Wedding number 1.
wed·ding
/ˈwediNG/
noun
1. A marriage ceremony, especially considered as including the associated celebrations.
On October 26th 2018 I had my first wedding... not MY first wedding but the first wedding I was lead photographer on (no, theres no ring on my finger!)
My emotions were a mix of excitement, nerves.. I guess much like the bride I spent the afternoon with! I have never been under the kind of pressure where I'm responsible for something that big that is not for myself. I had the thought that morning of "someone is depending on me for something HUGE." Being a photographer, photos are such a big deal to me. To be trusted by a bride who shoot her wedding was a huge confidence boost for me not to mention leap of faith on her part. I got to the venue 30 minutes before my scheduled time to walk around and get aquatinted with the surroundings. I was trying to get into my creative grove witch can sometimes take a bit of shooting before you reach that point. When Alicia arrived, I started snapping right away. Her dress, rings, bouquet and shoes were among the first things I shot. I used my Canon 24-70mm for all of these shots. Things like this are great to shoot first because it lets you practice angles and light without having to pose people to figure out what you're doing. The light in the VERY SMALL dressing room was bright, but the corners I had to crouch down in to get my angles were small. Luckily, I did get every shot I wanted despite the size and the less than attractive decore I had to shoot around.
Moving from the bridal dressing room to the ceremony was a breath of fresh air, literally. The day was a BEAUTIFUL autumn afternoon with a fantastic golden hour and a crisp 60 degrees to keep us all cool. I used a Canon 70-200mm to shoot the whole ceremony, moving around the sides and the back of the site to get all the angles I wanted. The compression of these photos were great with the lens I used.
After the ceremony came cocktail hour and then my fun really got to begin. Alisha, Nick and I were spread out on a big hill overlooking a pond surrounded by gorgeous foliage. For these shots I used mostly the 70-200mm but at the end I brought out my 24-70mm again. I caught a beautiful golden hour with the sunbeams catching perfectly in some of the shots I wanted. This process took about 40 minutes. I would have liked longer just to be able to practice and get more shots... but I always want more time and I got more than enough shots that I needed and wanted.
I quickly went into the reception to start shooting the entrence of the bridal party. For this I used my 24-70mm and my Canon flash. After everyone was in, the Bride and Groom went into their first dance and I was happy I got very good candid photos of them whispering to each other and giggling. I even captured tears of happiness and joy. My absolute favorite photos to get are ones with emotion so I'm happy I timed those correctly. With the exception of a few flash errors the rest of the night went very well for what was really my first big wedding and shooting indoors with low light (something I'm not crazy comfortable with but can manage).
Overall, I'm pleased with myself and the Bride and Groom were thrilled with all their shots! Win!
You can view Alicia and Nicks wedding gallery on my website under Gallery.
*As a clarification, this was not my first wedding I shot but the first wedding with more than 10 guests. The previous ceremonies and receptions I have captured were more along the lines of elopements.
