It's hard to believe that it's been one year since my move to New York City. It's been a crazy/awesome year, and despite the hardships of relocating a small business to a strange and foreign land, I've been so incredibly blessed by amazing people who've welcomed me in and helped me to continue doing the things I love to do.
Bethany Michaela Jones is one of these people, so I have to tell you about her. Bethany is definitely one of the coolest people I've met in NYC. At a moments notice, she may break into laughter, song, or dance (or all three). She's also an amazing photographer. When she asked me to photograph a wedding with her, I immediately said YES!! It's in New Hampshire? Awesome! It's a six hour drive from NYC? No problem! Little did I know that this would become the most epic wedding adventure of my life.
We left the city the night before the wedding and got stuck in lovely NYC traffic, then in blinding rain and fierce wind from tropical storm Andrea. We drove through 4 states, a gazillion different highways, and passed by more Dunkin' Donuts than rest stops. Eight (yes, eight!) hours later, we arrived, late, in the city of Wolfeboro, thinking that we'd be able to call it a night soon. This turned out to not be the case at all. At 1 am, and with only 8 more miles to go, we found ourselves completely lost on a dirt road in the middle of the pitch black Wolfeboro forest with no phone, no GPS reception, and no directions. Now, you'll have to ask me in person how we got ourselves out of this mess (it involves a bit more drama than I'd like to publicly disclose ;), but by a miraculous feat of teamwork and the sweet merciful grace of God, we narrowly escaped spending the night in our car.
Four short hours later, we got up and spent the next ten hours documenting Linda and Andrew, two beautiful people committing the rest of their lives to each other. It was an amazing, joyful, and love-filled celebration -- the kind where you feel like family by the time it was over. After bidding the newlyweds goodnight and sending them off on a little boat into a beautiful, fiery red sunset, we made the six hour drive back to NYC. I'm pretty sure HOT MESS does not even come close to describing what we looked like when we finally stumbled into our respective homes at 4am the next morning. Like I said, an absolutely epic adventure -- though one I would hope to not experience again anytime soon :) With that, I leave you with photos from the more joyful parts of that weekend. Enjoy!
The images below show perhaps the sweetest moments I have ever witnessed between a father and his daughter before walking down the aisle. The rest of the church was erupting with joyful sounds as the last of the bridal party made its way to the front. But in the back, it was nearly silent, as father and daughter anxiously awaited the church doors to re-open for them. I got a bit teary-eyed watching them, and seeing just how much he adores her.
This kid had some serious moves!