The first wedding I ever photographed was waaaay back in 1998… maybe it was 97?!  It doesn’t really matter, but I’ve been doing this for a little while now and there are lots of things that I’ve learned over the years.

One of those things is that on a wedding day there’s generally always something that doesn’t go 100% as the bride and groom had envisioned it would.  Usually it’s something relatively minor… it could be that lacing up the dress ended up being more tricky than expected and things get behind schedule, maybe the flowers get delivered and they’re a slightly different color than they were supposed to be, or perhaps there’s the dreaded stain on the wedding dress!  I hope I’m not making anyone paranoid here, but really the list can go on and on!

Probably the biggest fear that people have leading up to their big day, is the weather.  Usually rain or snow are the big concern, but in the case of Larry and Sam’s wedding… it was a hurricane… Irene to be exact.  We always check in with our couples during the week leading up to the wedding to touch base and go over things one last time before the big day.

Before Sam and I were able to catch each other that week, the weather peeps all started saying that Irene was headed directly to the Philadelphia area, and that it was likely she’d arrive to wreak havoc right in the middle of their wedding reception!  So I fully expected my conversation with Sam to include some sobbing… or a few sniffles at the very least!  I was pleasantly surprised that when we did chat, she she was amazingly upbeat!

I recall her even calmly saying something to the effect of “looks like we’re going to get hit by Irene, do you think you’ll still be able to make it to photograph our wedding?”  Now I’m sure I must be wrong about this, and Sam please feel free to correct me, but it felt to me as if you would have understood it if I said “yeah, sorry but I can’t make it due to the bad weather… have a nice wedding though!”  Of course I reassured her that I’d be there, or die trying… maybe not in those exact words.

So where am I going with all of this you ask?  What I’m getting to is that Sam and Larry stayed focused on their love for each other, and let go of everything else that they couldn’t control.  Despite the not quite ideal weather, they had a great time and we ended up with lots of wonderful images that capture and convey their love.

If they had dwelled upon the fact that nearly 50 wedding guests didn’t show up, or that we couldn’t do all the outdoor pictures they had wanted to do on the grounds of Stokesay Castle, you’d absolutely see that in the pictures.  So in short, try not to sweat the small stuff…  keep things in perspective, and remember that your wedding is about celebrating your love for each other with the people who mean the most to you.

I apologize for writing so much!  I intended to include a bit about my crazy drive home in the middle of the hurricane!  It was certainly interesting, but that will have to wait for another day.  In the meantime, thank you Larry and Sam for being so wonderful, and I hope everyone enjoys the wedding photos!

Wedding at Stokesay Castle in Reading, PA.