Sometimes you get lucky.

Sometimes one of your best friends in the world meets her soulmate, falls in love, and gets engaged.  And sometimes, if you’re really really lucky, you are the people she turns to for her wedding photography.

Sometimes, your friend decides she wants a rockabilly wedding on a decommissioned Battleship on the Cape Fear River.  Yes, sometimes you’re really that lucky.

Sometimes, that best friend has a little girl who is best friends with your own little girl.  And all the bestest friendses get to be together on one of the biggest days in all of their lives.

Joanna and Nathan have three little girls between them – and as of this writing, a little boy to follow!  It’s nothing short of amazing to watch people you love dearly expand their hearts and homes and worlds to make a bigger family together.  It’s… it’s just awe-inspiring.

You should know that Nathan’s last name is “King”.  The crown, well, you know.   The ODB on the iPhone?  All Mike and the Best Man, Charles.

If you’ve followed this blog for any length of time, you might recognize Casey from our Fort Fisher portrait session (that was featured on Offbeat Mama) a while back.   Casey was one of Joanna’s bridesmaids, and the craftmaster/cake-pop provider of the day.  Shameless plug time: Poppinz Gourmet Cake Pops and Truffles is who you want to call for your wedding or event cake pops.  Casey is a beautiful spirit who works way too hard and still seems to have enough time for everyone in her life… and I want her to find the greatest success.

So Joanna wanted to do a first-look with Nathan, mostly to calm both of their nerves before the ceremony, and to get some pre-ceremony pictures when we knew we’d still have plenty of time and before the chaos of post-wedding crazy hits.

This is where I almost lost it.  I cry at every wedding, I won’t lie.  I’m not jaded by the years of shooting, I can still be moved by a simple smile, a special song, a glance… I get to see these moments at every wedding, and I never know which moment, which part of the day, will bring on the waterworks, but they’ll come at some point.

But I can compose myself pretty easily.  Usually.  But not this time.  Oh man, did I cry.  I cried when they had their first look.  I cried when I saw the light hitting the Battleship in the distance behind them as they talked quietly to each other in the tall grass.  I cried when I watch Joanna walk down the aisle, I cried when Nathan’s little Abby ran up to him to give him a kiss at the ceremony.  I was NOT strong.  How could I be.  These two amazing people waited a lifetime to find each other, and parted seas and climbed mountains to be together and make a life together, and here they were, making it legal.  Making it official, with their three daughters dressed alike, watching, participating, and loving them.  You would have been a blubbering mess, too.

Just… how beautiful is this?  You don’t even need to know the backstory to appreciate how much JOY they’re sharing in these moments, you know?  You can just feel it.  You just know.

These beautiful girls are such a big part of our lives.  The spunky middle-heighted child is our Ellie’s BFF.  They get along mostly.  Sometimes I wonder how they manage, what with all the fights and disagreements.  But they’re nine and ten.  I forget how moody I was at that age.  I like to think I was an angel, but Mom tells me otherwise.

See Abby giving her Daddy a kiss before the ceremony?  Is that not the most adorable thing ever?  Right?

Their officiant is a friend of all of ours, Kris, who bartends at our favorite Downtown Wilmington bar, Cape Fear Wine and Beer.  You should stop in and say hi to him sometime.  He’s a riot.  Also an ordained minister.  You’d be surprised at how many people in downtown Wilmington happen to be ordained ministers.  

Joy.  I’m not sure how I caught any of these shots because my viewfinder was completely blurred by all my tears.  Thank you autofocus.

Joanna did an amazing job of creating her look for the wedding day, and I think the photo below shows it off the best.  She is positively STUNNING.  Just a beautiful, glamorous, rockabilly bride, with the sweetest expressions in the world.

I don’t think there’s anything better than the look of adoration.  Nathan’s got it for Jo in abundance.  I’d put this picture in Target 5×7 photo frames all over the country if I could – it’s just happy and perfect.

Or maybe it’d be this picture.  I mean, c’mon.  Look at that family.

Fortuitous graffiti is fortuitous.

I’ve tried to write this blog post at least a dozen times now.  I could type words for hours and still not quite describe the honor and the emotion of being such a big part of such an enormous day in the lives of people you love so very much.

To be chosen to document not only the new family with whom you’re so close, but to photograph all the mutual friends, the extended family you’ve grown to know and love over the years, and to be part of every group hug and every inside joke.

To be trusted with such a delicate and important job, by people you respect and admire.

YEAH I cried.  If you must know, I’ve got a tear or two running down my cheeks right now.  So?

I met them at a coffee shop in Carolina Beach about a month before their wedding.  I wasn’t sure if they’d book; hell, from our email correspondence which was all fairly vague and inconsistent, I wasn’t even sure they’d show up for our consult.  But the second Sam walked into the coffee shop, frazzled and all smiles, I knew she was a free spirit who I’d fall in love with.

