My title isn’t a lie.  There are far too many pictures in this post.  Like, an obnoxious amount.  You might get annoyed . . . you might skip over half (or all) of them and you might roll your eyes a few times as you keep scrolling down and down and down seemingly without an end.  I’m not sorry though.  Not a bit.  Let me explain why.

Last year I began a really bizarre chapter of my life.  I’m not even sure exactly how I got there.  The story actually is quite amazing, as I have no formal training and just, for the first time, picked up a “nice” camera only a few years ago.  It suddenly dawned on me one day that being a wedding photographer was a new dream that I must pursue.  I think that was the day my husband thought I really was crazy.  The look on his face was priceless.  I believe he thought I was an alien.  As did most of the people who I told my new plan to.  But you see . . . they forgot that I am a work horse.  I am ambitious to the core.    

I am not one to say something and then not follow through with it.  So, I practiced.  And practiced some more.  And even more and more.  I didn’t want those people who I had told my dream to, to think that I was full of empty talk.  I did some research, took many hours to create contracts with legal wording, package prices and options, and wedding information sheets with clients.  I really wasn’t sure what I was doing, but I am pretty sure that I had a helping Hand in the process.  

There is more to the story, some more steps in the amazing journey that got me to right here and now.  I don’t have time to tell the entire thing, since it took me most of my “computer time” to actually upload all of these pictures.  But the ending is that somehow, but some will of God, I became a wedding photographer.  

Now to get back to my opening statements . . .  

The beginning of my second wedding season is just around the corner.  Although I am a “beginner” wedding photographer, and haven’t had many years to solidify my opinion, I am starting to think fully about whether or not this is something that I want to continue doing for years to come.  There is something that is so incredibly beautiful and pure about shooting weddings . . . my heart is completely full of emotions that I cannot even describe to you.   I am so amazingly honored that people have chosen me to capture one of the most treasured days of their lives.  People put their full trust in me.  I love capturing raw emotion and man, the love just blows me away.  My heart falls in love with my husband all over again, every single time I watch a wedding ceremony.  And I just am so passionate about catching all of those little moments that would otherwise be forgotten if I had not stolen it away from time.  I do my best work when I can just walk around, act invisible and capture the candid splendor of the day.    

But. . . talk about stressful.  And long.  My stomach turns for hours before I have to leave to get to my destination on wedding days.  The amount of time I spend worrying that something will go wrong–that there won’t be enough light, that I will miss the important moments, that everyone will see right through me and realize that I really have not a shred of confidence.  I fear that my equipment will malfunction.  That I will say something dumb.  Rainy wedding days add to the stress.  Standing on my feet for that long drains the heck out of me.  And the absolute worst is when you do all that work, and you don’t even get served dinner.  Even power bars only do so much.    

I have many years ahead of me to decide if this is what I want to continue doing, and I know that.  So even if I shoot weddings for five years of my life and then move on to something completely different (which is what I did already once before–since I used to be a math teacher), at least I can say that I had this amazing journey in which I did something that I never would have dreamed in a thousand years that I would have done.  I am a wedding photographer.  I do something important.  I help people remember their wedding day with the images that I have captured with my own eye.  I have given a gift to so many.  What an amazing job I have.  And how blessed I am to have it.  

So, I am not apologetic whatsoever for the fifty pictures that follow all of my words.  I look at them and remember the love that I have been so privileged to be a part of.  I look at them and my heart smiles with gladness.  I hope they can do the same for you.  

Here are some of my favorites from the 2009 wedding season: