In case you did not catch it, I am a wedding photographer. I know, big shock. What you may not know is that on a wedding day everything, LITERALLY everything is my problem. The reason everything is my problem is that I truly view that if my couples just enjoy their day first and foremost, I am going to give them photographs that they are going to love. That is the only expectation I put on them, that they just enjoy their day. Now if something causes them to not enjoy their day, what am I really going to take photographs of? It is because of this that I give my couples everything I can not only on their wedding day but in the planning and guiding before the day as well. Occasionally things do not go quite as the couple had hoped for on their wedding day. Occasionally a wedding is not like it is made out on TV. Occasionally social media pressures couples into feeling that their wedding has to be perfect in order to be loved. Amanda and Carlos have some stories that are theirs to share but I can say that their entire wedding planning and wedding day experience is not going to be featured any time soon. I found myself doing many different things on their wedding day that had nothing to do with a camera. When things were going a little rough and Amanda was not at her best, she made it a point to turn to me for some help. That moment is one I will always remember and one of my proudest moments as a photographer. This moment had nothing to do with photography though. Just another human needing help and reaching out to the person who could help.
Amanda and Carlos made it through all the chaos, all the weird quirks and found themselves reading some of the best hand written vows I have ever heard. They were perfect for them, perfect for the moment and it was entirely fitting that completely unplanned, they both ended their vows with the same sentence. In that moment, that is all that mattered to them. In that moment, they are getting married so everything else should fade and it clearly did. If you had shown up for the ceremony and watched these two, you would have no idea of what they went through to get to have that moment. So Amanda and Carlos, thank you for the memories, thank you for trusting me and thank you for letting everything fade away that didn’t matter and enjoying the moments that truly did matter!
