Be Prepared to Dance

Last night, Cameron and I watched The Office's long-anticipated episode--Jim and Pam finally got hitched. When I walked in the door this morning from kickboxing, my parents mentioned that they still hadn't seen it, and I told them they must! Immediately. Especially if we were going to be on speaking terms for much longer.

My dad said, "Oh, well I've heard that it has to do with that JK wedding video."

I was like... "The what?!?"

With gasps, they dragged me into the office, saying, "I can't believe you have seen this yet! It's the funniest thing ever!!"



While Mom and Dad were laughing the whole way through, I was moved. Touched. If you know me at all, you know I'm obsessed with weddings. I own dozens of wedding magazines, surf the net for locations, planners, designers, read blog after blog of wedding photography... I would venture to call myself a wedding connoisseur.

And as much as I love the weddings in magazines, the $30,000 to $100,000 extravaganza weekends that people plan, where every detail is in perfect place, every light hanging at just the right angle, every petal in the exact spot it was meant to be... those weddings are so impersonal. They're about outdoing the wedding that came before. They're not about the bride and groom; they're about being memorable, but for the wrong reasons.

If you come to my wedding, whenever it is, be prepared to dance. If you're walking down my aisle, be prepared to make a fool of yourself. If you come to my reception, be prepared to get your groove on. My wedding will not be traditional. It will not cost $40k, it will not be perfect, it will not outdo every wedding before it. It will, however, be memorable. It will be memorable because every minute detail will be infused with love, full of the personality of my husband-to-be and myself. The flowers might not be just right--and who's to say there will be any flowers at all?--the bridesmaids may not wear colours you approve of (though I assure you, they will be wearing clothing), and I'll probably go against a lot of hard-and-fast wedding rules. But if you let yourself, you'll have a lot of fun. We'll all have a lot of fun.

Just be prepared to dance.

Lizzie

My oldest friend in the world is getting married... Well, technically, she is married, but she hasn't had her SoCal celebration for it yet. Tonight, Lizzie's bridal shower kicks off the official wedding stuff (for lack of a better term), so I thought I'd post some super old photos I did of her when I was first starting out as a photographer... Embarrassingly enough, I was not so good as I thought myself to be back then. Looking back at these, I cringe. Literally. Seriously. Cringe. I almost don't want to share them.

But she's my oldest friend in the world, and she's beautiful and laughing and carefree, and she jumps and twirls and smiles like she sees your soul. So here they are anyway, even though I'm fairly certain this is the batch of photos I'm least proud of in my three years of shooting.

Woot! Big Pictures!!!!

Finally! The mock wedding photos. If you haven't seen them already, enjoy. If you have, enjoy again... I know I keep going back to these colours and textures. Love it.



























































Second shooters Ashley and Daniel:












































I'm working on the problem with you not being able to comment. Sorry folks... for now, facebook or megan@megan-beth.com.