Happy two weeks, Nicole + Adam :: St. Michael's Wedding Photography

It is so hard for me to come up with something to say about Nicole and Adam and their wedding. Why? Because I absolutely adore them so much that everything that I come up to say about them that seems like is more than adequate turns out to be anything but. I type, I stop, I look at what I just typed. I stare at the blinking cursor. And then I delete everything.

(This sounds like such a lame excuse for why I have not posted anything for them/of them on here so far but it really is the truth.)

There are photographers who specialize in weddings and engagements but I am actually not one of them. Why? Well... because, honestly? When I do them the only way I know how to do them is to really invest myself personally and emotionally in them with the couple. I spend a lot of time with them before I take their pictures (engagement and/or wedding) and then I spend a lot more time with them when I photograph. This time is something I need to be able to get to know them and so they can get to know me. It helps me to establish a connection with them so that when the camera has to come into play, it is mostly a non-entity and pretty unobtrusive.

With the camera playing a role that is so inconspicuous - all while I am getting to know the folks I am photographing - I am able to use my camera to document people at their most authentic. I (and the camera) are able to see the purest essence of who, what, how, and where they are in the moments that I am sharing with them. And it's for all of these reasons that I can't and I don't just do every wedding or engagement presented to me. Photographing weddings is so much more than me taking pictures of someone's big day. For me it's an honor and blessing that I am permitted to have because I know that I am being allowed to be a part of something sacred and monumental for a person and the rest of the story of their love and life.

By the time Nicole and Adam's wedding day arrived, I had already spent enough time with them and come to know them such that I felt like I belonged there and not just that I was being paid to be there and do a job. That's how I feel at most all weddings I photograph but it only happens like that because of my personal commitment, responsibility, and investment to being right there with them.

I just adore Nicole and Adam. They are two of the most lovely and loving and fun and kind and unconditionally caring people I might ever know for the rest of my life. Seriously! I know I am gushing but that's just how it's going to have to be because unlike everything else I have tried to right about and for them, I don't want to delete any of the gushing.

As of tomorrow, they will have been married for two weeks! Here are just a few of the amazingness that was their perfect wedding day. There's so much more to come but this will have to do for now because I certainly need more time to be able to come up with a much more descriptive posting of their day that isn't just me talking about how awesome they are.