The entire consult was just a mess of stories and gushing and laughter.  When a consult veers from “all business” to “all laughter” I know we’ve found the perfect couple for our work and personalities.  I left the coffee shop knowing that the wedding we were about to shoot a few weeks later would be a BLAST.  I knew it would be a bit disorganized, heavy on the fun, and light on tradition.  I knew that Sam and Chris trusted us completely, and that we would be free to work the way we work best, without being micromanaged or directed throughout the day.  It takes a strong personality to let go of a part of your wedding and let the professionals handle it the way they need to; knowing that we gave Sam and Chris such confidence in our abilities thrilled me.

When we arrived at the Kure Beach house to start our coverage, things were mildly chaotic.  Chris couldn’t find an ironing board.  Bouquets were missing.  The door to Sam’s room kept flying open with family members asking VERY IMPORTANT QUESTIONS of Sam (like, “did the yellow candle go in the blue vase, or somewhere else?”).  Through it all, Sam kept this incredible calm about her.

I remember watching her as she stood beside the pool, arm in arm with her dad, waiting to walk down the aisle.  She was smiling so big I thought her face would crack.  I could tell she was jumping up and down on the inside, just wanting to get to that moment where she could see Chris, finally, after spending the last night apart and avoiding him all day.  She BEAMED with excitement, she was warmth everywhere.

There’s a way to get amazing first dance shots, and it’s not easy.  The couple has to let go.  They have to completely immerse in one another and forget that a world exists outside of their dance.  For some couples it’s easy; others are too nervous or too busy keeping time.  Sam and Chris, though… they fell out of the real world the moment the first note of their song played.  They were in their world the entire dance, and I love them for it.  These are some of the best first dance pictures of 2012, and it’s all because they let go ofeverything but each other in those 4 minutes.

There was beer pong.  That should tell you everything you need to know about how freaking cool these people are.

This shot of Chris’ grandma giving a speech during the toasts may be my favorite shot of 2012.  LOOK AT THIS SHOT.  It’s perfect.  She is so beautiful.

Oh the dancing.  This party got crazy, quick.  When a few dozen people spend all day in a vacation home together, with a limitless supply of alcohol and dance music, things will get hot in a hurry.  Even the kids were partying hard.  

So much sexy.  I can’t WAIT for their newlywed session when the weather warms up.

Limbo.  For real, now, it’s been years since limbo has shown up at a wedding of ours.  That’s a good way to revive photographers who are weary from 8 hours of running with their gear – start up the limbo.  That shit’s fun to shoot.

Check out Mike all up in the action.

I could post more, but it’s all more of the same – lots of drunk dancing and singing and conga-lining and spilling beer and laughing and spinning and clogging and jumping and hugging.  This is the advantage to having your wedding in a huge private home – the party can go on forever, and no one has to drive anywhere afterward.

When I think back to this wedding, I just remember Sam’s incredible smile and the way Chris looked at her all night long.  The way they migrated toward each other through the dance floor every few songs, just to reconnect for a minute and to share their giddiness – WE’RE MARRIED!!!!  How they grabbed us toward the end of the night and told us how much they love us and appreciate us and how thankful they were that we were there for them.  How much it meant to us to hear those words.  How we spent the entire drive home on a high from an intense shoot with people who were so much more than clients to us.  How every last guest could have been one of our closest friends.  We gushed the rest of the night and into the early morning about our good fortune, about how amazing it is to connect with people who we would never have met were it not for a series of internet events.

I don’t ever want to stop shooting weddings.  Not when there’s a chance of being able to shoot weddings like this, even if they only come once in a blue moon.  We love you, Sam and Chris, and we can’t WAIT to spend more time with you soon!!!

What do you get when you take a naturally beautiful woman with an almost otherworldly calming presence about her… add an energetic, silly, romantic, salsa-dancing Ecuadorian-American… throw in about sixty of their friends and family members, and put them on the beach at the Kitty Hawk Pier?

You get something AMAZING, that’s what.  Yeah, so I’m short on adjectives lately, sorry.  Besides, I don’t know really how better to describe the day that Rita married Leo.  It was amazing.  We had perfect weather – AMAZING, because it had been raining almost nonstop, and even rained the very next day for Sam and Chris’ wedding in Kure Beach… but Rita and Leo, they got perfect weather.  The setting was amazing.  The people… amazing.  Rita’s dress, originally her mother’s wedding dress, redesigned to fit Rita’s frame and personality… FREAKING AMAZING.  Leo’s dance moves, Rita’s sensual self, the simplicity of their day mixed together with the complexity of these absolutely fascinating personalities and the way they interacted and related to one another.  Just…. just amazing.

