I had this blog post carefully written yesterday morning. I was about to post, and then... something weird happened. It was just, gone. Gone. So, Elliot having woken up from his nap, I decided to try again tomorrow. I'm currently sitting here in my 'uniform' lulus and messy hair. I was just thinking as I was finishing up my last August wedding, about my career, about my life. I am constantly pushing myself, learning more, trying new things, re-inspiring myself (daily) But I am hard on myself, my own worst critic... (I'm working on it) Truth be told, I was thinking about my photographs, perhaps even comparing a bit. As a photographer, I can get into magazines, win an award, have amazing followers "like" things on facebook. But to be totally honest, when I post that first image (or first few images) and hit send or upload onto Facebook I can literally get a hundred likes and none of it means anything to me until I hear from the people in the images. I post and cross my fingers that all of my painfully inspired moments have paid off. Hope I did their moments justice, hope I captured it honestly enough. That I "got" them.
So, I curated the images for this post yesterday, lost the writing to go along with it, started to get all hard on myself and then, randomly got this beautiful gift from Markie. And somehow, my lost words and negative thoughts just really didn't seem to matter all that much. (is it weird that sometimes I want to call her "my Markie") probably.
Hi Erin, I was having a wedding day-dream day yesterday, and went through all the photos again. Yep - all of them! They make me (and Nate) SO happy. Heart warm and full to the brim, love drunk on wedding pictures (ha- so true!), it was the time to write a little testimonial for a very special photographer. If you can use any of my words for anything, please do. If not, then you can just know how I feel about you and my images. I hope we can get together for wine sometime this winter. Happy Friday XO
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I followed Erin Wallis for years - her website, blog, Facebook pages. I had never met her, never even seen her in person, yet I felt a connection to her, like I somehow knew her. The photos and the words she shared always resonated with me. I knew long before Nathon asked me to marry him that Erin Wallis was my wedding photographer. I didn't know a thing about what my wedding day would entail at that point, whether I was eloping or having a big reception, but I knew who was going to create the images.
When I woke up on the morning of my wedding day, everything turned surreal, almost dream-like. All the days leading up, all the planning, the emotions, the nerves, the love...all comes down to one beautiful, blissful, blurry day. Surrounded by all of the people we love most, we celebrated our love and our life together - and in the end, we were married. It was natural and super-natural all at the same time. For us, it was a day full of magic, and love, and absolute happiness. Erin captured it all.
Erin and I didn't talk much, if at all, about the "style" of my wedding leading up to the day. We didn't talk at all about how I wanted the images to look. We made very few plans. I never showed her any inspiration photos. I did not show her my dress, my flowers, or my decor. We spoke briefly about some various photo location options and Erin mentioned that she had "some ideas." The photos were one thing I was not worried about. I had 100% trust in her and I was confident that Erin would know exactly what to do. And she did. When she arrived at my parent's house while I was getting ready, we found her digging through family treasures and piecing our life together into perfect little vignettes like she had known us all for a lifetime. My Mom whispered, "She is an old soul, just like you." We ended up at the perfect locations, some planned, some inspired spur-of-the-moment. In the events leading up to the ceremony and the spontaneous moments that followed, Erin was in her element. She was engaged and inspired and completely taken in the special, intimate, and magic things that transpired. The result was images that were more than I could have dreamed of. For us, they are perfect.
It is hard to put into words how I feel about my wedding photos. They are much more than the hard evidence that our wedding day was not a dream and it actually did happen. Erin Wallis has an ability to connect and empathize with people that comes through in the images. When I look at the photos it brings me back to that exact, fleeting moment. They evoke the same emotions I was feeling at that very second. The magic, the happiness, the love, and the glow - it comes rushing back. I will never be able to live that day again, which is what makes it so special. Erin turned our memories of that amazing day into cherished images and art.
Erin - Thank you from the bottom of my very full and happy heart. Thank you for putting yourself out there to the world so people like me can find you. Thank you for wearing your heart on your sleeve so people like me can connect with you and trust you. Thank you for the treasured images of my special day.
“Kindred spirits are not so scarce as I used to think. It's splendid to find out there are so many of them in the world.” - L.M. Montgomery
