This post may be a week late but seeing as how my Unbride wedding was now one year ago, I thought it was appropriate to take a minute to reflect on the whole thing, even if just to give a boost of confidence to all of you brides out there who are still in the planning stages.

About 13 months ago, Gary and I had this enormous piece of seamless paper taped up to the wall of our living room covered completely in “things to do” scribbled with a sharpie.

We stared at it every day and checked things off one by one and wondered what we had gotten ourselves into. I didn’t think we would ever get it all done and sometimes I wondered if we might kill each other over some stupid detail and then we’d be dead before our wedding arrived and wouldn’t that suck. But somehow it all came together and even though we had a few minor arguments over it and spent more than we planned on etc etc, when the day finally arrived, it was magical and worth every second of nonsense we went through to get there…and if anything I think the planning taught us how to talk through the little disagreements as opposed to actually killing each other over wedding cake or confetti canons. I think that all engaged couples end up fighting over wedding stuff so if you’re in that stage right now, my advice is to use it as a learning experience, pick your battles, and hang in there…because you will both get there in one piece, eventually.

Now as a wedding photographer myself, I can be a bit jaded at times when it comes to weddings. Don’t get me wrong, I love every minute of it. But one thing that even I have noticed over the past year when it comes to shooting, is that I have become a total sap over what it actually means to be married. Like for instance when it comes to people who do the “marriage dance” at their weddings. You know the one, where the band/ dj invites all of the married couples to the dance floor for a slow dance? Then they start whittling down the crowd on the dance floor based on how long they have been married until there is just one couple left. I used to just watch and shoot and not really think about it. But now I find myself tearing up and practically crying behind my camera when I see these older couples who have been married for 45 or 50 years and they are still in love and still dancing. Because now that I am married I get it. I get what a huge deal it is to find someone with whom you could spend 50 years of your life. And I feel so lucky that I am one year closer to that.
Photo by SOTA Dzine

So happy anniversary to my darling husband…and here’s to another 50 years!

Posted in Photography + Video
Tags: advice, anniversaries, marriage dance, sota weddings