It’s this kind of wedding that makes me stop and take it all in.  I usually witness it all through the viewfinder, through one of my favorite lenses, compressed field of view, targeting my subject, finding the light, composing and re-composing, translating the feelings I’m seeing into a frame in such a way so the eventual viewer will feel what was there at that moment.  At this wedding, I wanted to experience the personalities without any of my senses impaired by focus or art.  For a couple minutes, I pretended to be a guest and just watched them dance.  I watched while Mike shot, and I took it all in.

Rita and Leo met salsa dancing in Baltimore.  That’s the beginning of their relationship, and has been a core of it since they first met.  Salsa was at the center of this reception, and it’s the first time I’ve really been in the middle of a salsa dance party.  It’s sexy as hell.  It’s beautiful.  There’s so much communication happening between the bodies.  There’s so much to capture, so much to witness.  When I resumed photographer mode, I must have shot two hundred frames of one dance, because there were at least that many messages being conveyed between the two of them.

Mike and I found a late night salsa club in Wilmington.  It’s a $5 cover, ladies get in free.  We’re SO going there in a few weeks when we have a child-free weekend.  I absolutely can’t wait.

Thank you, Rita and Leo, for so much.  For letting us into your world.  For being vulnerable and honest and welcoming.  For being appreciative and warm and so very kind.  For giving us complete freedom at your wedding to do what we do best.  For trusting us completely, and for being such a gracious and wonderful hostess.  Yours is a wedding we will never, ever forget.  Congratulations… and thank you <3

Leslie and Gabe are from a small town in West Virginia.  They’re teachers there; in fact, they met at the school where they both teach elementary aged kids.  Somehow, when they decided to get married, they chose a tiny beach in southeastern North Carolina.  If memory serves, neither of them had ever been to Sunset Beach before; they just chose it on a whim.  And then they decided to get married on a Wednesday, and invite their closest friends and family to join the celebration.  And, fortunately for us, they decided to make sure that their day was captured beautifully, and they hired us to document it all for them.

We left this wedding rejuvenated.  This was the perfect midyear kick-in-the-ass wedding to get us motivated for the second half of 2012.  There was something so pure and unassuming about this entire day – from Leslie and Gabe and their incredible personalities and presence, to the setting of their wedding, to the lowkey reception and the sweetness of every guest and every child that was there.  It was just a sweet day.  With people who care so much about everyone around them, they didn’t let us leave without a jar of homemade jam (they picked the berries themselves!), a handwritten note, and a tip!  No one tips anymore, it was the most unexpected surprise and so, so appreciated!  The entire drive back home that night, Mike and I gushed about this wedding, the darling people we’d met, the new friends we hoped we’d one day see again, and our futures, which looked so much brighter after being around genuinely good people all day.

Eleven years and counting, and I still love this damn job.

Well, I may be down with a horrific head cold, but at least it’s forcing me to slow down and post some pictures today, right?

This wedding happened in early July, at the Watermark Marina in Wilmington, right on the Cape Fear River.  If that sounds like an unbearably humid, hot location and time of year for a wedding, well, it was .  But you know what’s so magical about weddings, dance parties, and booze?  No one ever complains about the little things.   That’s the trick – give your guests enough food, music, and beer and you can hold the wedding in the middle of winter in an unheated room.  They don’t care, they just wanna celebrate!

Among my favorite memories from this wedding are Lauren’s hilarious sense of humor and the fact that she apparently lacks the gene that eventually mutates into the bridezilla factor.  I mean, you can’t get further away from bridezilla than Lauren – she didn’t even know what her centerpieces would look like until she got to her reception… and that didn’t bother her AT ALL.  Imagine how much nicer life would be if we were all so laid back and easygoing?

While we searched for fun places to take newlywed photos after the ceremony, I almost stepped on a copperhead.  A lot of couples would see that happen and be all, “Oh HELL no we’re not standing in this crazy tall grass for pictures, you crazy photographer.”  Not them.  They were like, “Whatever.  Snake Schmake.”  And then they made out in the same tall grass where the snakes live.  Man I love adventurous people!

Oh, and this was an INSANE dance party – serious unstoppable sweaty dancing all. night. long.  I don’t know where people find the energy to keep going sometimes.  I’m just glad we get to watch and record it, and no one expects us to dance.

For a slight change of pace (and you’ll thank me for this, I’m sure), I’ve decided to sit back and let the photos do the talking for the next few posts.  See, I’ve got this cold that Mike gave me (yes, he gets all the blame), I’ve got a splitting headache, my nose won’t stop running, and I’ve lost my voice.  But I have GOT to get our blog updated after spending most of the fall barely even touching it.  It’s long overdue.  But rather than bore everyone with 1,200 word essays on each of the next few weddings, I’m gonna post photos, get these online, and then lie down for a Nyquil Nap.

