I've posted before on Facebook that often when sitting at a coffee shop editing wedding photos, I find myself smiling back at Photoshop. Not because I love the program, my computer, or my coffee. I smile because for wedding editing, I'm looking through photographs of two people on the best day of their life. Almost every photo has someone smiling, laughing, dancing, and sometimes crying tears of joy. Maybe it's the dumb reflex part of my brain wanting to mimic smiling faces I see or perhaps it's that through the hectic 8 hours of photographing a wedding day, I only get to truly reflect on the event when going through the photos days later.
As a general rule, I'm not often outwardly emotional as my wife (who cries at sad TV commercials) would note. However, having been married and seeing Keri walk down the aisle in her dress and having family and friends there, I know what it feels like to be overcome these feelings on this occasion. I say all of this because I smile a lot at coffee shops, but the other day I found myself tearing up. I'm not particularly close to Andy and Rachel, though I have spend time with them prior to the wedding and think they are a wonderful couple, so it surprised me to feel the saltwater welling up in my eyes. It was the following two photos in particular that got me. Maybe it's because I was in that same spot a year ago and wish I looked as sharp as Andy in his tailored suit. For me, seeing these two photos of Andy as Rachel walked down the aisle really got to me. You can see the childlike reflex of pulling his hands from his pockets to holding onto his suit like a security blanket. He was overcome with this inexplicable emotion of seeing Rachel for the first time in that long white wedding dress. I'm glad I was able to capture this moment on digital film.
These two photos aren't the most photographically impressive photos, but to me they evoke more emotion than most. These two got me. I'll post one more that I thought was sweet, then get on to the rest of Part 1. This next one is pretty self explanatory of the mother-son dance, and to be honest I think explains a lot about the two photos of Andy above. (p.s.- Andy, I hope this didn't embarrass you too much).
Alright! Now onto the fun stuff! I have to first give a shout out to the vendors as they pulled of a beautiful and fun wedding! Simply Charming Socials did the day of coordination and lovely decorations, Pink Cupcake Dreams brought delectably decadent cupcakes (I took a few leftovers home to Keri!), and DJ Andrew Wrobleski lit up the dance floor (more of those photos to come in Part 2!).
