I’m throwing it back to 2010 for this anniversary post – sharing one of the first couples that took the leap of faith to hire me when I first started my business! To this day, they are some of our dearest friends and have 2 beautiful twin boys that I’ve been photographing for the past year! We went from complete strangers talking about their wedding day, to Mitch being a groomsman in our own wedding next month! It’s having couples like this that remind me how much I love being a photographer.
Jenn and Mitch were married on October 9, 2010. Four years later, they’re still madly in love! Tonight, we’re sharing some of their favorite photos of the day and words of advice from them!
Jennifer remembers her wedding day like it was yesterday. Her favorite moment of the whole day was when she first saw Mitch at the end of the aisle. They haven’t seen each other for 24 hours, making this moment very special for them. Jennifer said, “The look on his face was amazing and I will never for get it!”
Unlike most brides, Jennifer did her first look with her father instead of Mitch. “My dad really felt special because I saved my ‘first appearance’ as a bride in all my bridal glory for him.
My dad is not the kind of person who is ever speechless but this moment definitely gave him reason to pause lol! It was really a great memory and a special moment.”
Remembering the special moments is what helped Jennifer stay positive even when not everything went as planned on her day. “There were a lot of little things on the day of our wedding that didn’t really seem to go as planned but those are the things that you will look back on a laugh about. I always say, ‘you can’t sweat the small stuff.’ And when you look back on your wedding day you don’t want to remember all the stuff that went wrong, because something will always go wrong. You want to think about how you felt walking down the aisle, or your first dance with your husband, or how much fun you had at your reception, you know the good stuff!”
So to not worry when things go wrong, having a wedding coordinator is sometimes the best way to go. Jennifer said if she could fix anything, it would be to hire a wedding coordinator. “We took on a lot more than we expected with planning the wedding and I think I would have enjoyed the planning process more if we had an expert to help us along the way.”
But that does not mean you still can’t design a few things of your own. Jenn and Mitch’s wedding was filled with different DIY ideas. Her mom, bridesmaids and Jennifer made all of the paper products for the wedding and her mom also created decorations for the ceremony.
They wrote, “Love” and “Thank You” on the umbrellas for the thank you cards.
“Our house is one big DIY fixer-upper in progress. There are always new projects to do!”
Sometimes, couples realize how strong their love is for each other when they both hit a rough patch. Jennifer and Mitch went through a hard tragedy together when Mitch’s father died almost a year after they got married. “We also had a lot of difficulty with starting a family, which can weigh very heavily on even the strongest of relationships. But there has been some amazing highs with the birth of our two crazy munchkins and seeing them learn and grow. All along the way we have managed to find a bright spot in the darkest hours and the humility in the greatest moments. We have learned to appreciate each other every day because you never know what tomorrow will bring.”
But at the end of it all, they still reminisce about the special moments during the day that started it all!
“We talk about the cake cutting.
I made Mitch promise he wouldn’t smash the cake in my face and then I totally smeared him up with some delicious icing hahaha, oops!”