But before I stop typing, let me just tell you that Elizabeth and Dan are two quirky urbanites from Chicago who chose Oak Island for their wedding because their families had vacationed here every summer since they were kids.  This was one of those weddings, and they don’t happen often, where the couple is so involved with their friends that we don’t really get a chance to talk to them much, or learn much about them other than what we observe.  So I can tell you that Elizabeth has the most adorable expressions, and she’s positively giddy whenever Dan is near.  Dan’s a bit aloof, definitely has his mind in a dozen places at once, and had a blast playing iPad DJ for the reception.   According to the toasts, Dan has a heart of gold and would drop anything and everything to help a friend in need.  And Elizabeth is every bit as sweet, caring, charming, and loved as the pictures below imply.  Their families spent almost as much time on the dance floor as the kids did, and the music variety was off-the-charts.  EVERYONE that was there, from the guests to the waitstaff to the passersby, had the time of their lives.  We left exhausted and completely satisfied that we’d just witnessed one of the most fun, well-planned, and beautiful weddings of 2012.

Jenny and Paul got married all the way back in April of 2004 – almost 9 years ago! – in her parents’ backyard in Clinton, NC.  I remember how much her dad worked on the backyard to get it just.right, and how much pride he had in the plantings, the gorgeous gazebo that would serve as the ceremony location for his little girl, the beautiful delicate soft pink details that Jenny and her mom worked so hard to put together.  I remember I was suffering from the first horrible case of hay fever I’d ever had, and felt like I was going to die of stuffyheaded misery, until Jenny’s fabulous mom slipped me a prescription strength Claritin and a Coke.  I remember how one of Jenny’s aunts… or maybe it was a family friend… stepped right into the aisle when Jenny and Paul kissed at the end of the ceremony, and blocked my shot almost completely, and how mad I was in that moment.

I remember how lucky we were that this completely open-air outdoor wedding and reception didn’t get one drop of rain – not ONE DROP, in prime rainy season.  I remember how Paul looked at Jenny when she walked down the aisle – how he held back his tears, how his face screwed up, how in that instant I saw what a big teddy bear he was.  I remember the sparklers that came out too early, the cake smash, the toddler that kept bringing me fresh picked flowers all day long.

I don’t remember what kind of food was served, or whether there was alcohol.  I don’t remember the vows, or whether it was a secular or religious ceremony.  Nor do I remember exactly what kind of flowers Jenny carried, or if her shoes were designer.  I remember that she looked at Paul like he was her personal hero, and that he held her like the most precious thing he’d ever found.  I remember that I felt like family at their wedding, and that at some point I realized my acceptance into their world was more because of how gracious and lovely they are, and less about how awesome I am.  I remember thinking that I didn’t have enough time to make gorgeous portraits of the newlyweds, and telling myself to make sure I scheduled another portrait session with them someday soon.  And how I never did get around to doing that.  And I still remember how the bridal portrait that Jenny chose to display was, and still is, the best bridal portrait I’ve ever made.

One of these days, Jenny and Paul, I’m making good on that promise I made to myself, and I’m taking you two out for more pictures… let’s do the McDonald’s again, along with maybe someplace a little classier, too!  And maybe one day soon I’ll get to meet that little girl of yours, and the little boy you’re working on.  Meantime, I would love to hear the memories that you have of that day we shared in 2004.

Steph and Mike’s last dance was to Harvest Moon by Neil Young.  Go ahead and press play on the video so that you have the right soundtrack to this wedding – I don’t know that there’s a more fitting or beautiful song for this wonderful, genuine, REAL couple.

Steph found me on facebook – a legitimate win for social networking!  She was looking for bridesmaid dresses, and a friend of hers sent her a link to a picture I’d posted on facebook, of a wedding that the friend’s FRIEND had been a bridesmaid in.  Did you follow all that?  Steph didn’t love the bridesmaid dresses, but she loved the image, and followed the links to my website.  Even though her wedding would take place three states away, nine hours up the road, she still inquired – which is how I know that I’m one of the luckiest people on earth.  Had she been turned off by my location and the potentially outrageous travel costs for getting me up there for the wedding, I never would have met these people.  I never would have been a part of the most eccentric and fun-loving families for two days of my life.  I never would have seen my car covered in a million mayflies at a gas station, or been so close to the Yuengling brewery, I might not have laughed so hard that weekend, or shot so many frames, or met a state senator.  Sometimes I just can’t believe my luck.  It follows me everywhere.

I’d had so little contact with Steph leading up to the wedding day – to say her job is demanding would be like saying Mike and I take “a couple” pictures at a wedding.  She seems to be ALWAYS working, so keeping in touch and getting to know each other in the months before the wedding was a challenge.  I didn’t have much of an idea of who I’d be working with in Pennsylvania – would they be cool?  Would they be aloof and disinterested?  Would they ‘zilla me to death?

My Mike didn’t get to come with me to this wedding because of local obligations we had in NC – this was one of those unfortunate times when we had so much going on, we had to split up and take the jobs solo.  It was a bummer to begin with, but once I got there and knew what kind of wedding I was shooting, I was almost distraught that Mike would be missing out.

