My Cousin’s Wedding.

This Oklahoma wedding was an emotional one. You forget about things and then look at one picture and it all comes flooding back. What is a wedding photographer? Wedding trends and details aren’t always about butterflies and rainbows and what the bride wore and how tasty the wedding cake was. This wedding was different. Sometimes its about the emotion. I am going to be raw…real….feeling. Ken and Jill’s wedding was in Oklahoma and they were surrounded by friends and family. They are my family. This was one of the last times my Grandmother would get together at a family event. I start this post with tears in my eyes. I struggle to find the words to write what is good enough for someone that pushed me to be the best artist I could be. Someone that I miss every single day. I lived with my grandmother as a young adult. I remember coming home from photography and art classes and showing her my work, only to hear such strong words of encouragement. She believed in me. She believed that I could do it. She pushed me to be what I am today. Some know we lost this beautiful woman from earth earlier this year. An amazing woman. A woman who I am honored to be told that I “got her spunk” from.  One of the biggest accomplishments of my wedding photography career, I was able to lean over and share with her in her ear. I hope she heard it. She helped to make it.

We are coming up on our annual family reunion. The first one without our grandmother, our matriarch. I sit and wonder what its going to be like without hearing her sharp wits in the background, without her winks from the other side of the room, just without her.

This wedding was my cousin’s wedding. Ken and Jill become one.  One of the last times most of us would get together as a family….as a whole. As I selected the images to post from this wedding, I saw my family happy. I saw them celebrating a union of two people coming together. I saw them together. I keep a special token of my grandmother near me and I reached for it for solace and held it close to me to make it through these images. Seeing my grandmother’s sweet face as she accepted a fun kiss on the cheek from Ken. As we gathered on my Aunt and Uncle’s deck sharing pizza and as my little Sammy Jay climbed stairs solo like a ‘big boy’. This wedding was one of the most memorable for me that’s for sure. Its the last one I got see my grandmother watching on as a proud matriarch of our family. That’s what she was. A matriarch. Someone that I can only hope to be one day. Ken and Jill’s wedding ceremony was a memorable one. Everyone came together to make it so special. Everyone. Our family, Jill’s family…..we all were one. This is what I hope all of the photographs I take for others mean to them.

“I am going to miss her. The last words I said to her were, “I love you …you taught me so much”. She opened her eyes and smiled as she reached over and patted my cheek as she did so many times. Now I shouldn’t cry because it’s over but smile because it happened. She may not have intentionally taught us, but we learned by example.”

Nanny, I love you and I miss you and know that one day I will see you again and play cards with you!