breathing room
I had a wonderful time shooting Rich & Daphne's wedding on Saturday. Beautiful weather, simple but unique service, just all around well done. They both had command of the situation which I appreciated. As we were getting people organized for photos afterward, Rich yelled out who I was and to do what I said, and Daphne had in her mind who they needed pictures with which helped immensely even though I had a list. They threw in their own ideas, I tossed around mine, and we worked around the little hiccups like a random memorial service that took up one of the little side chapels they wanted photos in.
No wedding is the same--every one has its own little quirks and memorable moments. (Once, one of the bridesmaids couldn't make it due to pregnancy, so they carried around a life-size cardboard cutout of her through the reception.) The Stellato wedding didn't disappoint. It was Celtic in theme, and the ringbearer lost his little kilt halfway down the aisle. He just stopped and looked at it as if he was thinking, "Well, what now?" as his father comes running down to fix it. The groomsmen were all wearing claymores on these shoulder harnesses one of the guys handmade. Let me tell you, these swords looked perfectly natural for these big guys.
I was talking to Rich later on during the reception, and he was saying he hoped it was memorable. I said, "Well, I don't know too many weddings where guys in kilts give the couple a fake lightsaber salute." Which happened. And since Rich and his mom both know and teach karate, their mother/son dance was them doing kadas to "Kung Fu Fighting". As Daphne and her dad were dancing to "Hot, Hot, Hot", her mom sidled up to me to tell me the woven fan and wooden flame they were dancing with were from Tahiti when and where Daphne's parents were married. Daphne had the wooden flame nailed to her bedroom her whole life. Her mom didn't say it, but I got the message--surprising Daphne with that was bringing a little of Tahiti there to wish her as many happy years as her parents had since their beginning in Tahiti.
I was just struck at how them the wedding was. It wasn't Celtic Wedding #5, it was Rich & Daphne Stellato's.
Mom and Dad were out at a concert, and Lin was still at PortCon when I got home Saturday night. John was sweet and took me to dinner at Margaritas for a "job well done because even though I haven't seen the results, I know you did a good job." How cute. I appreciated that. We haven't been out on a date in a little while so it was nice, and we had some time in the evening to ourselves. We were the only ones in the house on Sunday afternoon too, so we coexisted watching almost a whole season of Avatar off our newly-aquired Netflix while he painted newly-aquired Warhammer 40K minis and I worked on newly-aquired wedding photos. While I really enjoy my family, it was very relaxing to have breathing room.