Ep. 8: In Which I Make Like Nike at My First Wedding Gig

Here’s a story my husband doesn’t like being reminded of. Back in grad school, we were at a friend’s apartment, nearing the end of a night of drinking. Josh and my friend often bonded over their love of old video games, and they decided to bust out Mario Kart: Double Dash. Both of them were pretty confident in their mastery of the game—Josh even more so because he was by far the more sober of the two. Yet when the race started, my friend totally zoned in. Laser focus. One with the screen, one with the controller. She dominated.

Aside from the whole being drunk thing, this is kind of how I felt in wedding-photography mode. (Not my best analogy, I admit—mostly I just wanted to tell the story of Josh’s humiliation).

Despite having the most gracious and down-to-earth bride and groom in all of history, I was still in charge of documenting the biggest day of their lives. So, yeah. I was a wee bit stressed. No amount of mental preparation (of which there was much) was going to change that.

Having to fit so many pictures in on a schedule, there wasn’t a lot of room for the usual relax-and-have-fun sort of pictures I generally try for when doing portraits. Come wedding day, I had to be zoned in, all business: Gather the people (or send Josh to gather the people), arrange bodies, cue smiles, take pictures. Check my light, try another angle, take more pictures.

During the ceremony it was: post up here and take pictures as fast as I can as people walk in, speed walk in stealth mode up this side of the church, and then to this side of the church, and then up to the balcony, and then through the pastor’s secret passage to get behind the altar without being seen, and then kind of walk but actually run to the back to get the kiss and the presentation of the new Mr. & Mrs. Carlson.

It was one of those things where you don’t have a lot of time to process what you’re doing, but you make like Nike and Just Do It.

I wouldn’t go so far as to say I crushed my task as spectacularly as my friend beat Josh in Double Dash, but it was a winning day, nonetheless. We managed to get through the pictures with plenty of time to spare, I was ready for (most of) the big moments when they happened, and I took a whole boatload of pictures, including a few pretty heckin’ good ones.

But enough about me.

The important thing here is that Paige and Alex got themselves married, and it was a beautiful thing. The day was as uniquely them as it could possibly be, with all the craftiness of Paige and her family on display (they’re the kind of people who can find a thing on Pinterest and actually execute it—or create Pinterest-worthy wares all their own). There were bridesmates and a groomswoman. Blue jeans, cowboy boots, sunflowers, a horse trailer party bus. And, most importantly, two people who obviously love each other celebrated the first day of the rest of their lives.