The first person I met when I got to the rehearsal dinner in Pottsville PA was Mike.  And the minute I saw him, the very second his giant hand enveloped mine in a firm-yet-gentle handshake, every doubt I might have had about their personalities went right out the window.  And when I stepped back and took a look around the rehearsal dinner – a backyard affair at Steph’s mom’s house, folding tables set up with beer bottle centerpieces, guests arriving on Harleys, a few pizza boxes and buckets of slaw and macaroni salad – told me everything I needed to know about the weekend before me.  These were “my people”.

About a half hour into the rehearsal dinner, when Steph still hadn’t arrived, Mike chided that she would probably be late for the wedding, too.  Some grooms would be miffed, some would be terrified, some would be downright pissed – but Mike talked about Steph’s chronic lateness like a husband might talk about his wife’s adorable snoring – it was endearing, a facet of her personality that she couldn’t change, but made her uniquely HIS.  He reminded me so much of MY Mike – no matter how awful some parts of me can be, I’m always 100% fine in his book.  He doesn’t pretend I’m not awful in some ways; he just accepts them, finds them charming, and teases me about them when the time is right.  That’s love, you know?

On the wedding day, I met Mike at the hotel where they were all getting ready.  I spent more time with Mike getting ready than I did with Steph – she was late.  Grooms don’t usually get so much pre-ceremony attention, and Mike was probably the least likely groom for such coverage – he’s so not a primper, and certainly wasn’t going to do outrageous things for the camera’s benefit (thankfully).  But the time I spent with Mike getting ready was peaceful and sweet; I got to document his nervousness and his sudden obsession with every strand of his hair getting into perfect place, with every button being perfectly centered… sometimes it’s a truly welcome break to be able to sit back and observe and document without being rushed, without all the noise and chaos of tight schedules.  The bonus is, I got to understand more about Mike, his quirks and his humor, he told me stories of his past, his job, the way things might have gone had life not taken the right turn.  I got to hear him talk about his bride as his light, as his personal savior.  I got to learn about them.  Times like these are priceless in our job.  We don’t often get the chance to learn so much about our clients before the ceremony.

When Steph arrived at the hotel, everything changed.  Things had taken much longer at the hairdresser’s than they’d planned (take note: THEY ALWAYS DO), and she was behind schedule.  It was a mad rush, a whirlwind of bridal satin and bling.  As behind schedule as she was, though, she still made time to talk to me, to find some calm, to be herself.  The buses were waiting to take guests and the bridal party to the wedding, and Steph and the girls were supposed to be next up for the long drive to the winery, so I booked it up the road so I’d be there, ready for her arrival to the ceremony.

I didn’t need to rush.   Steph’s bus was late on an epic scale.  The ceremony started about 40 minutes late or so, which would be disastrous with a different crowd, with a different groom, in a different venue.  But for these guests, for this groom, at this laid back awesome venue?  It was NO BIG DEAL.  Everyone knew she was coming.  Everyone knew that sometime today, Mike and Steph would get married and everyone would drink, and whether it happened at 4 or 4:30 or, hell, midnight – it just didn’t matter.  They were celebrating no matter what.

Because of the strange rush and the chaos of the late hair appointments, one incredibly important token had been left behind.  Steph planned to carry a picture of her father with her during the ceremony, because her father had passed away and wouldn’t be walking her down the aisle.  As a photographer, particularly as a photographer specializing in happy, celebratory, joyful times – documenting grief and sadness can be a struggle.  I pride myself in journaling every moment of a wedding day, from the highest highs to the lowest lows – but when those lows happen, you can’t help but feel like you should lower your camera and let the moment unfold on its own, without documentary.

But the lows are part of the story, and Steph’s love for her father, the depth at which she misses him and wished he was there, was a huge part of her story.  I took the shots that were needed for that part of her story, and then lowered the camera.  Steph’s amazing Maid of Honor reminded her that dad was with them all day, all night, whether his picture was folded around the stems of her flowers or not.  He was always with her, in her heart, in her memories, and in spirit.  While this didn’t fix the missing photo, it did give Steph a chance to take a deep breath and remember what she was there for.  It was a moment that can’t be told in pictures, but I’ll never forget it anyway, despite having no tangible visual memory of the words that were spoken, of the transition from despair to anticipation.

Their ceremony was simple, the way you’d expect it to be.  The vows were perfect.  My favorite part of their vows was this line: “I promise to let you know, each day, what it means to be alive, and to be loved.”  Ahhhh, perfect!  We might have to steal it for our vows.

Here it is again.  That elation that re-charges all my batteries halfway through the wedding day.  That incredible combination of joy and relief and togetherness and, well, victory really!  They mastered the ceremony, they made it through the planning, no one got killed, everyone they love showed up, they didn’t spill anything on their clothes before the ceremony, every fear, every bit of nervousness, GONE – it’s done, we did it, we’re married!!!  I can’t wait to experience this myself, after seeing it happen so many times in my career.  It’s probably one of the highest emotional moments in a couples’ history, right up there with that first positive pregnancy test, or the realtor handing you the keys to your first house.

