Doing wedding pictures for a Wedding Photographer

Whew, The weekend is finally over and we had a great time. There was so much anticipation leading up to this wedding for Matt  and his bride Renee. Matthew is a wedding photographer himself and is quite busy. When he first asked us to do his pictures we thought, SURE!..... Then we started to think about it more. Its got to be like a chef cooking for a critic outside waiting for his best work to come through. We know that we are good and have done a lot of work to get us up to this moment, but still. This is the test for us. We just hoped that it would be a great venue and we would have a rockstar performance behind us. Then it happened. We walked in to the old Hardware Store turned Antique store and started up the dark stairs.  We got to the top of the stairs to a small waiting room with 2 doors. One going to the private waiting room for the bride and one into to a large, high ceiling, dark painted room with 6 small chandeliers on the ceiling. My heart sank and I could see Ann's face and she wasn't much happier. This was going to be a test. I had to confirm. "So.. this is where the reception is?" Matthew replied, "and the ceremony too." :(  Really?!? Ok... Then came in Justin Bond from Cinematic Occasions. One of the best Video guys in town. I looked at him and he had the same face. We talked for a while, got with the DJ to see if he had any extra lights for the ceremony and worked it out to get a little more light. I also had ordered the Canon 85mm 1.2 just for this in case. It stayed on my camera almost all weekend and I thank god I have gotten used to my 1.8 so I understood how to focus the 1.2. After the rehearsal and 200 pictures we had it figured out. Ann was ready and our assistant was too. The day of the wedding was 10 hours of shooting and changing lenses, from the private waiting room with 2 large north windows and back to the dark chamber of solace. :) In all we did great. We had the gear, we had the knowledge and the bride and groom know what it takes to make beautiful pictures in a dark place so with some well placed pauses in the ceremony the pictures are turning out great. Whew....  We do love this couple and they are going to be friends for a long time we are sure. Here are a few picts of the night that we posted before they took off for their honeymoon so they can see them. My favorite comment on facebook was Matt himself, mister wedding photographer.... I am floored.... These are amazing. You actually made me look pretty good. :)"

Thanks Matthew for letting us be a part of the wedding and giving us a chance to shine bright for you! Hope you enjoy them!

~jeff and ann