When people ask me what wedding photojournalism is, I can try to explain it or, easier yet, I can just show it. This is it. It’s not staged (besides the portraits). It’s real. It’s emotional. Sometimes, it’s real emotional!
Michele and Tom are such a great couple. Tom is in the Army and was surrounded by guys guys so you didn’t necessarily expect to see him come in and spread rose petals around Michele’s room before she got to the mansion to get ready or any of the other countless things he did for her (sorry Tom, hope I’m not blowing your cover!).
My favorite images from the wedding come from a moment while Tom was getting ready and gave cuff links to all his groomsmen with their favorite teams on them. Tom’s dad had passed away and in honor of him, he wore University of Illinois cuff links. When he was putting them on, he started to cry and his brothers comforted him. My 2nd photographer Jonathan Newton (of The Washington Post) took such emotional photographs of such an emotional moment. He told me about the moment later and when I got to them during editing, I started to cry just looking at the images. I texted Jonathan to say that I was crying looking at the images and received a simple text back from him: “Full disclosure. I cried too!” That’s wedding photojournalism!
Michele was absolutely stunning in her dress — and I absolutely LOVE birdcage veils! All of the girls were so chill the whole day. I know that happens a lot but Michele and Tom were supposed to be getting married outdoors and the entire day shifted between downpour, lightning, thunder and a tornado warning most of the day. A bride would be forgiven for being a little upset but Michele never once mentioned it. She was so awesome about everything and just rolled with it.
The scary part came during the group portraits. We were doing them inside and noticed it had stopped raining. We decided to take just the two of them outside for a couple minutes to make some great images. About 2 minutes before that was to happen, the sky just opened up. I don’t know how else to explain it — the water just went from OFF to ON. Gulp. Thankfully we weren’t out in it! Luckily, Jonathan came on the dance floor late in the evening and mentioned that it wasn’t raining and we got to make a beautiful image of them at night where they would have been married (had the rain stayed OFF!).
In the end, it was an absolutely amazing evening with some truly amazing people and the rain couldn’t stop any of that.
Wedding 411:
Ceremony + Reception: Ceresville Mansion | Meghan Butler
Officiant: Jim Burch | 703.818.8080
Florist: Blossom & Basket | 301.829.8300
DJ: Shew-Sical Entertainment | Matt Shew | 888.743.9742
Photography: Connor Studios | Michael Connor + Jonathan Newton | 202.527.9768
