Wedding: Holly and Keidrick

Holly was one of (if not the very first) my first friends when I moved to Oregon, and later we were roommates for a little over a year before she moved to Colorado. She is a godly, beautiful and caring woman who I am blessed to know. I was honored to be her wedding photographer, and it renewed my respect for the excellent wedding photographers out there. It's way harder than it looks!

Holly and Keidrick were introduced by a mutual friend. I had not met Keidrick before this visit, but he seems like a great guy. I'm very happy for Holly, and of course Keidrick is a lucky man. Here is a small sampling from the many photos of the day.


Getting ready...




I don't know about you, but I like seeing how wedding hair is done.




Holly and Keidrick opted to see each other before the ceremony so we could do some of the portraits beforehand. This is when they saw each other for the first time that day.


They were married in the unique and lovely Air Force Academy Cadet Chapel in Colorado Springs.












We had a few minutes for some outdoor portraits after the ceremony. Oh how I love natural light!






I had to include this photo since I spotted these deer on the Academy grounds on my way to the reception. :D You know how I love deer sightings.


Time for the reception!









It was a beautiful wedding and day (even the weather cooperated!). Congratulations, Holly and Keidrick!

Snapshot: Wedding #2

The other day I talked about the first wedding I photographed, and now I'll talk about the second.

My cousin S (who is one year younger than me, so we were close growing up and did a lot of traveling together) had gotten engaged and decided to have a very small wedding on the coast. This was almost exactly four years ago in March of 2007. She thought it would be neat to have a family member do the photography, so she asked me. Again, I was hesitant, not wanting to ruin her big day if I messed up. Again, my hesitation was met with encouragement and persistence. I sent her and her fiance over to my portfolio to make sure I could provide what they were looking for, and they were excited and enthusiastic about having me.

Despite my insecurities about my own abilities, I was really excited about this opportunity: a weekend on the California coast where I could not only watch and photograph my cousin getting married, but join in the festivities. I should've been paying them for such a nice weekend getaway!

Here are a few of the photos. Be kind--it was my second wedding ever, and I made plenty of mistakes (just like in the first one). But I do feel like I covered the important stuff and did the best I could with my skills and equipment.

(Don't worry, [aunt] K--I cleared this with S and she and her husband are pretty much the only ones pictured. :))


(Okay there is one other person pictured.) S rented a house on a cliff overlooking the ocean in Gualala, CA. It was a really cute place, and it was a nice, sunny day (though windy, which is to be expected).


Some details.


Most of you have seen this photo before, since it's part of my portfolio.


It was a cute coincidence that the couple's initials were S and I, with the last name starting with K. S loves to ski!


 She looks serious here, but she was very happy. :)


We did the couple portraits before the ceremony, which started at sunset.


S, waiting to go out to where the ceremony was being held.


The dinner was catered, and we all (twelve of us?) got to sit at the same table, so it was really fun. And I got to eat--this is my food! Usually wedding photography means you're too busy to stop and eat, so I felt spoiled to sit down with them.Those potatoes au gratin (on the right, under the steak and green beans) were SO GOOD that I still think about them. The whole dinner was amazing.



Thanks S, K and families for giving me this opportunity. It was really fun. :) And it was fun remembering it while I wrote this post.

I think I'll leave more of my wedding photography thoughts for another post.

Snapshot

Awhile back I shared one experience that I feel played an important role in getting me to where I am with photography. Now I'll share another.

T was probably the first friend I made when I moved to Oregon. She was one of the people to interview me for my job, and I remember connecting with her right away, as we were in a similar phase of life and had some other things in common.

I did some of the photography at my job, but it certainly wasn't my primary role and I was still feeling very beginnerish. That's why, when T got engaged and asked me to be her wedding photographer, I'm pretty sure my initial answer was that I couldn't do it. But she persisted and got me to at least agree to do her engagement photos as a trial run before I made a firm decision.



After the engagement shoot, T and her fiance basically forced me to agree to do their wedding. ;) After seeing how easy they were to work with, I agreed, but was still very nervous (and yet excited). It helped that they weren't expecting perfection, knew I was an amateur, and just wanted someone they were familiar and comfortable with. They were the perfect fit for my first try.



They let me come to the rehearsal and get to know my way around their church, they were okay with me wandering around to get the right shots during the ceremony, and they never seemed annoyed with me as I took a thousand photos of their "first look" and other portraits. They were so patient and sweet about it all.



My worries and insecurities hold me back from a lot, so it's encouraging to see how God has placed people in my life that have not been put off by my hesitation, but instead have applied gentle pressure (in a helpful, friendly way) so that I would stretch myself. Thank you, T (and your husband T!), for always being confident in me and knowing when to push me a little farther than I'd be willing to go without any outside influence.

I'm so glad I got to photograph T's wedding. I know it was a stepping stone for me. I have learned so much about photography (and photo editing) because of--and since--that experience that I often wish I could redo it now with my new equipment and knowledge. I still have a ton to learn, but there are many things I know I would do differently, so I'm just very glad they had the grace to give me an opportunity to make lots of mistakes.



Later I want to talk more about wedding photography (my very limited experience, and why it is limited), because it's kind of been on my mind recently.