Jaime and I had an amazing year in 2012- so many amazing clients, amazing moments and wonderful experiences for us. We are so blessed to be part of the lives and, more specifically, wedding celebrations of these people that we have come to care about so much and looking back at their images is an emotional experience. That explains why I am finally making a year in review post in March- it was a next to impossible task to make a reasonably sized blog post of my favorite images and it took me this long to do it.
We would like to thank our clients for choosing us and for letting us into their lives and trusting us to be the ones to capture the moments, details and beauty of their wedding days…
Jaime and I only really offer full day wedding coverage and one of the reasons is because we love being part of the whole day- from getting ready to the celebration of the reception. The “getting ready” time is often really fun for us- we get to be part of the excitement and nervousness as everyone gets ready for the wonderful occasion about to happen. We get to capture amazing moments in this time that tell the story of how everyone deals with what they are feeling. I love images of nervous hands clasped together or of emotional fathers seeing their daughters for the first time in their wedding dresses. These types of images really fill out the story- they describe what it felt like on the wedding day.
I did have one eventful getting ready time this past year as my pants split from belt to seam when I bent over to put a camera away. I couldn’t exactly shoot a wedding with my butt hanging out so I shot the bride and her bridesmaids with jeans on that I had in the car (it pains me to admit that but I had no choice- it was an enormous and wildly inappropriate wardrobe malfunction) and I bought pants at the Pro Shop of Stewart Creek Golf and Country Club. They were so amazing- they sold me the pants at a huge discount.
The ceremony is another part of the day that is such a highlight for us each time. As Jaime and I listen to vows and messages it always reminds us of our own wedding as we promised ourselves to each other. We usually share a special, knowing glance as we relate to the journey that our new friends are about to embark upon together. There are often other incredible moments at ceremonies from the wildly talented musicians that the Albertan wedding industry has to special ceremonies that our clients choose to do. There was one moment that stands out from last years’ ceremonies and that was the inclusion of Paul Brandt in the ceremony. Jaime and I gave each other a look that said, “is that….” when he came out, and the second he began to sing we looked at each other like, “yup- that’s him.” He was amazing and it was a special moment- the bride and groom had kept it secret from everyone including us and it was a wonderful surprise.
There were some incredible moments for us this past year and here are just a few of them from the getting ready and ceremony portions of our weddings. As you look at them, look at the eyes and expressions and hands and what story they tell about the emotional weddings that we were a part of last year.
Jaime and I love engagement sessions and we have discovered just how important they are to our wedding work over the past few years because of how incredibly relational the work is. The most important part of engagement sessions isn’t really the creating of the images but, just as with family sessions, it is the “in between”- it is the time that we spend walking together getting to know one another. As we walk through engagement sessions we are hearing the stories of our couples and connecting with them and giving them a chance to connect with us. We are creating a relationship of comfort and trust that will serve to make the wedding day, particularly the portrait section, that much more of an incredible experience. I suppose our goal at the engagement session is to make it feel a little bit like we are invited guests to the wedding rather than just another vendor. On the wedding day, the bride and groom spend more time with their wedding photographers than anyone else and so we know that we have to help create an experience that is fun, comfortable and memorable and, in order to do that, we have to have first earned their trust.
Some of theses couples are wedding clients from last year and some are yet to be married but they are all people whom we now count as friends and that is the part of our job that we love the most…
