The Most Profound Wedding I've Ever Photographed: PNW Olympic Pennensula

What I do is far more important than you or I realize.
I don't mean that *I* am important.
I don't mean monetarily.
I don't even mean in some grandeur way regarding talent and skill.

Sure, your wedding day is important to you. Of course it is. There are actually many special times in your life that you will value enough to be worth hiring a professional photographer. But here's when I realized just how significant, how important, how truly momentous my chosen career really is...

Not long ago, I photographed the wedding of a young lady, Shayna, whom I'd known her entire life. Her mom, Lisa, and I grew up together. Lisa and I had been fast friends since our very first day of Kindergarten. In grade school, she was one of my shiest friends, and by High School, she was one of my craziest, funniest, and most outgoing friends. And later, as we both had families, our daughters grew up together as she and I were their Girl Scout Troop Leaders.

My sweet bride, Shayna, had lost her Dad when she was quite young. So when she walked down the isle, there was Lisa, her mom, walking with her to give her away. 

The whole wedding was incredibly emotional with such wonderful connections to her dad; from the charms on her bouquet of flowers, to the entire "village" of men in her life who collectively helped raise her, each taking turns dancing with her in place of her Dad. The whole day was truly extraordinary.

Two days after Shayna and her groom Curtis's wedding, the bride's mother, my dear friend, died unexpectedly. Devastated does not even begin to describe how I have felt ever since.

I needed to do something. I was in shock and hurting, but I needed to do something that might help Shayna and her family because I couldn't imagine what they were going through. So I immediately set everything else aside and worked non stop to make sure that Shayna received all her wedding images right away so that she would have her full gallery of images as soon as possible, to help her and her entire family heal and to display all around Lisa's Celebration of Life. That was the most difficult week I had ever worked. I cried with every single image I edited. But the experience made me realize just how important and meaningful my personal reasons for WHY I do what I do, actually are.

Take nothing for granted, for nothing is guaranteed.