About the wedding

The wedding was really sweet and lovely. We had a fabulous bride; she was certainly not a bridezilla at all. Her mom was an absolute dear. And the groom, while a little dim, was as nice as can be.

I loved the colors- tangerine orange and lime green- they looked like sherbet, and it was actually just so pretty. I think you had to be there to appreciate it.

The weather was hot and muggy for sure. It was miserable outside at the quarry but we got through it. By the time the 8 hour day was done, I was ready to come home and take a cool shower until the cool ran out- and I did. I reeked of sweat and Off Bug Spray since the mosquitoes about took off limbs- it was HOT and MUGGY and BUGGY! But I survived.

I've not been to weddings in several years because I'm not a fan of weddings. (I prefer funerals; at least I have a chance of participating in that milestone event!) They did some neat things. They baked cookies and wrapped them in cellophane and put one at each guests' place settings at the reception, as a party favor, with a little rose as the twist tie; inside the rose was a Hershey kiss. They threw the little white snap-poppers insider of birdseed or rice. That was loud. I think all my pictures were jiggly! They did a sand ceremony instead of a unity candle. It was really sweet and it obviously fit the couple to a T.

Now, I've been booked to take pictures for this wedding for about 4 months. And does anyone here remember that I mentioned that ITSam happened to be the bride's uncle? So this week, we've been on 7 dates (shot dates, an hour here, an hour and a half there) and EVERYONE knew I was "friends" with the Uncle. It's a small town and he has a small family so it doesn't take much for the word to spread within his whole fam-damily. Everyone was thrilled to meet me all day long.

Oh brother!

He was really cute, too. He knew I was working so he gave me plenty of space. But there were nice smiles. He occasionally came to see if I needed anything. If I was standing or waiting, he asked if it was okay to chat. It was nice; good boundaries to let me work but still visit with him.

I had to laugh, though. At the beginning of the day, people were meeting me and saying they heard I was "getting reacquainted with Sam". Then about in the middle of the day when someone met me, I was "dating Sam." By the end of the day, as the night reception was getting into full swing (and I think some beer was flowing), people were wanting to know if "Sam girlfriend" was going to stay for the rest of the reception.

I'm not bothered really. Everyone was just super nice to me, and it was cool to see them tease Sam. I think they also figured out from working with me all day that I had a sense of humor, too.

And Sam did invite me to stay with him for the rest of the reception. But I was tired, hot sweaty, smelly and just ready to go home and shower and sit in the air conditioning. I told him I was sorry I could stay, and why. As i packed up the gear and headed to the car, he came up and said he'd call when he got home if it wasn't late and I said ok. Then he gave me one of the cookie flowers and asked if he could kiss me good bye. At that point I had met the family and they were obviously planning his wedding so I said 'sure'. People clapped.

Yeah, and all I could do was have a stupid smile on my face the whole time.

Maggie