Faking It

A few months back, a lovely reader (I know, right? I can’t believe anyone reads this thing either, but apparently they do!) emailed me out of the blue. She had been following my site for a while, and wanted to know if I ever did any photography on the side. She was getting married in the summer, and wondered if I would be interested in shooting her wedding.

And then I passed out. Blam. On the ground.

When I woke up, I wrote and re-wrote an email to this dear reader, explaining that, sure, I have an okay camera and yes, do from time to time take pictures for friends or whatever, but I am NOT (NOT NOT NOT) a professional photographer. Or even an unprofessional one. I mean, I would call myself a novice at best. Mostly, I’d just call myself a faker. Because I have no idea what I’m doing.

Well, the email was a bit more eloquent than that, but those are the main points I tried to get across.

The lovely reader then responded by saying she totally understood my stance, but really liked my snapshots and wondered if I’d be interested in photographing her wedding anyway.

I thought about it for a long time. I mean, as much as I love taking pictures, someone’s wedding day is a pretty big deal. And messing up one’s wedding day. Somehow screwing up the only photos one has from that day. Ooof. That’s some pressure I’m not well equipped to handle. But after some Venn diagrams and pro/con lists, I decided to give it a shot. The wedding was outside, which I was comfortable with. I don’t use a flash (blech) so I don’t take as good of shots indoors, but the lovely bride knew that and was still pumped for me to shoot her beautiful, outdoor, June wedding.

Can you see where this is going?

Yeah, so it’s apparently monsoon season in Kansas and on the Sara and Kris’ big day, you needed a boat to get to the marriage site. Crap.

The ceremony was moved in to a very dimly lit chapel. And all the while Sara and her husband to be seemed calm, cool and excited. They really are the best couple ever. And I tried to maintain my cool as well, although inside I was scared to death.

Sara and Kris, thank you for trusting me when I wasn’t sure I trusted myself. I hope I can do your day a bit of the justice it deserves. You two are an amazing couple and I hope the honeymoon was incredible. Special thanks as well to Miss KT, who came with me and held an umbrella over my head. We joked that she was like P. Diddy’s umbrella-assistant, Mr. Farnsworth. Well, she was joking. I obviously, was quite serious.

(Sidenote: This past weekend, my little family and I had the amazing opportunity to do a shoot with the wonderful and talented Nicole as she preps for a brand relaunch. When I was telling her my story of shooting this wedding, she was all, “That’s what I get a rush from, taking a situation and just making it work.” Apparently I do not have the brain or heart to be a wedding photographer, because to me, that’s just terrifying.)