Have I mentioned that I’m a lucky photographer?  A lot of brides wouldn’t dare hop on the back of a motorcycle in their dress.  Those things can be DIRTY… grease doesn’t exactly wipe right off, you know?  But Mike and Steph are biker week types, the bike is a part of their world, and it was important to Steph that she get pictures that reveal that part of them.  Hey, you don’t have to ask me twice!  Over.Joyed.  I love it when the day takes a little turn into the unexpected.

This is the back yard of an old couple that lives near the venue.  It was *perfect* for their portraits, with the light and the tall grass, and the old couple was sitting out on their front porch in rocking chairs – I imagine they were sipping on lemonade or iced tea and reminiscing about the days when there were no motorcycles revving up and down their quiet street.  They graciously allowed us access into the back yard for pictures, and we were lucky enough not to discover any scary animals or big poisonous bugs as we trekked into the marshy grass.

This next shot.  This is what I live for.  It’s not epic, it’s not going to win any awards or make the front page of my site… but it’ll be an image that they look at years from now and remember exactly how they felt at that moment.  She’ll see the way he’s looking at her, and how he still looks at her the same way, twenty years later.  It’s *my* award winning shot – it’s the one that made me say “YES” as soon as I caught it.

A dollar/shots dance with Wild Turkey American Honey?  Oh hell yeah.

When you choose your entertainment for the reception, you can go with a wedding DJ, or a band, or you can DIY it with an iPod and some speakers… or you could hire a club DJ.  Not a lot of people think about club DJs for their wedding – it’s just not what you do, right?  Well, Steph and Mike did, and HOLY. FREAK.  I felt like I was back in the clubs, back in my DJ groupie days… this guy was AHHHHMAAAZING.  See, a club DJ keeps the music going.  He mixes on the fly, he creates a vibe that is 100% unique to that event, he doesn’t cheese it up with announcements or jokes, he just dammit plays some awesome jams.   DJ Manik Mike, out of State College PA, is by far one of the most talented DJs I’ve seen – I mean, forget weddings, he’s one of the best I’ve seen in clubs around the country!  They made SUCH a great choice here, he turned their wedding reception into a mild rave and it was AWESOME!  (If you could hear me say that last sentence aloud, the AWESOME part was at least two octaves higher than my normal speaking voice)

The end of the night, when Neil Young’s soothing voice filled the tent with the most perfect conclusion of the most incredible day.

Sometimes you’re on your feet for ten or eleven hours, shooting and running and squatting and bending and carrying heavy gear all day long and you’re weary.  You’re just tired, you just want to go home.  The wedding is lovely, but you found your third wind and ran through it, and you’ve got nothing left.  This wedding was not like that.  I could have shot for hours longer – the energy, the atmosphere, the warmth and the enveloping love that surrounded every part of this day kept me energized and excited and ready to keep shooting for as long as it took.  Those weddings are rare, but we are lucky enough to get several of them every year.

I’d shoot Steph and Mike’s wedding every weekend if I could.  Even if it meant driving all the way up to PA and back each time, and fighting with swarms of mayflies every time I stopped for gas.  It was that kind of spectacular.

Congratulations, you guys.  I can’t wait for Bike Week 2013!!!  Beers and pictures in the dirty south!  YEAH!!!

Life is funny.  Several years back, right around the beginning of the economic collapse, the wedding industry started drying up.  It wasn’t DEAD, but it sure felt like it as I went from having chaotic, full years to having only a few weddings scattered throughout the year.  They were tough bookings then, too – no one knew what financial calamity was around the bend, so couples were putting their weddings off, or minimizing all of their plans dramatically – big, ornate weddings with 200+ guests became small backyard affairs with a handful of friends and family.  The country was downsizing, and weddings were no exception.

Coincidentally, this nationwide downsizing resulted in a never-before-seen influx of new photographers to the industry – so, as we struggled to book half our years, the competition grew by a factor of ten or greater, most offering cut-throat pricing and infectious enthusiasm, making the recession even harder to get through without taking on the dreaded DAY JOB.

It was hard, I won’t lie.  I networked and marketed, spent money I didn’t have on advertising and website upgrades, offered discounts and specials, slashed pricing, bartered and negotiated.  The business was falling way short of where it needed to be, and after struggling for what seemed like an eternity, I finally cried UNCLE and looked for a job.  (There’s a point to this, I swear!)

