My First Wedding Experience

​I couldn't sleep, my palms were sweaty, and my heart was racing. Did I have everything ready and packed up? Did I get the location right? What time am I leaving? Three-hundred and eighty-two questions later, I knocked out.

Ready or not, I was shooting my first wedding.

The wedding couple were friends of my aunt's. I was told to meet at the Thai Temple where they were to get married. At the time, I didn't know anything about wedding prep photos, or wedding day detail shots of the dress, rings, and flowers. I was a photojournalism major and concert photographer thrown into the arena of the wedding industry. And yes, I was a concert photographer with an ambition to one day shoot for Rolling Stones magazine, but that's a different topic. The point of this story is..

I. WAS. TERRIFIED.

Wedding days are always so full of love, laughter and champagne, and to be honest, I could've used  a glass to ease my day. But instead, I got my head on straight, put my fears aside, and delivered what I knew best--excellent customer service and a photo-journalistic style to my photography.

When the day was coming to an end, I felt myself relieved that it was over. I found myself asking what could I have done differently. For one, study what an itinerary for a wedding entails. And secondly, trust myself. Trust that I knew my camera, my abilities and skills more anyone else would. Once I finished editing my very first wedding I handed them over to my first wedding clients. They were happy. I was happy. 

I couldn't have thanked them enough for giving me the opportunity to shoot my first wedding, especially without any prior experience. Did shooting this wedding make me want to go full throttle into the wedding industry? No. Did this wedding make me realize that shooting a wedding was no piece of cake? Absolutely.
 
And for that, I was up for the challenge.

And forever thankful.