i’ve been looking forward to this wedding for a long time.

emily contacted me at 1 o’clock in the morning over a year and a half ago. from our very first email, i knew we were a good fit. emily is an artist too. a playwright in chicago and also a photographer. conversations were easy and exciting. the more i got to know about her, dan and the wedding, the more i wanted to scream “pick me!!!”.  and then i got an email saying they would talk to me soon. but i never heard from them. i think i even snuck in a random email at one point with reference to their wedding to see how things were going, which received a warm return email however, time went on. every once in awhile i would wonder, “who did they end up choosing to shoot their wedding?” and “how did i read things so wrong?” because i really thought they wanted to book me.

and then…
i got the greatest email explaining how they were back to wedding planning but the plans had changed a lot. the one thing that didn’t change was they still wanted me to be their photographer. i squealed just a little bit before emailing them back. at that point, i knew it truly was meant to be and i couldn’t wait to finally meet them in person. the words on the screen that painted the picture of who they were for so many months made me anxious to meet them. there was never any doubt in my mind that my time spent with them would be amazing.

aaaaand, it did not disappoint. so much so that when i returned to the hotel each night after shooting, laughing and making new friends, i loaded a day’s worth of shooting on my laptop. and with no other obligations besides sleep, i actually had time to go through them enough to set aside some favorites. i wish i had two nights for every wedding where i came home, no responsibilities, to an empty room, a glass of water and a pint of beer and could focus solely on what i just experienced. taking that time to reflect – instantly – brings such clarity when narrowing down what you’ve just documented.

so here is night one of my adventures in indiana…