I managed to fall into an administrative position with a physician recruiting firm.  It was a surprisingly great job with really wonderful people.  I met hundreds of physicians, learned all about health insurance and hospital hiring practices, and gained a great deal of knowledge in an area I’d never even thought about before.  The job got me through some of the hardest times in the recession, and made it possible for me to keep the business alive and running while the market was in the pinch.  I left that job when weddings started roaring again and I could no longer balance the two priorities, but I didn’t leave empty handed.  One of my co-workers was Eric, who years later would pop up to let me know he and his long-term girlfriend were (finally) planning their wedding, and would I shoot it for them?

You’re damn skippy I will!  I’d always liked Eric – he was the three-parts-cool, one-part-geeky guy in the office who always had great music playing and the best comebacks during staff meetings.  He was always pleasant and witty, easy to work with, and one of those people you don’t soon forget.  My friendship with Eric didn’t extend outside of the office walls when we worked together, but I knew just from the 9-5 times I’d spent around him that his wedding would be very, very cool.

Rebecca is a graphic artist.  An extremely talented, intense, passionate person with this quietly frenetic demeanor that you can’t help but fall in love with every time you’re around her.  She designed their wedding stationery herself around the wedding colors and her incredible sense of balance and hip elegance – in fact, she designed every aspect of the wedding, all the decor, the colors, the floral ideas, all of it in like some crazy-making timeframe, like two months or something.  We’re in our ninth month of being engaged and I haven’t even begun to figure out the details – it’s beyond me how Rebecca managed everything she did in such a short amount of time.

The City Club was a fantastic backdrop for their wedding – gorgeous greenery and florals in the garden, elegant manor for the dinner, it all worked so well with Rebecca and Eric’s subtle country-city vibe.

Oh god this ceremony was so great.  Most couples try really hard to keep their ceremonies under five minutes, usually out of respect for a tight timeline or for their guests.  But there’s something really special about a ceremony that takes its time.  Where the officiant gives the event some attention, gives their histories a bit of the spotlight, where the ceremony is a story on its own.  I don’t think this ceremony lasted more than ten minutes (which is, in real life, a very long time), but it felt like it flew by, because every second there was another hilarious moment, another tear-jerking reading, another unforgettable expression, and it all needed to be captured.  I don’t think Mike and I have ever shot as many frames during a ceremony.  There was just too much to see.

There are few things more emotionally satisfying in our job than watching a newlywed bride and groom get almost clobbered by their friends after the ceremony, in a show of elation and love and joy.

Everyone was thrilled.  Everyone basked in the reality that yes, they were finally married after all these years .  Yes, all the hard work had paid off – and the hardest part was over.  MARRIED – and now drink and dance and barhop.  It’s such a juxtaposition from the moments before a ceremony… all the stress and nervousness washes away the moment the bride and groom walk back down the aisle hand in hand.  This delightful transition from subdued reverence to no-holds-barred elation, and it happens at almost every single wedding.  Some are more outrageous than others, of course.  Some couples surround themselves with people who invest all their emotions into that one day, and that’s when you see the biggest payoff after the ceremony.  There’s really nothing quite like it, and every time I see these displays of raw joy, I’m thankful for the career path I chose.

Rebecca and Eric are exactly the same one-on-one as they are in front of their friends, their families, their distant relatives and co-workers.  They’re genuine people, no fakery, no BS.  Getting them away from their wedding party for the “alone” shots wasn’t much like it is at most other weddings – we probably could have had the whole crew tag along and Rebecca and Eric wouldn’t have been the least bit phased.  They didn’t breathe easier when the crowd was dismissed.  They didn’t change their demeanors, or become more snuggly or affectionate.  They just WERE, and they continued to BE, and that was that.  This, by the way, is a unique character trait and if you know people like this you know exactly what I mean.  I have the greatest admiration for people who are always true to themselves.

You should know that Eric made his own wedding band, and that aside from the physician recruiting gig, he’s a solid, talented woodworking craftsman.

Indian weddings have a tremendous following in photographic circles.  Everyone wants to book one, and they’ll give their firstborn kid up for the opportunity.  They’re legendary for the colors, the textures, the neverending dancing and the FOOD.  Who wouldn’t want to be a part of that level of celebration?

We have been fortunate enough to book one or two Indian weddings every year since 2007.   Now that we have just about ten of them under our collective belts, I think it’s fair to say we know our way around an Indian wedding.  The reality is, they’re a lot like a “Western” wedding… on steroids.

Inherent in every Indian wedding is exquisite detail.  There is truly no lack for inanimate objects to photograph.

Nor is there a lack for people to photograph, from the festivities that happen on Day One (the wedding celebrations usually extend across two or three days), to the massive wedding ceremony and reception on the Wedding Day.  The average guest count of the Indian weddings we’ve photographed is right around 450.  That’s a LOT of people!

But for every commonality that exists from one Indian wedding to the next, there are twice as many differences.  The Indian culture is vast, complicated, and wonderfully diverse – traditions differ from North to South, East to West, regionally and even within states.  Individual families have their own traditions, meshed over generations from different sects and tribes.  Probably the most exhilarating part of photographing Indian weddings is discovering these differences, these cultural traditions, and  experiencing them, learning them, recording them for the first time.  It’s such a rush, and it definitely satisfies my intense drive to learn everything I can about the histories of the families I work with.

