This has been my busiest wedding year to date. I mean, why not add being a new mom into the mix? But time flies when you’re having fun. Yep- I went there.
Being young and just starting a family can be a little tricky with a job like this. We are ultimately subject to God’s perfect timing; but when it came to planning when to start our family, I had to be conscious of wedding season. The last thing I want to do is stress out a bride and groom by telling the I can’t photograph their wedding because I’m due with a baby during that time. Luckily, we were blessed with our baby during the “off-season”- giving us time to enjoy with him until wedding season picked up again. However, after my first wedding of the season, I was feeling a little panicked. Not only was I spending the day away from my new baby, but I had to coordinate pumping during the day as well as needing to be efficient with my editing during his unpredictable nap times. I was feeling very overwhelmed and not sure if I was cut out for it.
But things fell into place. I’m naturally a type-A, OCD, driven kind of gal. So once I got into my groove, I was right back to my normal workflow. If you think about it, not much changed. Before having a baby, I was working 40 hours a week as a nurse while doing wedding photography on the weekend. I really only had evenings and weekends to work on editing. Even though I only work 8 hours a week as a nurse now, staying home with a baby is no joke- especially once they are on the move! But I found a way to adapt and was able to sustain a very efficient work flow with my post-wedding work.
Fast forward nine months, and I have another ten weddings under my belt along with a few second-shooting gigs. The year has truly flown by. I was blessed with 10 incredible couples who trusted me to document their wedding day. I will never get over how honored I am that people trust me to do such an important job.
It was only fitting that I start and end my season at the beautiful Nazareth Hall- with the weather conditions being surprisingly similar between March and September. You guessed it-rain. Rain really challenged me this year; but it also helped me adapt, over-come, and grow. Both of these wedding days only gave me about 10 minutes at best for bride and groom portraits. So to come away with 50+ images, I would say that’s pretty impressive!
I’m so thankful that Lauren and Jeff rolled with the punches and were troopers when it came to the rain. When the rain slowed up a bit, we grabbed a cute dome umbrella and got some gorgeous images. I think Lauren will agree that it was totally worth drenching her amazing, longer-than-cathedral-length veil for. Seriously. That thing weighed about 10 more pounds after getting drenched from the rain. But at the end of the day these two were so happy to be committing forever to each other. And when it poured, they stood under the beautiful arch of the front door and my assistant Lindsay attempted to keep me dry as possible as I snapped away in the rain.
They also wanted to do a sparkler exit. I’m not kidding when I say it basically rained from the beginning of the ceremony through the entire reception. I kept peeking out the window to see if it was going to slow down. And then it came. A five minute- and I’m not exaggerating- five minute window to do the exit. So I told the DJ to call it, we shuffled everyone outdoors, and that’s when the magic happened. A glorious, perfect shot of a sparkler exit. And as soon as it was done, the rain came back. Okay God- I see you.
I can’t say thank you enough to all of the wonderful couples that gave me to opportunity to be a part of their wedding day this year. It truly has been a joy and honor.
Congrats to Mr. and Mrs. Davis. I hope you enjoy your delayed honeymoon cruising this winter!
[…] T & E relocated their Downtown Toledo Wedding venue to the beautiful Renaissance Hotel. I can only imagine when it started raining sideways as they were getting ready that Erica thought “go figure”, after everything that had already happened surrounding planning their day. But thankfully the rain decided to stop at just the right time during their portraits. The timing honestly could not have been better. (Not that the rain would have stopped us anyway. I had so many beautiful rainy wedding days last year- like this one.) […]