Weddings - To shoot or not to shoot?

That is the question. :) Ok seriously, anyone who's talked to me in the last year KNOWS that I really REALLY want to do weddings. I'm a rediculous romantic at heart and I have YET to attend a wedding (even of those I didn't know!) where I didn't ball my eyes out!

When I was a little girl ALL I WANTED was to get married. No, not to have a husband, not to do "it" . . . I wanted to put on that big poofy white dress, walk down the aisle, say some romantic ho-hum yada yada, KISS a seriously hot guy, eat cake (yum!), maybe dance in my dress, and then ride off into the night. Still in my dress.

Later on in life, I changed my priorities from getting married to having kids. At that point, all I wanted was a pile of kids . . . and I was only 15. :) Fortunately for my husband, my horrifying confession that I wanted PILES of kids has all but faded into memory - two is enough for the moment!! He's also lucky because we decided on a last minute wedding (2 weeks!!) and I was forced to make split second decisions and dump a lot of my big hoop-lah ideas. (Turns out I had a BEAUTIFUL wedding, the perfect one for us - but it wasn't the one I'd fantasized about as a child.)

Fast forward to today - There is nothing more EXCITING than being allowed to be a part of a bride and groom's AMAZING day. I love to see the bride all dolled up, the groom clumsily trying to tie his tie and then turning to his best man (who in turn, hands him over to the father of the groom . . .) - The bride is asking questions like, "Is he here? Is everything beautiful? Does this dress make me look fat?" OK that last one was a joke - EVERYBODY knows that NO bride EVER looks anything but drop dead gorgeous in that white gown. That's the miracle and magic of a wedding dress - it makes you the star of the show, belle of the ball - and it transforms you into a beautiful creature that has the power to make grown men and women cry at the sight of you entering a room!

OK enough romantic mush - did you get it yet? I love weddings. I've wrestled with the thought of photographing them - they are a HUGE responsibility, it's a LOT (a LOT LOT LOT) of work, they're exhausting, I miss an entire day with my family . . . but MAN - they are F-U-N!!!

Since it's a wedding post today I'll add some photos from Lindsay & Cory's day-after session. (Heather - http://www.lucidphotoimaging.com/ - and I shot this wedding.) They opted to get all dressed up a couple days AFTER the wedding and have this session rather than see each other before the ceremony. Any way you do it is fine - but these, hands down, are my favorite types of sessions to shoot. Nobody staring at you from the wedding party or the guests . . . in fact, we're pretty much alone . . . which leaves a LOT of room for the romantic nonsense that the brides LOVE and the grooms dread. ;)