The Wedding…From Alex’s Perspective
I think I need to eat some of my words here. When we first started our business, I was fairly adamant that I was not going to photograph weddings. It is very long days, lots of little details, and a LOT more customers to make happy. Not to mention breaking into the wedding photography scene can be terribly difficult due to the flood of photographers. I spoke with Landon about this in great length and he finally agreed we just would not offer wedding photography.
What is one way to make God laugh? Tell him your plans. In this case he decided, I at least, needed to try photographing weddings one more time before putting my foot down forever. I received a text early one morning from a friend of mine that just so happens to be doing my hair for my wedding. Her daughter was in a huge bind. She was due to be married in a month and just had her photographer back out on her. Due to some health complications, she would not be able to photograph their wedding. My friend knew I was a photographer and decided to ask if Landon and I could help her out. I am about to be a bride myself in a few months, so instantly my heart went out to her. That feeling could be so crippling to a bride. You work so hard for months only to have a huge crisis just ONE month out! I really felt like I needed to help in any way I could. I put together a quote and set up a time for us to meet the bride and groom to make sure we would be a good fit for their wedding.
Once I met the happy couple I knew I had to photograph their wedding. They were sweet and sassy all at once. They both were super easy to work with, which as a wedding photographer can either make or break the deal for you. They did not have too many rules about what they wanted or didn’t want, but did give me enough that I understood the feel they were looking for. It has always been mine and Landon’s number one priority to give the client exactly what they want. We don’t like to put our style onto someone else’s photos. Sometimes it can be challenging to help our customers understand that and to have them open up about what they like and don’t like. In this case, it was super easy. I simply showed sample photos and they could easily tell me what they liked and didn’t like. Bam! Done! Moving on!
In the weeks leading up to the wedding I spent as much time as I could preparing the schedule, all our equipment, and planning where the pictures would be taken. The week of the wedding came and suddenly we were due for a ton of rain on the wedding day! The bride had been texting me trying to figure out what we were going to do for photos, seeing as many of them were to be done outdoors. I took a second to panic, myself, then decided that if I was the bride, I'd want my photographer to do everything she could to fix this. I quickly ordered super cute white umbrellas to be delivered the day before the wedding, and I scoped out a couple of places we could go indoors. Not an easy feat as they had 16 in the wedding party. I let the bride know I had back up locations and umbrellas. I really think that put her mind at ease.
The day of the wedding came and I found myself actually super excited. I had prepared so much that I wasn’t worried about missing anything. I do honestly believe the best way to calm nerves is by preparing so much that nothing is left to chance. In this case it worked out perfectly. We managed to make it through the whole day without breaking any equipment or losing any of our supplies. For most of the day, we were even able to keep up with the schedule (which is almost impossible when shooting a wedding). I felt so happy about being able to keep things moving so the bride and groom could enjoy their day.
As of right now I am still in the editing process. We took so many photos between the two of us that this has really turned into quite the workload. I am enjoying it though. I get to go back through these photos and look at the smiles and laughs and remember such a wonderful day. I also get to see how great we are at taking pictures! Yes, that sounded completely conceited. However, we were so nervous about wedding photography that I feel like both Landon and I need a pat on our back for doing such a good job with these photos.
Now I bet God is really laughing at me. This was such a great experience photographing a wedding I would actually consider doing them in the future. I don’t think we are ready to jump into the advertising shark tank, but if someone were to ask us, we would be more than happy to photograph another wedding.
Keep your eye out for our next blog, and for the wedding photographs in our gallery!