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First, it was Grommit. Then it was the engagement. And then, finally, it was the wedding.
Thanks, Audrey + Andy for making me a part of your big day. And congratulations!
Thanks also the unbelievably fabulous wedding planner, Ashley, of Table 6 Productions. You are amazing!
Candice walks on the wild side of bridal etiquette, the side where doing a Trash-the-Dress shoot before the wedding is perfectly justifiable. She told me she wanted stunning images of her + her now-husband, Brandon, in their garb so that they could have them at the wedding. Also, Brandon spent a few late nights furiously hand sewing tuxedos for their dogs and it was vital to them that we get photos of the dogs (who wouldn’t be allowed at the ceremony) in their cocktail apparel.
They left the location up to me, saying only that they wanted it to really epitomize the Colorado mountains. I chose Mt. Evans, which, for those of you not well versed in the peaks of this mountainous state, is the only Front Range 14,000′ peak with a road all the way to the top. It was sweltering in Denver that day, and because it was a Sunday evening and I’d had a heck of a weekend my brain wasn’t working properly. And still I should have known better than to traipse around a 14,000′ mountain at sunset in sandals and a t-shirt. I have many strengths but common sense is not one of them.
IT WAS FREEZING. (Actually, technically it was below freezing). My feet went numb about five minutes into the shoot and my fingers turned into icicles shortly thereafter, rendering them strikingly deficient at operating my camera. I kept my complaints to myself; they probably wouldn’t have been heard over the chattering of my teeth anyhow. But the amazing thing is that Candice and Brandon didn’t seem to notice. If love conquers adverse weather conditions maybe it can conquer everything else, too.
Before I shot Dianne + Troy’s wedding I thought I had a pretty good grasp of what people meant when they said their wedding was going to be casual. I watched my grandmother marry her second husband in the living room of her suburban home while the pot roast roasted in the next room. And I one time attended a “wedding” that was in a park, in the middle of the day on a Monday. The bride and groom said their vows, served lemonade, and everyone went home at the ungodly hour of 2 pm. Despite this flirtation with insouciant weddings, I wasn’t quite prepared for how casual Dianne + Troy’s casual wedding was going to be.
When I pulled up the pothole-laden drive to a cabin perched precariously on the side of a mountain, Dianne’s brother was standing in the middle of the driveway downing a Coors Light. It was 10 am and I knew right then that I was going to like these people.
Dianne + Troy invited their families and closest friends and said their vows on the back porch, a formality that lasted five minutes, and that’s probably a liberal estimate. The rest of the afternoon was spent grilling and drinking beer and swapping stories and I loved everyone there just as much as I expected to after the Coors Light introduction.
Thank you, Dianne + Troy for hiring me. No other wedding could have made me feel as glad to be an American on July 3rd as yours.
The location:
The groom:
The bride:
Jen + Shawn chose to do things in an unorthodox way: they eloped almost exactly one year ago and said their vows on a hill in a barn in Nebraska. She wore pearls; he wore a short sleeved button down shirt. They decided that instead of saying “I Do” in front of their friends and family they’d say “We Did” and throw a party exactly one year later. They dressed up in wedding garb, their friends and family delivered touching speeches, there was dinner and cake and dancing, and just about everything else you’d expect from a wedding. Except instead of celebrating the start of their marriage, they were celebrating their first year in.
Thanks Jen + Shawn for traipsing around Denver in your garb. I think it was worth it :)
