Here is just a little sneak peek from yesterday afternoon’s wedding!

 

Such a touching day.  Most of my sneak peeks are filled with quick portraits and detail shots that I can easily pull out of the mass pool of un-filtered images.  The ones that are easy to edit and pop up quickly to share with everyone (buying me time to go through them all and edit the final gallery) For this wedding I couldn’t help it.  I went for some of the MANY emotional moments to share.  I picked out a handful of portraits as well but this post might be a bit more moment heavy and not really showcase all the beautiful details of the wedding but those will come in due time!  These moments just HAD to be shared!  and in case you missed the last post from earlier today here is the link http://jenniferbagwellphotographyblog.com/?p=4165  this was another touching memory from yesterday’s wedding!

 

These two photos make me laugh!!  If you have ever been in a wedding you know the Groomsmen are…. ummmm challenging!  Boys will be boys right?  Well these guys were pretty close to one of the most rowdiest group of guys I’ve ever photographed!  Very nice guys, fun to work with but CRAZY!  They kept us laughing all day long!  But I especially like these two photos… the first one is what the Bride and the Grooms Mom always have in their head as the Groomsmen photos that will come from the day…. the next one pretty much sums up how all Groomsmen photos go! We get one good “mom” shot and a thousand crazy silly shots! (mind you this was the ONLY appropriate one I could post)

Ashley and Adam opted to have an intimate First Look before the ceremony.  They asked everyone to just give them 5 minutes so they could have this one moment to themselves…..

Most would think that since they have seen each other before the wedding the ceremonial moment when Ashley walks down the aisle with her Father wouldn’t be as emotional….. well that couldn’t be further from the truth!

There are so many weddings where iphones, ipads, cameras and all other types of devices are hindering… well hindering many things.  Sometimes a random guest snapping a photo by leaning into the aisle, the guest running up to the Bride and her Dad as they dance and STOPPING the moment in it’s tracks for an iphoto (as if they couldn’t have waited for the dance and moment to end and ask them to pose for them later) but then there are the ones that have started to come up more recently… Parents or close relatives with their cameras and phones.  The bride getting into the dress, or taking photos, or the bride dancing with her new Husband and I go to get a reaction shot from the crowd of people watching this moment happening and all I get are a bunch of devices in the air instead of tears in the eyes and reactions from loved ones as they EXPERIENCE the full moment rather than capture it. It’s happened to me several times already this year.  I struggle with saying something in the moment because emotions are high and really, to be honest, WHO AM I in the scale of things.  I’m just the photographer.  Who am I to tell the Mother of the Bride to put her camera down at her daughter’s wedding?

When I show up to a wedding I try really hard to just bond with everyone, get to know them, interact with them (not just with photo stuff) I do this, well I do this mainly because that’s my personality and I fall in love with my couples and all their friends and family.  But I also find that it’s easier to ask or suggest things that I know will result in a better outcome.  Whether it’s better photographic outcome or just wedding day experience in general.  So finally, yesterday I felt comfortable enough to ask the Mother of the Bride to put her camera away.  She and her family had it out all morning long as they got ready.  As I was looking at the shots I was getting I kept seeing this big camera and camera strap distracting in the background of most of my photos.  I had a feeling it would continue all day.  So I finally asked in the nicest way I knew how.  I was so nervous, my stomach was turning as I chatted with her about it.  To my delight she put it away with out contest.  This moment below was the example I gave her.  A couple weddings prior to this one the Father Daughter dance was emotional and I saw the MOB crying as she watched so I composed the shot perfectly to get the Dad and Bride in the shot but blurry and focused tack sharp onto the Mother and her completely experiencing that moment.  But by the time I moved to get just the right angle the Mom had pulled out her iphone.  There was already going to be a sea of iphones in the shot but even if I just had the Mom’s reaction it would have still been just perfect.  Instead it was a moment missed… by both of us.  She enjoyed the moment for only a couple seconds until she stopped to capture it (when it already had been captured)

I’m pretty sure not just today’s generation but really anyone living today has forgotten how to completely enjoy a moment with out stopping and grabbing a device to capture the moment on.  Not every moment has to be captured by photograph and if they do, hire an amazing one to do it for you.  Then step 2… trust them.  Here is what you get when you do…

I love this one because the Mother of the Bride and her two Sons are singing away to “then” by Brad Paisley as they experience the moment

If you know me at all you know the Mother Son dance gets me EVERY SINGLE TIME. But this one was a little different.  It got me all misty eyed like usual but then as I looked out at the simple way you could just see and feel how much Adam loved his Mom and how much she loved him back, I was done!  Then I couldn’t help but see my Son and this is what gets me every time.  I hope and hope and pray and pray that he loves me like this.  But in that moment and really through out the day I watched Adam (it’s not as creepy as it sounds I’m a photographer people!!!) I watched him and just what a wonderful guy he was and in this moment I just kept hoping I will be a good enough Mother and do all the right things so my son will grow up to be even just a little bit like Adam.  Hoping he would find someone just like Ashley with a wonderful family like hers.  I guess as a Parent you learn that the weight is on your shoulders to do all the right things and make all the right choices for your children as you raise them.  Then you get to this moment, and it’s just a tiny dance in time but really it’s the time you stop and silently thank God and each other for everything leading up to this moment.