Be ready for anything.  Stay flexible.  Keep smiling.  Those should be some of the first things you learn when you start out as a wedding photographer.  You can have the best plans in the whole wide world, but when it comes down to the wedding day you still have to be prepared.  Why do I mention this?  Because after all the lovely planning I did with Annie and Lynn in preparation for the wedding day, we had a nasty looking storm headed our way and it looked like it meant to stick around.  And, when you’ve chosen a family home in the beautiful Virginia countryside to hold your (mostly) outdoor event, a nasty looking storm is definitely not what you had in mind.  So what do you do?

A rain plan is always great to have and they did have one.  But something else I learned about weddings quite some time ago and it is truly the reason I love each and every one – weddings can be many things and happen on many types of days and in any number of locations, but the most important thing about them are the people.  As long as we had these two amazing families and this great couple, we could have held the entire event in the root cellar and it would have been a great time.  As luck would have it, we didn’t need the root cellar.  The skies cleared up just after the ceremony to reveal a stunning afternoon and evening.

That is why we spend far more time than most in finding each and every interaction, expression, and heartfelt moment that we can.  It’s why our blog and our website is filled with faces rather than tablecloths and shoes.  Don’t get us wrong, we love the details.  You’ll find some incredible ones throughout our work (see just below 🙂 ) and they are worth remembering, just like the portraits.  But I’d trade all of them for that hug that Annie gives her father on the dance floor after his welcome speech, or Drew’s face when he unwraps the painted portrait he and Annie received as a wedding gift.  And I’m going to assume since you’re here and still reading, that you agree 🙂

Enjoy.