When I first entered the wedding photography world, I was compelled by a desire to capture all the magical moments that happen on a wedding day; when two people make that commitment and take the leap into a new chapter of their lives. Somewhere along the way, I lost sight of that desire a little, clouded by details, and things that I saw all over the internet, on wedding blogs, in wedding magazines. I submitted one of my favourite weddings from 2011 to a popular wedding blog and was turned down. They said on their submission page that they like something a little different. I felt this one was different. And they even had some pretty details, but after looking through some of the weddings they featured, I realized mine didn’t have enough of those details. I thought to myself, is this how we measure a wedding, and ourselves? By the things that are there. Then I read the Mason Jar Manifesto, stumbled across Moment Junkie, A Practical Wedding, and articles like this. And I thought deep and hard. I started to pay even more attention at weddings, and realized that the most important things about a wedding aren’t and can’t be represented by things. It’s about love, and the celebration of love, it’s about your story, and the stories of your loved ones. And it’s about the little moments, the ones where you open up, you are authentic, vulnerable, at your truest self, caught off-guard. These are the moments that tug at our heartstrings, that make us tear up, or laugh-out-loud. And when those moments are captured, we can look back and experience that wondrous and joyful day once more. I love a pretty thing as much as the next person (just look at my Pinterest boards), but, you, your love, and these little moments are why I do what I do, and why I love what I do.
So I’m really happy, and proud to say that one of the photos from Karla & Steve’s wedding was featured on Moment Junkie on Friday. It was a little moment, but what a sweet moment it was.
