Murph and Ryan's Wedding

When my friend, Murph (aka Melissa), asked me to photograph her wedding, my immediate response was no. I laughed and told her that I had no experience in shooting weddings. To my surprise, she would not take no for an answer. She begged me to consider it and so I agreed I would do that much. Over the next few days and weeks she assured me that I could do everything that she needed me to do and that she would not disown me as a friend if I ruined all of her wedding photos. After a lot of thought, I reluctantly agreed to do this for her. I knew I had months and months to practice and felt like I may be able to give her what she wanted.

Well the months flew by and all of a sudden it was time for Murph and Ryan's wedding. Just as I was beginning to accept that I was about to shoot my first wedding and feeling like I may be able to do it with some small success, this funny little thing happened - I started hearing about this thing called Earl. Over the next few days I began to truly hate Earl. He was a hurricane that was headed our way, who promised to bring us high winds and extreme amounts of rain, which would no doubt end in power outages. I began to panic. Much to my surprise, the lovely bride did not panic in the least. She still insisted that we would be just fine and that I need not worry. I wanted to believe that she was right, but I was having a very hard time doing so.

Luckily for everyone, the lovely bride WAS right. We began the day at a salon, where the rain began to fall and the wind began to pick up. I was panicing. Murph was still calm. Amazing, I thought. How can she be so calm? We headed back to Hopewell Hill to take photos before the ceremony. The rain picked up and the wind blew harder. I was still panicing. Murph was still calm. We then proceeded to the ceremony where the very beautiful bride and her new husband had a wonderful ceremony and became husband and wife. And then the amazing thing happened. The ceremony was over, Murph and Ryan were introduced as husband and wife, and they walked down the aisle together. They opened the church doors and I saw no rain. I heard no wind. It was suddenly calm and beautiful outside. Murph had been right all along. Earl was no match for these two.

Murph and Ryan happily spent the rest of their day surrounded by family and friends - laughing, eating, and dancing. Every little detail was perfect and everyone had a wonderful time. My wish for them is that that day was just the beginning of a very happy married life together.

Finally, here is a tiny peek at some of the many, many photos I took of my beautiful friend, Murph, and her new husband, Ryan.