I had the pleasure of shooting the Wilson family on Saturday and when I was scanning through the pictures later I found this one. I think if sums up the energy of the entire shoot — sweet Carter was chock-full of excitement and all over the place. But that same energy was what fueled him for crazy-expressive-flailing shots like this one.
So thanks for bringing the energy, Carter.
Meet Erica. Well, her feet and fabulous shoes anyway.
I cannot BElieve that I got so caught up editing her wedding pictures that I forgot to add her lovely bridals to the blog!
Erica wanted her bridals taken in the same field where we took her and her (now) husband(!!)’s engagement pictures in the summer.
Erica’s maid-of-honor, Kelsey, and Kelsey Mac, one of her bridesmaids, came along to the shoot to make Erica laugh. Thank you, ladies. Kelsey was doing all sorts of dances behind me — all in the MOH job description, right?
I look at this picture and all I see are those piercing blue eyes. They are seriously THAT blue.
This one was definitely one of my top three favorites from the day, hands down. Look how sweet that face is.
Were you wondering how the couch from the beginning got into the field? Two of MOH Kelsey’s friends, Jacob and Kyle, were gracious enough to assist us with their monster truck and monster muscles. Then we had one more request for them — “Could you move it a little to the left? Yeah! Now about 100 more feet up the road? K,Thanks.”
Here’s why we had to move the feet up the road behind the field — there was a railroad track, you see. I mentioned “casually” to Erica how I wished it were only possible for us to put the couch on the tracks for a few shots.
I had no idea how she’d react to such a crazy idea but I was pleasantly surprised when she enthusiastically agreed and we sent the boys on their way up the road.
Tooooooooooooootally worth it. And we had the boys mere footsteps away to haul it off if a train were to appear.
Erica brought along the ‘W’ for her new last name!
MOH Kelsey took a shot of Erica and I to finish off the shoot. Standing make-up-free in the early morning next to a bride is great for the self-esteem. I joke.
Meet Colin, Liz and baby Lucian.
Lucian was consistently a good sport, but his signature look in most of these is sticking out his bottom lip and waiting in expectation. Hopefully I was entertaining enough. I’d hate to have let the kid down.
I don’t care who you are, I think it’s sweet when parents flirt. Jillian Zamora approves parental flirting.
I would love to tell you that what made Lucian’s eyes light up was me, but it was most definitely his toy giraffe, Sophie, that Liz was squeaking behind me. Hey, do what works.
At this point the temperature literally dropped 10 degrees, so baby Lucian had to sport his hood. It does not matter if we’re talking about a baby or Ryan Atwood, there is something about a hood that makes a boy look tough.
Okay, so a hood can look stinkin’ precious too.
At this point, hood or no hood, lil Lucian had just about had it with taking pictures. So Liz and Colin strapped Lucian in the stroller and we took advantage of the opportunity to get some shots of just the two of them.
Contented sigh, I think they are absolutely precious.
McDorman family, it was an absolute pleasure meeting y’all and getting to document a small portion of y’all’s lives.
I want to devote a blog post to a first look because I believe so fervidly in that doing a first look enhances not only the wedding day photos (and thus the wedding day memories), but the wedding day experience as a whole.
A first look is when a bride and groom opt to see each other before the wedding ceremony. Gasp, I know.
I would not be such a huge proponent for the first look had I not chosen to do a first look with James the day of our wedding. The wedding day was fast and furious and filled with all sorts of lovely people that I was so blessed to have with me on that day — but the first look was the one part of the wedding festivities that James and I got to spend alone. Before any of the pre-ceremony wedding party pictures the church sanctuary was cleared out (except for our wedding photographer and my dad, who watched from the back) and I walked down the aisle to James and for that moment we soaked up that we were about to become husband and wife. We expressed this with lots of excited grins and numerous hugs. And looking back at my wedding day pictures, those are the pictures I treasure most.
After we shared that moment we were free to take pictures together of just the two of us, as well as all of the wedding party pictures and family shots. So once the ceremony was finished we were able to head to the reception without having to take harried gotta-get-to-the-reception-people-are-waiting pictures snap!snap!snap!GO!
For these reasons, I prefer a first look when I’m trying to best photographically capture wedding day bliss and wanted to educate blog readers on first looks and share my personal experience. But honestly, I want the bride and groom to do what makes them happy — because that’s what matters more than pictures or wedding day traditions.
All that said, here are some shots I got of a first look from a wedding of a dear friend of mine that I second shot at with Stephanie Rose. Stephanie got the angle of the bride and I got the angle of the groom.
I just don’t think wedding pictures can be more emotionally charged and raw than a groom seeing his bride for the first time on their wedding day.
It’s pictures like these that make me a believer in first looks.
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