I decided to quit photographing weddings and then…

A few weeks ago, I made the announcement on social media that I was off to photograph my last wedding after over 11 years of working in this genre. I figured the next day I would tell the news of my future plans for photography. I was so sure. A few friends and family members even checked in; are you sure? Really? Yep, really sure. And when I know, I know.  I can feel it in every cell of my body.

And now I am eating my words. Every. last. one. of. them.

I wasn’t prepared for what happened. What happened was Emily and Nathan’s wedding. A wedding so full of love, happiness, family, and beauty that as I photographed, I felt like a kid in a candy store. I felt incredibly alive as I captured all that was unfolding around me. I felt inspired by the range of emotions.  I felt honored to be chosen to be the one to record their special day. I felt the odd joy of being given the great responsibility to get the job done. I know, not everyone likes the weight of responsibility. For me, that developed at an early age when I started babysitting, had a paper route, went on to be a teacher and then add birth photography to my line of work. Trust me, there are NO do-overs when a baby is being born!

Days after Emily and Nathan’s wedding when I should have been announcing about my new path with photography, I received an email from a couple. They wanted to inquire about hiring me to photograph their wedding. I read that email over and over and then I answered it. Instead of the list of referrals to other photographers I had prepared, I said I would love to have a FaceTime with them to discuss their wedding. WHAT?!  That isn’t what quitting weddings looks like!  We had the FaceTime session and I adored every second of it. In my mind, I photographed them hundreds of times during that computer monitor conversation.  Rachel’s amazing laugh (click, click, click), Tim’s grin and smiley eyes (click, click, click). The way they kept looking at each other and smiling from ear to ear (click, click, click, click, click!).

And then they booked me.  That’s definitely not what quitting wedding looks like.

So here I am, still a wedding photographer.

Backup! Confusing, right? You see, it wasn’t that I fell out of love with weddings, I LOVEEEEE weddings. It was that my love for documenting weddings had some competition. Once Jaxson, our 6-year-old son started in the school systems, we no longer had midweek days to enjoy time together. Sure I see him in the mornings and after school but it was weekends that the family magic happened.  Lazy mornings in PJs, afternoons hiking, BBQ dinners and movie nights. But when you’re a wedding photographer, you pretty much work weekends. Heading out to shoot a wedding Saturday after Saturday started to leave me feeling so conflicted. My passions were at war with each other. Our son would only be a young kid for so long and I felt like I was missing out on opportunities with my family.

And then to add more, I love, LOVE, LOVEEEEEEE photographing babies. So in my mind, it was going to be easy!  I’ll end weddings and just focus on babies.  As Jaxson would say, “easy peasy lemon squeezy.” Yet somehow when I went to bed the night of Emily and Nathan’s wedding, reflecting on how I had just photographed my last wedding, I wasn’t feeling so confident in my decision.  Something was telling me that maybe this wasn’t the correct time.

I guess my big announcement was really just this.  I still love photographing weddings and I’m looking forward to dedicating a portion of my weekends to them. I will be greatly reducing the number of weddings I take on and adding more babies to my work schedule.

There it is. Whoah, what a letdown of an announcement!!!!  As my Grandmother Eve used to frequently tell me, a woman has the right to change her mind as many times as she likes! And so I did.

Here are just a few of some of the images from Emily and Nathan’s wedding day, starting with the traditional Chinese Tea ceremony.  I will remember this wedding as the wedding that changed my mind and started me down the wedding path once again! Happy to be back in the wedding game now for limited bookings in 2018! 

And one last picture to show you 2 of my reasons for creating a life that allows more weekend time!  The 3rd reason was taking the picture!  This is Jax, now age 6 and Makena currently age 17 weeks! Makena wasn’t quite yet into the “make a funny face” pose yet!