βWhen I was in the throes of wedding planning over a year ago, I was reaching out to vendors and putting payments down for June 2, 2024, and was crossing my fingers my deployed fiancΓ© would even be able to attend, thanks to his unpredictable schedule.
Amidst the stress (and borderline panic attacks!!) I was having because of that, I was also receiving a lieu of impersonal emails with quotes from photographers.
When I got the email back from Jessica, she was the only one who answered with excitement and personality, and gave me a sense that this was supposed to be FUN. All this wedding planning was a very lucky sort of stress, and she didnβt make me feel like I was just some box to check off in her inboxβ she was personable and friendly, and I liked her immediately.
For the course of the year, Jessica and I kept up with eachother with texts, messages, and Instagramβ and I felt like she was already a friend when June arrived.
Even after her 12 hour journey to Virginia, she was full of energy and ready to go. She helped adjust some coordination timelines and caught things that I otherwise wouldnβt have. She hung out with my rambunctious family all weekend, witnessing our love and laughter, WIDE range of personalities, and even some sisterly tiffs. Honestly, she whole-heartedly became part of our crew.
She ran everything past me when it came to details. Duke and I are not people who are comfortable in front of a camera, and I LOVED having her specifically tell us what to do to look good, while still feeling incredibly relaxed and natural around her. Duke and I kept saying she had Jedi powers the way she was able to flip cameras, batteries and equipment seamlessly.
Iβm writing this while in the airport leaving our honeymoon, and not only did Duke and I, and our families fall in love with Jessicaβ I still have guests reaching out to me via text to tell me how they hit it off with her on their own, how impressed they were with her ethic, or how they loved pictures from our sneak peek (eeeek!)
I am not a girl who naturally feels pretty or comfortable in front of a camera. Jessica gave me the gift of finally experiencing both of those things on our special day. I felt beautiful and at ease. She captured the bridal portraits that I hope my great grandkids will put in their family tree projects for school one day, some of Dukes family and mine meeting for the first time, friends dancing, and our grandparents mingling and giving us their love.
Duke and I knew our big white wedding would be our one chance to have everyone we love in one place. We are well aware of the rarity in that, and the fact that we donβt have much longer with some of those people we love.
Weβre well aware that these are the photos Duke and I will be looking at with our grandchildren when weβre old and grey, thinking about βthe good olβ days.β
These photos are all we will have left one day of the people we love so fiercely, and these versions of ourselves.
We will endlessly be grateful for Jessica of her effort and the labor that went into photographing a weekend like ours. She captured every single aspect of us and those we love, and above all us, gave us the gift of memory.
3 Faith and Dukeβ
