Ok, I have a confession to make. I have never been to a wedding as a guest. That’s right, never worn a brides maid dress, never sat in a seat to watch any of my friends promise each other that they will work things out no matter how hard it gets, never given an impromptu speech, but…I have shot hundreds of weddings. Wedding number 200-something was a San Diego beach wedding and a bit different from the rest. When we shoot a wedding, we often need to get to know our clients very quickly. We have to gain an intimate knowledge of the relationship they have with each other and with everyone there, and we have to tell a compelling story – through photos – of this special day that reflects them perfectly. In the end, we feel like we do know our clients, we feel like family and we feel like we have been there with them celebrating their wedding as a good friend. So I guess what I am saying is that I have been lucky enough to have been at hundreds of weddings and though I don’t get to sit and listen to the speeches – I do get to capture the bride’s mom getting teary, her best friend remembering that time when they ran away together, and I get to see every small look the bride and groom give to each other as they take in all the love in the room. I feel lucky to have such great clients that welcome us into their private personal spaces and let us capture very intimate moments.
Back in October, we got to spend the day capturing my family for a change. Jennie is my cousin, which makes this San Diego beach wedding even more personal to us and is really closest that we’ve ever been to being official wedding guests. Saying that, I have another confession to make, photographing my family makes me very nervous. I do KNOW them really well. I know that Jennie was going to be a bit stressed out, I knew she was going to be late, I knew she was going to make her funny Jennie model face to the camera, I knew Johnny was going to cry , I knew Jaden (Jennie’s 6 year old son) was going to want to be the center of attention, and I knew that even though Jennie forbid any tequila at her wedding (due to past parental wasted incidents), my uncle was going to have a HUGE bottle and he was going to try and get me drunk as well. So I set out to capture the day perfectly for Jennie and Johnny knowing all these things, and most importantly refusing my uncle Greg’s large bottle of tequila no matter what he said. Last confession, I did take a couple of shots, he is extremely persuasive…
