When I sat down to write about Rachel and Taylor’s wedding, the first thing I thought was how much I hoped I could describe exactly how I felt about it. It’s not every day that I shoot a wedding for someone as close to me as she and her family have been through the years and I wanted to do our friendship justice.
I’ve known Rachel since she was in elementary school. She went to school with my son, and her sister, Melanie, with my younger son. Through all the kid parties, the sports, the shared excitement of watching your kids grow up, the Kochs have always been dear friends. And so, I came to this wedding with a healthy dose of emotion, needless to say.
I had met Taylor a year or two ago and liked him immediately. I knew right away that theirs was no casual relationship, as it had the “feel” of something really special and serious. Just watching his easy manner around her, his obvious love and respect for her, even the way he calls her “Rae”, told me all I needed to know. She was getting a great guy!
And then Rachel asked me to shoot her wedding! Now I was going to watch this lovely young woman experience this singular event in her life- her wedding day. How was I going to focus the camera through tears? How was I going to be a professional at a wedding that was clearly more to me in so many ways?
Watching her parents, Sara and Chris, celebrate her marriage helped. To see their obvious joy made it somehow easier, which sounds funny to me since it was their daughter getting married!! And with so many guests and family there who joined in this collective happy feeling, any momentary waterworks on my part were not even a thought.
When I saw the photos of Chris and Sara holding Rachel’s hands in their dining room before leaving for the Club, now that one got me all “teared up”! Couldn’t escape it entirely, I suppose. Thinking back, I’m so honored I am to have been a small part of Rachel and Taylor’s elegant and fun wedding day! And now a new chapter begins. I am so excited to see how their story unfolds.
Congratulations Rachel and Taylor!
