Scott + Erica

These guys got married at the McGregor Memorial Center on Wayne State’s campus in Detroit. One of my bucket list venues and it did not disappoint. Every last detail perfectly complemented the next. This day produced some of the most beautiful words I have witnessed come out of any wedding. Between Scott + Erica’s written vows and speeches shared by family members and the bride and groom themselves, there was no shortage of laughter and tears to celebrate this beautiful couple. 

Congratulations to you both.

I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Matt + Lauren for some time. Not as long as they’ve known each other, but I think we’ve been friends for almost ten years. I was there the night that they got engaged and even got to snap a few snowy celebratory pictures, so this was a highly anticipated wedding day for me. 

Lauren + Matt have been together since high school, since they were seventeen, so I can assume that it was a high anticipated day for many. Their family and friends made that pretty clear throughout the ceremony and reception speeches. I actually asked Matt at one point during portraits what his teenager self was thinking, looking at Lauren over a decade after their first date. And I think he responded with something along the lines of “Holy shit, this is real life.” 

Congratulations to you both!

From the beginning I was completely captivated by Larry + Deanna. They were the first couple to contact me to photograph in Savannah, Georgia, so I was excited even before having the opportunity to speak with them both. We had scheduled a Skype call to discuss details while I was on a road trip to Maine with my mom. I told my mom we were going to pull over at a Panera Bread really quick so that I could grab internet service, but that the call would be brief, like 20-30 minutes. Two full hours later, my mom pacing the Panera patio, and I was completely hooked on this couple and everything about them. 

My favorite part of learning more about Larry + Deanna was their proposal story. They had traveled to Abu Dhabi with several purposes. One of them being to spread Larry’s mother’s ashes. While on a desert tour, the sun began to set and Larry was overcome with emotion and a calling to ask Deanna to marry him. This had been his intention from the beginning, but due to some hiccups with the trip, he was unable to obtain the engagement ring he wanted. So instead, he took this moment, with the sun setting over the sand dunes, to get on his knees and offer up the ashes in his hand as the most valuable possession he carried. I lost it. And then they sent over the image capturing this moment, and I lost it even more. I STILL get goosebumps reliving it and creepily have this picture saved in my cellphone.

So walking into this wedding day, I was ridiculously excited to meet them both and witness and contribute to their love story. To add to the awesomeness, Larry custom built and painted a Harley Davidson for them to ride out of the ceremony and over the Talmadge Memorial Bridge. I spent several hours hanging out the back of a speeding truck bed, being braced by the bravest videographer duo to capture some of my most favorite images of the season. And lastly, Larry + Deanna are both vegans, which means this girl actually got to enjoy a full dinner and even vegan wedding cake. 

I will always remember this day and I am so thankful that these guys were willing to bring me down from Detroit to be apart of it. Congratulations to you both.