Absolutely love this frame. Reminds me of a scene from a movie.
It's been just over a year since I blogged. It's mind boggling to think what has happened. Within the year my best friend of 6.5 years fought for my heart and won me over. Many have asked "Why did it take 6.5 years for him to make a move?" and the simple response to that was that we needed 6.5 years to build a solid friendship (of respect, trust and unconditional love). When he decided to pursue me, he knew he wanted to marry me. We got married within 7 months. Marriage has been such a great blessing to me. I would love to share more about our relationship/wedding/marriage sometime, but that will have to wait for another time. Ever since going through the whole process of wedding planning and getting married, it's been quite eye opening. It was a massive learning curve, but now I feel like I can completely connect with my brides. Not that I didn't connect with them before, but now, whenever I photograph a wedding... I feel it... I have personally experienced the wave of emotions (or lack of - due to being way too overwhelmed). I'm there. Quite often enough, I find myself in a creative rut and not loving what I'm doing (because of the repetition of cookie-cutter weddings and the personal cost of running a business), but in times of reflection, I can't deny the joy I experience when I'm in the front line, documenting a special day and being able to sit back and relive the good times when I edit the photographs. I get to bring joy to people's lives. What an honour.
One of my favourite weddings I've photographed so far has been Bek + Pete's wedding. Why? Because of how real it was. It wasn't pretentious and fake. We laughed till our stomachs and jaws hurt, cried, ran on the road and through corn fields, snuggled in the rain and celebrated life. Their wedding was personal and intimate. All the details were D.I.Y. A dear friend of mine dubbed it as "an Instagram Wedding". Why else would it be called "The Hottest Wedding in Town"? (Love the pun. Town is Pete's last name). Bek has the dryest sense of humour. She loves a lot and dances a lot (she has a dance for every occassion). She's one of the coolest girls I know! Pete is cool too... He looks clean (a joke that the bridesmaids made), has a hearty deep laugh and is just... deep. They love God and life - you can tell by the way they live. It's infectious.
Not much needs to be said... I am confident that these photographs reflect them.
Here is a slideshow of their wedding photographs.
Bek + Pete sent me the sweetest message after their wedding.
"We loved how you kept up the enthusiasm and energy throughout all the photos. It's easy for us to enjoy them because they're mainly about us, but you were so good at getting all the bridal party (& other guests) excited to do photos too. You had so many creative ideas for your photos & kept things moving so it didn't drag on or feel too slow. We really love your creativity & style with the kinds of shots you take (which is obviously why we asked you to do them in the first place) - really can't wait to see them all! And mostly we really appreciated how personable you are as a photographer, and how you genuinely shared in the joy of our day with us. It was really special & so much lovelier than having a complete stranger pointing a camera at us the whole day. A lot of our guests mentioned how great & fun they thought you were!"
In the midst of busyness I tend to forget why people want me to photograph their wedding day. Not only is it about fun, pretty and memorable photographs, but it's about investing myself into the lives of these real people. Sharing in the joy. I am so thankful for these kinds of messages. It's so refreshing and encouraging. Thank you, Bek and Pete for personally reminding me why I am so blessed to do what I do. You guys are such an encouragement to me. I consider it such an honour to know you two.
Thanks to Josh Mikhaiel for second shooting with me. You've got talent, friend! :D
Comments
1Wow! These should be in a magazine *wink*
ChloePosted on 29 April 2013