Devan and Peter were/are the very last wedding I had on the calendar with myself as the primary photographer. Having exited the wedding photography industry as a primary a few years ago, I haven’t had to compile a wedding blog post in eons. Back in the days when weddings were my focus, I remember how difficult the blog posts had become. Writing some sort of emotive statement about your client’s wedding day was always a hard enough task. Wedding photographers are always working to entice the next couple to book. The trick was wording all of this disingenuous SEO drivel in a natural enough way that it sounded like your client’s event had created a lasting impression amongst the other hundreds of weddings you shot, and/or gave you those emotional feels. As the years waned on it got harder and harder for any wedding to do that for me. Faking anything for me has always been an ultimate challenge.

This blog post isn’t a faker. There is no ulterior motive in my putting it together. I’m not interested in booking wedding couples, working at their venue again, or befriending another wedding vendor. In a way, it feels very pure to not consider those typical aspects of the business. I wanted to put together a collection of images from the wedding that may very well be my last as a primary photographer. It just also happens to be a wedding that has meant more to me on an emotional level than any I’ve shot in years.

Of course, the odds are that eventually, I’ll shoot another wedding in a primary role. One of the photographers I second shoot for may need me to take over as the primary. Or maybe another close friend will entice me out of retirement to document their day. If none of those scenarios come to fruition, I am very proud to end this phase of my photographic journey having documented Devan and Peter’s wedding. If this is the conclusion, then it’s one of the most beautiful ones I’ve experienced in my life.

Special thanks to Melissa who assisted me with lighting, and Luis Godinez for second-shooting and capturing so many stellar images. Quite a few of his shots are in this post.

I pictured a rainbow
You held it in your hands
I had flashes
But you saw the plan
I wandered out in the world for years
While you just stayed in your room
I saw the crescent
You saw the whole of the moon
The whole of the moon

– The Waterboys