographing. Everything was first class. Her florist (link forthcoming) is AMAZING, with the best personality. The catering was delicious, professional, well presented, and well staffed. The locations were to die for. The color coordination, the gowns, the details – right out of a magazine. Julie has this flair, and she surrounded herself in likewise talented and creative people who pulled this flawless event together seemingly effortlessly.

Rob has a charming, boyish look to him, and a wicked sense of humor. He and his groomsmen kept me laughing most of the day with their irreverent (and occasionally juvenile) humor. Rob is soft spoken and kind, and he and Julie make a great couple.

Julie and Rob got ready at the Hotel Monaco Washington, which is a splendidly decorated hotel with a real modern edge and cool “Shining” like hallways. The ceremony was held at the Church of the Ascension and St. Agnes in Washington, and the reception was on the portico of the Daughters of the American Revolution building on the Washington mall. It doesn’t get much classier than this, guys.

The creme de la creme, the reason I drove 7 hours home after the wedding with a goofy perma-grin, the BRAGGING RIGHTS that came out of this trip… was that after the reception, Julie, Rob and I piled into the 1943 Caddy *something* (showing my naivety here, I can’t for the life of me remember what you call that car!) and drove to the Capitol Building… yeah, THE Capitol Building… and wandered around inside the building with almost FULL access for newlywed photos. We only had about 45 minutes, but I could have spent the entire day there. I had forgotten how unbelievably gorgeous that building is – the architecture, the history, the details and decor. My heart was pounding the entire time, just knowing that I wasn’t capturing everything perfectly, that I needed more time, more gear, more lights, a softbox, some radios, an assistant or five…. but we ended up with some lovely, quiet, stately images of the newlyweds in one of the most beautiful historic buildings in the United States.

This was one of those weddings you’ll never forget. Julie and Rob are both terribly busy people, with loaded calendars and nonstop phone calls and appointments, and I haven’t had the chance to really sit and chat with either of them since the wedding… but hopefully we’ll find the time to get together again soon (perhaps when we design their album!) because they were a true joy to work with, and just good people all around.

Click here to view Julie and Rob’s slideshow!

Page and Bryan are the happiest, laughingest, friendliest, most pleasant couple I’ve worked with in a long time. And their families made me feel like I was part of the family, instantly. Everything about this wedding was fun, lighthearted, joyous, and elegant – and I’m pretty sure that Page, her sister Cameron, and I will be friends for a long time to come. Just, truly, *great* people.

Every so often I am lucky enough to work for people that I really *connect* with. People who, if we lived nearer eachother or had met at different times in our lives, would be my closest friends. For 2006, Page and Bryan and their families are those people. And somehow, the work I did for them has touched them so deeply that they’ve felt compelled to write some of the most beautiful emails to brighten up my days, thanking me for the images I’ve captured. Even Page’s mom, Frances (who is one of the *BEST* women I’ve EVER met in my life – she and I could have talked for days and I’d be entertained every second of our time together), has emailed me to thank me, and to compliment me endlessly on my work.

In a way I don’t feel deserving of such gushing. I did what I do for everyone! But in another, very personal way – it is enormously redeeming to hear that I have not only done my job, but done it in a way that really connected and *spoke* to the families. This is why I do what I do. On occasion it’s a thankless effort. There’s the random client who is never happy, no matter how hard you try. But when a couple like Page and Bryan happens along… it all makes sense again. This is why I stay up until 2am studying, researching, and editing. This is why I sacrifice my weekends and holidays. This is why I have more photos of strangers than I do of my daughter. Because somewhere, someone out there thinks the work I do rocks. That’s a damn nice feeling.

I created a flash based slideshow out of some of my favorite images from this wedding. It’s my first slideshow, it bogs down in the middle because I can’t get the preloading to work right, and it’s pretty plain because I ran out of creativity while I was cursing at the flash program for not preloading properly… but hopefully you’ll enjoy it, despite it flaws! (I’m buying a program that does this automatically so I don’t have to spend fifteen hours on every slideshow!!!!)

Click here to view Page and Bryan’s slideshow!