Clearwater Aquarium Wedding
God reminded me yesterday, why I’m in the wedding photography business. It had been a busy weekend of jumping over a lot of obstacles, dealing with rain on friday’s and Saturday’s weddings, and Sunday’s reception being in a over-crowded beach venue in Dunedin that does not do very many weddings. A little beach resort with a reception room with a capacity for 50 guests and had over 100 guests, not to mention all the beach goers at the bar. No parking at the venue, all guests had to park across the street. We had to set up, uplighting, big screen projector, and DJ equipment, had to re-arrange things to make it logistically work. A venue that is not experience with weddings just typically does not understand the logistics of DJs, projectors, uplighting etc. We then had to rush to set up 4 cameras and sound system at the Clearwater Aquarium. I felt like Jack Bower in 24 (which is back tonight again, yea), just over coming one obstacle, and then faced with a new challenge immediately with little time to spare.
Well, I was rewarded with all that work when I happen to glance over at the father of the bride, who slipped away during the reception from the dance floor to view the wedding that we were playing on the projector. The emotion in his face, intently watching, that special moment of him, giving his daughter away, just choked me up, in fact I’m shedding a tear thinking about it, as I’m writing this. I couldn’t even talk when I was telling about this moment to my office manager, I was so filled with emotion. That moment, I was rewarded for all the work, knowing that as a videographer, you either catch the moment or your miss it, and to be able to watch the father reliving that moment, because of me being in the right place at the right time, reminded me, why I do, what I do.
The bride, Amber Myers, (Amber Gattas) had such a happy, easy-going demeanor. It also helped very much that she backed me up with dealing with the reception venue people, which was critical to a successful reception. She had a “Mermaid Theme”. The ceremony as at the Clearwater Aquarium, and their staff was outstanding, very friendly, and very helpful, some of the best staff I have seen on a wedding. The bride came down the aisle to a beautiful piano version of “Part of Your World” from “Little Mermaid” and exited to “Kiss the Girl”. The dolphin was so cooperative after the ceremony as you can see with these pictures. We have done over 4,000 weddings to date, and why I love this business, is, you still always see something you have never seen before, and to get pictures and video of this dolphin, jumping over this bride & groom, excited us to no ends.
So as I’m catching my breath this monday, very happy to have caught the moments that brought families together this weekend. After all the rain, the craziness, the beach crowds, and the jumping obstacles, we accomplished what we set out to do. 24 is the only fictional show I actually take time to watch, I guess because I look at Jack Bowers and take comfort, when faced with an obstacle, you have to find a way to overcome it. Sure the safety of a nation does not depend on me like it does Jack, but the special moment of someones life does. I take this responsibility very serious, for those 6 hours or more that we are on a wedding, there is nothing more important than capturing that moment. As the MasterCard commercial says, “Canon DSLRs Cameras; $8,000…Lenses for those cameras $12,000;… that precious moment of the father giving her daughter away…………. “PRICELESS”!