A Day Taken In Stride

As a wedding photographer I thought I would come across all different sorts of adventures, or misadventures. Most weddings I photograph go without (much of) a hitch, over the years nothing out of the ordinary has ever happened until this one very memorable day. On July 9th, 2005 my photography shoot began as a normal, average wedding day job. That soon changed, and kept going throughout the entire day. It was a day I will never forget. I started my shoot at the brides friends home to photograph the bride and her girls as I normally would. Nearing the end of the shoot I needed to run out to the car to retrieve more memory for my camera. The father of the bride's friend was out there and I began chatting with him, not paying much attention (as I should) to what I was doing. Before I knew it, I realized that I had just locked my keys in the trunk! Holy cow, you would not believe the panic I felt. I was to leave for the church in 20 minutes and ALL my equipment was locked up and inaccessible! I felt so bad that I didn't care how the trunk was to be opened, just open it! I was frantic. Luckily enough (or maybe not) the father had a drill. I pleaded with him to drill out the lock. As he was drilling I continued my shoot in the back yard with the bride having no idea what was going on in the front yard. That is until my car alarm went off and wouldn't stop for a good 10 minutes. I didn't want to put the added stress on the bride, especially before the ceremony. But at this point it was impossible for her not to know. She was actually quite humored from the whole thing. We all made it to the church on time and things were going well. All the guest were there and the processional was taking place. I was capturing great photos of the girls walking down the isle, when I backed up and tripped over the steps going up the alter. What an embarrassment! I landed flat on my butt. At least nothing but my pride was hurt. At this point, I'm thinking what kind of klutz am I today! Man, get your act together. After the ceremony the bride and groom had decided to have photographs taken at 2 different parks. The very first park was for the family photos and the second park was for the wedding party and the bride and groom only. After the shoot ended at the first park, everyone filed into the limo and we were off... ok, maybe not... as the limo was DEAD. At this point I was actually quite relieved that some of the embarrassment was taken away from me, but felt bad for the happy (or maybe not so happy) couple. Luckily enough the parents had driven in their own vehicles so the wedding party, and bride & groom crammed in to the other vehicles and off we went to the second park leaving the limo behind. At the second park the parents dropped everyone off, and went to the reception hall to greet guests. By the time the shoot was over at the second park the limo had shown up and they all piled into the limo again. But, yup, you guessed it.... DEAD again! Only problem was there were no rescuing parents this time. I ran over to the reception hall with a couple people in my car, dropped them off, and then grabbed another person to help "car pool" the wedding party to the reception hall. On the way back to the park I noticed that some of the attendants were actually starting to walk the distance from the park to the hall. Poor poor Bride & Groom! They must be fuming by now! But when I spoke to them, they were taking it all in stride. Later during dinner, at the reception hall, part of the ceiling fell in and landed on one of the guest tables. (About a 4'x8' section) And it landed right smack in the middle of the bride's bosses table! The whole table was covered in drywall, and plaster. Plates on the floor, clothing destroyed. Needless to say that was the end of that tables party... they left immediately. Luckily enough no one was hurt, but heck, what a way to impress your boss!! What amazes me most about this story is how the Bride & Groom were able to take everything with a grain of salt. They let every mishap (disaster) slide right off them. During their first dance, I have never seen 2 people so much in love. The happiness just emanated from them. It was very inspiring to see such happiness. These 2 lovely people deserved only the best for their wedding day. They were such kind and nice folks...the whole family was. They didn't deserve to have such "disasters" happen on their special day. It was enlightening and inspiring to see people get past the mishaps and concentrate on the real purpose of the day..... And that was they were getting married, and that they were totally in love. Nothing else mattered.

 

 

Send mail to KeysDAN@keysdan.com with questions or comments about this web site. Copyright © 1986-2012 KeysDAN Enterprises, Inc