Traditional Indian wedding day portraiture almost always included a portrait of the bride with her intricate henna, posing perhaps on a bed or an ornate couch, austere and almost sad, with her hands in the most feminine form.  Dhruti asked to re-create the portrait her mom had done on her wedding day (sort of as a quirky little joke) – but we didn’t quite pull off the melancholy.

I’ve photographed Indian weddings that were quite plain and humble, and ones that were superbly luxurious.  Dhruti and Andrew designed a wedding that landed right about in the middle, focusing most of their attention on the traditional decor and necessary luxuries, and forgoing a lot of the more ostentatious details.  It was a very nice mixture, matching their personalities perfectly.

I don’t know about you, but when there’s light like this I start having little happy seizures all through my body.

The bangles that are worn by the bride on her wedding day carry significance – the number, the colors, the order that they’re worn.  Dhruti re-assembled her bangles at least half a dozen times while getting ready.  I’ve still not quite learned the exact significance of the colors and the order in which they’re worn, but I keep telling myself to look it up.

The getting ready part of the day is such a tranquil, soft, low-impact time… it’s nice to have this hour or so to warm up for the chaos and nonstop shooting that follows.

One of the things I love most about Dhruti and Andrew (and you can see the same thing in their engagement session) is that they both have this easy smile… it’s a smile that comes on without force, that takes over their faces, that brings an instant vibrance and almost innocence to their moments together.  I love watching them interact, and catching those moments where they become who they are together.

They’re playful and up for anything, putting all their trust and patience into the specialists they hired.  That’s a unique and wonderful trait, and I am always thankful to luck into couples that trust us, and let us work the way we need to.

We’ve yet to land an Indian wedding with an elephant.  This is a huge sore spot for me, because (a) I love elephants, and (b) come on – an ELEPHANT!!!  Who wouldn’t want to photograph an ELEPHANT?!?!

Despite the gut-wrenching disappointment of once again having no elephant to meet, Andrew did at least have a gorgeous horse, decked out in proper baraat attire for the groom’s entrance to the ceremony.  This is the part of the day where I most wish we were videographers.

Because Andrew’s parents are from Taiwan, a fusion of cultures was evident in a lot of different parts of the wedding day.  This was the most obvious – a for-real, no-shit dragon dance at the very end of the baraat and right before Andrew’s ceremony arrival.

There was a lot of light to play with after the ceremony.

To really appreciate the level of energy at the reception, you’d also have to know that most everyone present had been up – walking, standing, participating in the event – for about ten hours BEFORE THE DANCING STARTED.

I’m not gonna lie – sometimes at a wedding you’re grateful for sound ordinances and venues that shut the party down at a specific time.  There are just some crowds that will never stop dancing, they’ll never stop requesting more songs, they’ll never. ever. stop.  This was one of those crowds – and, believe me, they are an absolute joy to photograph… but shooting an Indian wedding is a long haul with no down time, so by about the twelfth or thirteenth hour you’re praying for a power outage.  Don’t get me wrong, I love – LOVE these crowds, the energy, the nonstop dancing and the surges of excitement, and I actually do love being right in the thick of it, bumped around, elbowed, pushed and pulled and capturing all of the sweat and fever.  But I also love chairs, and sitting in them now and then.

More fusion – these Chinese lanterns were set off at the end of the night.  Now, I’d never seen one in person, so I thought they were probably a foot tall, and could be lit by one person… I mean, how else would there be HUNDREDS in the sky in some of those awesome photos we’ve all seen online?

Yeah, so I was totally wrong.  These things are behemoth.  They take three people to light (minimum) and if you don’t have enough lanterns and enough people, you kind of don’t have that big amazing show in the sky.  Andrew and Dhruti tried their best, and we did manage to get a few shots of several floating up together, but it wasn’t quite the “Tangled” scene.

There’s nothing I could say about this wedding that would tell you much more than the photos do above.  There was kick-ass Indian food, a lot of fabulous music (Indian, hip-hop, and some old standards), there was gorgeous texture and detail and wonderful accents and culture and a true reverence for family, history, and origin.  Every single part, perfectly in place, sometimes imperfectly executed, and all with a sense of humor, energy, and love.  What a great weekend.

Venue: Rose Hill Plantation
Priest: Dr. Pravin Shukla
Catering: Dilawer Singh (Tandoor)
Video: Life Stage Films (see the AMAZING video teaser here)
DJ: Kenz Desai (DJ Kenz)
Decor: Katen Shah and Elegant Designz
Catering:  Chef Dilawer Singh
Cake: As You Wish Bakery
Baraat Horse: Bull City Carriage
Dragon Dance: Jiarong Fu