The last thing any bride wants for her wedding day is rain. Even worse than rain, is to lose power during the reception, but that’s exactly what happened at Larissa and Clay’s wedding. It was really quite unexpected, at least to me. The entire day was pretty clear and rain free. In fact, even when the power went out, there was no sign of a storm for miles. The local weather had warned of inclement weather, but we certainly didn’t see any.

Then, suddenly, the power was gone. All of it. And somehow the backup generators were also not working, leaving the reception eerily silent. The DJ immediately started looking for alternate power sources to get the music back up. We all paused and didn’t really know what was coming next.

I started looking around to see what the next step was going to be for everyone. Surely there was a backup plan for things like this. As I’m walking around talking with the other vendors, I hear some notes break the soft murmur that had blanketed the room. I looked over and see the piano that was previously in the back room with a dust cover over it is now in the middle of the room and playing a tune. But the composer wasn’t resort personnel — it was a guest. One of the couple’s friends had rolled the piano out and started playing the most beautiful renditions of everyone’s piano bar favorites (appropriately enough right next to the bar). It was truly serendipitous.

As I moved over to start shooting, I get there just in time to see the newly wed couple having a dance as their guest plays away. I quickly steal a frame as they share this spontaneous dance. In the background their personal musician expertly hits every note.

A little later on, as I’m standing there looking for another shot, Larissa walks up to me and casually says, “you know, most brides would be really upset about something like this, but I’m not. I think it turned out really nice. I’m happy.” I couldn’t agree more. What could have easily turned out pretty tragic turned into one of the most beautiful moments I’ve ever shot at a wedding.

With the remodeling of my website, I now have an outlet for writing. My blog posts are no longer the first thing you see when you arrive at my site, therefore a long page full of words is less likely to scare anyone off. If you’re not interested in reading, easy, skip to the next post. But for those of you who want to lose yourself in a little moment of my life, well, I sincerely hope it brings you some amount of happiness.

So it’s with great excitement I introduce my new blog feature: Epilogues.

Epilogues will periodically feature a photo, usually from a wedding, but sometimes from my life and the story connected to taking that photo. This isn’t a how-to guide to taking photos. It’s not meant to create some made up story behind a decent photo. It’s not a fluff piece to make me seem more legitimate. It’s just sincere, down to earth commentary on a brief moment in time.

It’s the story after the story.

I recently received a 2012 Bride’s Choice award from Wedding Wire. What this means is that I ranked in the top 5% of vendors on the site for quality, quantity, recency, and consistency of reviews. I’m really honored to have ranked so well locally and I’d like to thank all my past and future brides for their amazing reviews. Here’s to a successful 2012 and many more excellent reviews!

I really began to pave my way as a wedding photographer – to find my voice and my style. I became more comfortable in my own skin, which shows in my work. Each wedding and each engagement shoot showed improvement. Each one was new and fresh, I found something I really love to do and the feedback I received was beyond my furthest expectations. My business, reputation, and brand took on a life of its own that I didn’t expect to happen within the first 10 years of my career. To say the least, I’m excited about my future as a wedding photographer. It’s one of the best choice I’ve ever made. 2011 has shown me true love, personal growth, success, and overall joy.

The following images are a compilation of my favorite photos from the year. It starts off with my personal inspiration, and the deepest love of my life, Sadie. I’d never known I could love another person as much as I’ve found I could love Sadie and she’s singlehandedly responsibly for the seemingly instant jump in my skill level. She has inspired me in a way I never knew possible and for that I can never thank her enough. Moving on through the photos, you’ll see engagements and weddings that I’ve shot over the course of the year. Not everything I shot this year is present, what’s shown is the most important. I hope you love the photos as I’ve loved making them.

Happy new year and here’s to a busy 2012 that’s hopefully at least a fraction as amazing as 2011 has been!

Jules and Dan flew in from Chicago and we did my last engagement session of the year at Spanish Point in Sarasota, Florida. Having never been to Spanish Point before, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but we had an awesome time wandering around and found photo gold when we came across a little boathouse on the property. It was a great close to an excellent year. Next up: Best Of 2011.