Kristen & Edwin

My trip down memory lane is in no particular order.   In fact some of the weddings that I plan to post about are from before 2008 (after all, I just started writing this blog).

Anyway, enter Kristen and Edwin.

Kristen was the definition of the relaxed bride.  While many brides sweat every detail about their wedding day,  Kristen focused on the major components and seemed to let everything else fall in line as time progressed.

They had a small intimate wedding in Alexandria, Virginia in mid October.  It was unseasonably warm on their day and other than a bit too much sun, it was absolutely beautiful (yes I know I say that a lot, but these are my favorite weddings, so what else would you expect?).  

But, lets set the way-back machine back to one week before the wedding.  I met up with the happy couple outside of the White House for an engagement session.  Yes, I said the White House.  The groom decided to propose to his bride there and she couldn't think of a better place to take engagement pictures.  We started there (in the middle of all of the tourists taking pictures and looking around), then we strolled down to the monuments to continue with the session.  

Note to all couples who like this idea. Sunday is definitely the best day to take pictures in DC.  There are several terrific locations to use around the monuments, so the question is how far do you feel like walking and how do you handle crowds.  Most people are polite and give you a little space to take what you desire as long as you don't take very long to do it.  The results were pretty outstanding.

Now, back to the wedding day.  So, we have some engagement photos.  What do we do with them?  Kristen told me what her favorite shots were and one of them was enlarged, matted and mounted in a frame.  The guests for the wedding signed or wrote a note to the couple as they picked up their candle, placed their seeds and went to their seats.  

Yes, I said candles and seeds.  They were integral elements of the wedding ceremony.  The guest placed seeds in a pot.  This symbolized the sowing of seeds that leads to the fruitful growth of marriage.  The candles were ultimately used to light the unity candle.  The Best Man carried a lit votive to the guests seated last row. They, in turn, lit the candles of the guests in front of them.  This continued until the flames reached the mothers of the bride and groom. Once their candles were lit, they lit the candles that represented the two families.

I love it when I get to see something new/unique and the seeds and candles was a very unique element in this wedding. 

The rest of the evening was filled with family, friends, food, music, dancing and celebration.  We ended the evening with a portrait of the newlyweds under the moon.  Truly lovely indeed.

There will be more weddings from 2008 soon.