October 2020

It was a quite day in October of 2020, even amongst the problems of the world at the time, this day was fairly quite. A gentle rain had started to play and bounce upon the leaves of the trees then trickling down to the stone sidewalk. At the end of the wettened sidewalk was a little glass chapel tucked away amongst the trees. A woman standing next to the heavy wooden doors quickly walked up to me, dodging the raindrops, and introduced herself. Her name was Willow. She and her fiancé' Nathan had traveled four hours away to get married in a place that they fell in love with last year. Along side them was their pastor, who also drove the distance. to marry them on this rainy day.  As Willow got ready in the bridal suite, I got my camera gear ready and situated, as she did not want any getting-ready photos. After I got my gear ready, I went up to the chapel area and spoke with Nathan. He told me the whole story behind how they fell in love with this place and how they would be traveling to Petite Jean State Park for the honeymoon shortly after the ceremony. Why you might ask Petite Jean? Well Nathan is a bit of a John Wayne fan and one of the Duke's movies was filmed there. which growing up watching almost every John Wayne movie I didn't know that. Then Nathan pulled out these little ceramic turtle figurines. He stated that when they traveled to New Mexico, they pick up a new pair every time, these were their first ones. Obviously, I had to use them somehow by the end of the hour we had. 

A few moments later, the chapel's coordinator stated that Willow was ready for her entrance. We helped her up the steep pathway and to the chapel. As we approached the chapel, I explained to them the sequence of events to help with a smooth transition with one photographer then I explained it again to the pastor and Nathan inside. I sat down in the edge of the aisle to get the best shot of her coming in. As the doors, opened to reveal Willow in her laced filled gown with Native American earrings and a feather in her hair, I spun around to capture Nathan's expression which was pure happiness and love. as he gazed upon Willow with tears in his eyes.. The pastor began his speech of love between two souls, I could hear the pitter patter of the soft rain tap on the glass roof giving the space a sense of peace. I carefully and quietly maneuvered around the couple as to not disturb the spirits in the moment.  

Somewhere within the minutes and shutter clicks, I heard the pastor speak words that touched my soul in such a way that they will forever stick with me. At that moment he had placed the couple's hands together and asked them "with these hands..." they will hold each other softly when the hard times come knocking, they will wipe away the sorrowful tears to help see the sunshine once again, With these hands, you help guide one another into understanding of one another. With these hands, you will help feed your partner when they are unable to nourish themselves....In that moment, I actually stopped for a brief moment and appreciated the words being spoken and how much they meant to couple. I will admit those words still bring tears to my eyes every time I see the image on the right. After the ceremony was completed, the couple wanted to present a gift to the pastor as it was a Native American tradition for Willow.  She also played a song on the piano, which sounded beautiful within the glass walls of the chapel as the beautiful tones played around the rafters and all around. 

After which, we captured some quick bridal photos of Willow since she was wearing some traditional pieces and then we did couples photos. There was one that I really thought would capsule the day and the words that joined them perfectly. I went outside the chapel and carefully cat walked along the edge of the windows and shot the image thru the glass from outside. This is image alone is in my top 5 of this day. 
At the end of our one hour rental of the chapel, we said our goodbyes and parted ways, but to this day I will never forget the impacted that this couple and their love made on me.