Love is Love

Marriage is Marriage

On June 26th, 2015, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the legalization of marriage for same-sex couples across the Nation. In response to this decision, I began planning a concept in celebration. A celebration of those who could now join their lives together, and have it officially recognized.

I tried really hard to throw something together for the weekend of said event, but it just didn’t work out. Planning over the next month gave me the chance to hear back from some amazing people. We were able to shoot on July 26th, the one month anniversary of the Supreme Court’s ruling.

I decided I wanted it to feel more like someone’s actual wedding day, as opposed to the more high-fashion images I typically go for with my modeling. Especially because this was a more personal concept for me. That feeling was achieved perfectly with the help of my bride/modeling partner, Carly Fleming, and Adam Avid Photography.

Well deserved shout outs

They and a few others deserve to be recognized for all their efforts:

• Adam (of Adam Avid Photography and Peterson Photography), for raising his hand via Facebook to shoot this idea and being so willing to deal with my crazy list of ideas and concepts!
• Debbie (from Gallery 2 Antique Shop in Norwood), for allowing us to use her beautiful shop and space for the first half of our shoot, and being so willing to help out with whatever we might need!
• Carly, for offering to be my Bride-for-a-day and also putting up with my crazy antics and ideas for a month while I narrowed down my plan!
• Clint, for letting me steal your wife to be my Bride-for-a-day. Though to be honest you offered for me to steal her!
• Eileen, for letting me borrow your gorgeous wedding dress and veil, both of which fit perfectly (and went really, really well with my hair)!
• Speaking of hair… Tanya, huge thank you for fitting me in the night before my shoot to touch up my fiery locks, and help me curl my un-curlable hair!
• Last but never least, thank you, Sam, for being my personal assistant, our shoot roadie, and bubble machine master – without you, so much wouldn’t have been able to happen, including the amount of time pure joy was caught on film from fits of laughter caused by your antics.

Behind the scenes fun

For this shoot, I not only made a Pinterest board, but multiple lists and spreadsheets. Once I started adding photo inspiration, I had to put it all in a binder. This process worked great when planning a wedding shoot. No doubt that I’ll use something similar for future large scale ideas.

Carly gets full credit for creating our gorgeous bouquets using some flowers from her own wedding. She chose specific colors that tied in with our color themes and wrapped them beautifully.

I even found a bubble gun and some rainbow accessories the night before. Not surprisingly, Sam made the perfect bubble distributor.

The day went smoothly. Even the ever-present storm clouds held out and waited until we were heading home before unleashing torrents of rain. I couldn’t have asked for a better day or team to work with.

Sincerest Thanks

Thank you again to everyone involved, and especially all of those who were willing to help or support my idea. It means an incredible amount to me, both creatively and personally.