We woke up to this December morning to a fresh blanket of white. Hannah was delighted; she’d been wishing and hoping for snow. Not once did we even notice the cold. These two kept everyone around them warm with their humor, kindness, and joy.
This wedding weekend was one of the most evocative of my entire career. Hannah and Quinn had hired me three years before their wedding took place. Three years was not the original plan but Hannah suddenly last her beloved dad 6 months before their original wedding date. I told them in the immediate after math “Whenever and where ever you choose to eventually tie the knot, I will be there. I’ll rearrange my entire life if I have to.” They took time to grieve and adapt to his loss. We stayed in contact over social media building a friendship in the interim. When they were ready to make a new plan, we set a date and I began to dream again.
I brought Gideon along on my trip to the lovely vacation town of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. The destination for their perfect weekend. I cried when I embraced Hannah in person for the first time and from that moment on we were in the family. Their people fully embraced us and we spent the entire weekend as friends.
Quinn and Hannah left room to be together as much as possible and even more room for me to be creative with them. They let the hems of their cloths get wet in the snow, climbed in a tiny booth to be photographed through the window, and obliged any random wallpaper backdrop I put them in front of. Our partnership, built through bond and trust, made the space for us to make images that felt authentically them.
These days we are long distance friends - celebrating big mile stones from a far.
Their wedding is marked in my soul both as a photographer and a human. I will never forget our shared laughter, dance moves and tears. Days like these are truly what this life is all about.
