The Carpenters, October 5, 2019
I’m twice married but I’ve never had a real wedding. My first husband surprised me by proposing me just days before a planned trip to Vegas suggesting we do it while we were there and then sneakily invited my mom and a couple friends, totally surprising me once we arrived. It was a cheesy strip mall (all Elvis impersonators were booked) with pink everything; the plastic flowers, the carpet, the wallpaper. It was tacky but not in the fun, kitchsy on-purpose kinda way. We partook in an incredibly pricey dinner (with the most delicious mashed potatoes I’ve ever had in my life—still to this day—at the Stratosphere hotel that night and the rest of our Vegas trip was our honeymoon.
Ten years later my second and current husband and I mutually decided to get married and our timing was 100% about adding him to my health insurance (super romantic), so we picked a Friday 2 weeks in the future, took a day or two off work and went down to the courthouse here in Denver and voila. We found a nearby restaurant afterward, ate, and then journeyed down to the sand dunes that weekend for a short impromptu honeymoon. Our actual honeymoon was several months later when we drove our beast of an RV up to Wyoming to see the solar eclipse, which was phenomenal. We read our vows to each other on one of our last nights there, under a blanket of stars and I cried. A lot.
Like diamonds, a wedding was never something I needed. I certainly wasn’t one of those girls who dreamed of that day. Actually, it all seemed quite overwhelming, expensive, even nerve-racking to me. Plus, I tend to shy away from being the center of attention so the idea was always even a little scary to me, usually off the table.
But they’re beautiful aren’t they? Weddings. Despite my own shying away from them, I am still a romantic, a feeler, a believer in things like fate and destiny and meant-to-bes. And I absolutely understand the want or need for a wedding, for a celebration with those you love and care about. That one dreamy day that signals the beginning of the next chapter. There’s a lot of magic and symbolism in weddings that I can appreciate.
Like most I’ve attended a handful of weddings and shot a few of them too. I even totally cried once while shooting the reading of vows at the alter. (Luckily I still got some great shots despite the tears obscuring my vision). But Steven and Chelsea’s wedding was the first I was asked to be in (as a bridesmaid!) and also photograph. Needless to say I couldn’t shoot the ceremony, but I got a lot of great shots of the girls getting ready and pictures of the couple alone amongst the trees on the bride’s grandparents’ absolutely jaw-droppingly beautiful property. Those are always my favorite, the photos of the couple alone. I think I love the intimacy I can almost taste in those pictures, the posed yet spontaneous quality of the portraits…searching for those quiet private little moments the couple may not realize I’ve caught a glimpse of. Or better, have invited me into.
Steven and Chelsea are wonderful, incredibly sweet, generous, giving good good people. You know the kind right? If you’re lucky enough to have people like that in your life, do not let them go. Because if you know good people, you also know that they’re rare. And these two are especially rare. For the last 5 years they’ve been the best of friends to me, and now they’re family too.
p.s. Having now spent time in both eastern and western NC, I’ve decided it’s one of the most beautiful states in this country. One of the hairstylists helping all the girls with their hair for the wedding said to me, “We typically have long springs and long falls.” Sounds like a dream.
