For those of you that know me, you know that starting this blog is a tremendous accomplishment! Sitting down and jotting a few words down? Easy! Finding the time between shooting, editing, being a wife, and delving out the proper amount of “respect” to my temperamental weiner-dog? Not so easy. Well, my husband is fishing this weekend, Sully (the cute yet spiteful weiner) has been walked AND I am all caught up on editing. Now, where to start…
I like long walks on the beach, coffee, and my perfect date is April 25th. Okay, I’m kidding. (That joke is overplayed anyway)! I was pre-med and graduated with a B.S. in biology. This past Summer I got really sick (more about that in a bit). I realized life is short. If you don’t chase your dreams and feed your soul with what makes you happy then whats the point? So, its simple really, I started my own photography business! Boom.
Those of you that DO know me know that I am a kid at heart. I have an unhealthy obsession with all things Disney. I believe in magic, good conquering evil, and above all true love. I believe that fairy tales and happy endings exist in real life-we just have to stop for a minute and look around.
I have the best job in the whole world. Seriously. I get to witness publicly vulnerable love. Which, in my opinion, is one of loves purest forms. I can’t even call this a job..its a privilege.
Weddings are filled with tears, joy, more love than a heart can handle and ..lets face it…a fair share of stress. As a wedding photographer {and veteran bride} I’ve seen just about everything. With that being said I’d like to share something with all you brides-to-be:
1-Mishaps are good luck- seriously.
Stained your dress? Don’t worry- thats 5 years, at least, of good luck in your marriage!
{Bonus five years for tripping}.
Really though- don’t sweat the small stuff. Everyone, and I mean everyone, is there to celebrate the love you and that cute guy of yours share together. I promise you—you won’t even remember the stuff that went wrong.
Story time {skip to next section if you hate puppies, babies and fun in general}. The weeks before and after my wedding I spent in the hospital. It was a freak occurrence. I could tell you that I hate needles and that the smell of doctors offices make me queasy, but that would be downplaying it. I LOATHE THEM ENTIRELY. When I was a kid and it was time for my annual vaccinations I would run down the halls of the doctors office screaming “I BEG OF YOU!! DON’T DO THIS!” My sentiments have changed very little since this time..
But I digress.
I spent the time surrounding my wedding in the hospital. Needless to say, this was the LAST way I had wanted to spend that time. My all star fiancé {now husband, yay!} spent every night with me on those super luxurious and oversized hospital cots. They even had Egyptian cotton sheets for him!…. Kidding!! He’s 6’4. It looked like he was sleeping in Frodos bed..
I was released the day before the wedding and was re-admitted the day after. I was in a great deal of pain throughout this process. All this to say—when I look back on my wedding day..I remember nothing but the joy I felt walking to my husband to be. I remember kissing him. I remember it being the very best day. I remember getting ready with my mom and walking with my dad. I remember being surrounded by the unconditional love of my family. It didn’t exactly go the way I had planned, but nonetheless it was a day filled with enough love and joy to last a lifetime.
2-Ladies,no matter how good you think you are at planning—-give yourselves EXTRA time on your wedding day. I’ve yet to see one bride have her dress on in time! What you forget while planning is that you are planning your WEDDING DAY. Okay, maybe you didn’t actually forget it was your wedding day but you do forget that its the MOST exciting day of your life. Us gals like to discuss…well,everything…but particularly weddings! We usually start our wedding pinspiration boards before we even meet Prince Charming. So, naturally, the culmination of years of pinning will require some discussion!!!
Bottom line: Give yourself MORE time than you think you’ll need to get ready. Worst case scenario you get to spend some extra time on bridal portraits with your photographer!
Enough about me..lets look at some pretty wedding pictures!
So, this past week I had the immense privilege of being Jeremiah and Adora’s wedding photographer! Wow.. What a day! They got married at a Church here in Aiken, SC. These two had so much love for one another. During their first look the groom was SO moved when he saw his bride! It brought tears to the eyes of everyone watching!
One of the cool things about being a wedding photographer is getting to bare witness to the union of true love over and over again. I come home at night and hug my husband a little tighter. I’m reminded of the vows that we took and of the love that we share. The meaningless struggles of the day are forgotten and the events that brought us here are remembered.
So..without further ado..Here are a few from the beautiful day that I got to spend with Jeremiah & Adora!
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