Indianapolis, Indiana Wedding Photographer | My Story

When 2013 started, I was so busy with my photography business, “busy” in the part of trying to get my name out there, looking for clients and just continuing to grow this small business of mine, I had only been doing family photography for less than 2 years and I remember clearly how I felt about photographing weddings… for me? NO WAY! Little did I know that was not the plan.

In July 18th of 2013 ( the hottest day of the year BTW) I got a call from one of my hair dresser friends, she was doing this bride’s hair and she mentioned the photographer was a no show… yup, she was looking for a photographer for her wedding, and she was desperate! So, I packed all my worries and “what if’s” with my very limited camera gear and I drove to her home.

I arrived at the bride’s home, she was, understandably, mad and frustrated, but also thankful that someone was there to take care of this small hiccup. I acted calm and professional, but inside, I had all these thoughts, What am I doing? What if the pictures are not good enough? What if my one camera fails? Telling you that I was freaking out internally would be an understatement.

When I had taken a few pics of her getting in the dress and some other details of her hair, we both drove to the wedding venue, it happened to be the amazing Ritz Charles in Carmel ( Love that place) and I took a couple of minutes in my car to do a quick google search of ” Must-have shots for a wedding”, HA! I said a little player and I continued with the day.

 

I still don’t know how I managed to get thru this day, see, just because you are a photographer does not mean you know how to photograph everything, there is so much involved in weddings.. timelines, shot list, venue restrictions, etc etc and I knew none of these that day, I also was not prepared, even my outfit, I wore black pants with a black top for an outdoor wedding on a 90′ day.

I finished taken every possible picture I could think of and I went home after the reception, I was physically and emotionally exhausted, my shoulders hurt so much from holding my camera almost all day, but also…something happened at some point during this whole accidental adventure, I found myself…wanting to do it all over again, yes, I had fallen in love with wedding photography!!!

 

I knew if I was going to do weddings that I had to know the ins and outs of it, so one of the choices I had was being a second shooter, but where to go or who to call? I joined facebook groups of wedding professionals, I started saving for more, newer and better gear, I had to learn how to use my flash but also off camera flash, booking a wedding it’s an art by itself.

 

Then it came time for my “first” official wedding, I am so thankful for this couple that gave me this opportunity and took a huge risk on hiring me, knowing my limited experience in weddings.

Blue Falls Wedding Venue – July 2014 Wedding

 

While watching an online wedding workshop by the amazing Scott Robert, he mentioned that you need to capture at least 100 weddings before you have experienced all kinds of different scenarios, good and bad… I am not even close to that number, but already some things come to mind, like the wedding dress ripping apart because the delicate fabric used, or not wearing earrings because we lost them somewhere, how about not being able to find THE wedding rings, or the best man forgetting his shoes, maybe mom got the year wrong on the Thank-you banner…I have witnessed fathers and mothers cry seeing their kids getting married, I photographed a wedding where everything got moved a year early for fear of one of the parents not being present due to a terminal disease, so many tears shared and so many memories made, I don’t considered myself lucky, but tremendously blessed.

 

So, as I start getting my things together for my first wedding of 2017 tomorrow, I just wanted to write another blog post, telling you how excited I am for this year, to be part of all the unexpected little things that will happen at my weddings and to be able to keep doing what I love… so, if you ask me today about photographing weddings, my answer will definitely be… Heck yeaaaah!!!!