A week before the wedding of Jess Brenton and Zach Osborne, I drove up to Southwest Virginia to shoot Jess’ bridal portraits at Sundara.  Jess told me over the phone that the location had an apple orchard and a big red barn, so I was pretty excited to see the space and get inspired by the mountains.

I love shooting bridal portraits because it gives me a chance to get to know the bride better–or in Jess’ case, to catch up with a friend and have a photo adventure!  I laughed throughout the shoot because Jess kept asking me,  “tell me about Africa” or “tell me about Justin.”  At one point I had to say that I would tell her later over dinner because I needed her to smile at the camera and not ask me questions.  (I actually was able to answer her questions during the shoot).    Seriously though, it was really fun to talk to Jess and make some sweet photos with the fading mountain sunlight.

I really felt like I was part of the wedding party after doing this shoot.  Jess and Zach took me out to eat at a yummy restaurant in Roanoke (organic mountain food!!!), and I slept over at Jess’ that evening while we talked and looked at the photos I had shot earlier that day.  The next morning I went running in Jess’ neighborhood (which happens to lead to a massive hill with a beautiful overlook of downtown Roanoke at the top!)  I had been pretty sick the week before (with what I now know was a parasitic infection), so these two days with Jess was the bright spot of those first few weeks in October.  It felt so good to enjoy her company…and make beautiful pictures of a beautiful friend in a beautiful place!

Jess, thanks for being so welcoming and hospitable.  You made me feel like I was another member of the Brenton household.  Thanks for letting your cute cocker spaniel love on me, too—I need that!  I hope you love the pics.

To view all pictures from this session and purchase prints, go to http://prints.canacollective.com/.

Enjoy!

I shot the wedding of Jess Brenton and Zach Osborne on September 17, 2011 in the beautiful Roanoke, VA.  Jess and I bonded when we were bridesmaids in the wedding of Laura Fletcher Stevenson.  I remember the first time she told me about her and Zach’s love story, and I was moved to tears.  Just a few months into their dating relationship, Zach was injured serving our country overseas.  They spent the next months together while he recuperated and underwent surgeries at Walter Reed in D.C.

When Jess told me about everything they had already gone through, I felt as if I was talking to a woman who had been married for several years.  She and Zach have weathered storms that some couples will never experience—and their love for each other grew stronger in those hardships.  I remember thinking, “I wish I could document their story.”  Luckily, Jess asked me to shoot her wedding—and I was able to capture their incredible, strong love for one another on their wedding day!

This wedding was especially meaningful for me because I was able to reunite with one of my best friends, Laura Fletcher Stevenson.  My boyfriend and second shooter, Justin Cook, was able to share in the joy of our reunion.  This wedding held significance for him as well, since we were returning to his community in Roanoke.  We shot the wedding with Ryan Loew, Justin’s friend and an amazing videographer (who just had his first child—congrats, Ryan!!).  So it pretty much felt like a giant party on the photo-side.  And Laura, Justin, and I were the last guests to leave the reception—we ended up staying on the premises an hour after everybody had left!  I love when my job as a wedding photographer blends so seamlessly into my personal life—weddings like Jess and Zach’s are extra special for me–their celebration becomes my celebration. 

Jess and Zach, you two are an inspiring couple and great friends.  I had a blast shooting your wedding and hanging out with you the days before it.  It was a joy to share in your day and be able to tell your story through my camera.  Thank you so much for everything!  I hope that you cherish these photos for years to come.

To view all photos from this wedding and purchase prints, click here.

Enjoy!

This blogpost won’t be about weddings, even though the pictures are from the wedding of Julie and Adam—a wonderful event I shot with Jenny Tenney in Asheville this year.   Since these are her clients (wonderful people I must add; I had a blast!), I will let her talk about their day and their story.  Check out her blogpost about the day!

Instead, I want to write about how shooting this wedding providing healing for me.  I have been struggling the past year with ongoing depression, anxiety, and sickness—the reasons for them are complex, and I won’t go into detail here.  I will say that the word “health” has been tossed around quite a bit—in conversations with my doctors and counselor, in books I’m reading, in my own longings to be well again.

I’m coming to redefine health as “wholeness”–a gluing back of body and soul along with all the other body-souls out there.  Antidepressants, counseling sessions, and heatpacks for my tense muscles are part of the road to overcoming depression and anxiety, but shooting a wedding and spending quality time with a good friend is just as important—if not more.

This weekend in Asheville was just that for me.  Sure, I felt crappy because of some parasites I didn’t know existed in my tummy, but going to dinner with Jenny, talking for hours about dating, love, childbirth, photography, our dreams and obstacles in life infused me with an energy—a healing—that I can only receive when connected to other people.  Shooting this wedding with her was a stress-free, joyful collaboration.  We brainstormed together, oohed and aahhed dorkily about beautiful light and sunflower fields,   It was so healing to be connected to my friend, co-creating with her, making beautiful photos of the beautiful people and the setting around us that we were a part of.  I realized how much I miss being with other women photographers—my closest girlfriends who are photographers happen to live hours away from me.  I need their presence—they don’t just make me a better or more “whole” photographer, but they make a more whole person.  A woman on the path to healing.

So thank you, Julie and Adam, for letting me into your life on your day.  Jenny and I provided you with photos, but you provided me with something far greater, and I am so grateful for your openness and trust of us.  Jenny, thank you for the conversations, the laughter, your generosity, and your humility.  You are a wonderful photographer because of who you are, and I am glad to be your friend.

I want to leave you all with a wonderful Wendell Berry quote that sums up what I have been learning during this difficult passage of my life:

“To try to heal the body alone is to collaborate in the destruction of the body.  Healing is impossible in loneliness, it is the opposite of loneliness.  Conviviality is healing.  To be healed we must come with all the other creatures to the feast of Creation.  The fatal sickness is despair, a wound that cannot be healed because it is encapsulated in loneliness, surrounded by speechlessness.  We must go to the wilderness of creation to be reborn–to receive the awareness, at on e humbling and exhilarating, grievous and joyful, that we are a part of Creation, on with all the we live from an all that, in turn lives from us.”

Here’s another set of wedding pictures—more joyful work for me that has helped me heal.  I hope it brings healing to you as well.  Enjoy!