None of it’s in the details…

As a photographer in the ‘wedding industry’ I see a lot. A lot of Weddings and Wedding blogs constantly featuring the freshest and cutest. What I’ve noticed is a difference in focus. In case you’re not ‘in the industry’ when a Wedding photographer is trying to get published in a magazine or popular blog, more often than not, they’re asked for one very important thing. Details. They want detail shots of table settings, favors, cake toppers, they want to see something unique, adorable, gorgeous, amazing… something that is special and no one else has thought to do in quite that way. And dare I say it… something that is marketable. Brides see so much emphasis on the details because they’re everywhere when you’re planning a Wedding. They feel so much pressure to spend an exorbitant amount of time planning amazing design details because… well, because we’re only human. Details can be truly fun and beautiful, especially when they’re sentimental. However, when we are bombarded with the notion that our Wedding day has to include birds crafted out of twigs from the tree in the first home that we will share and be studded with rhinestones from our grandmothers jewelry… (hey, that’s not a bad idea!) we tend to not focus as sharply on the only thing that matters. The love.

There is nothing wrong with beautiful details. Not a thing. I can get as absorbed in them as the next girl. But at the end of the day… an image of a vintage bookcase in a field carefully designed with flowers and nick-knacks or a hundred crystal chandeliers with crimson velvet bunting behind them and 4 foot tall floral arrangements in front of custom die-cast charger plates while beautiful in design… just don’t give me the same feeling that an image of real love does. Hopefully, they never will. I know magazines can’t sell you love and I know I’ll probably not see spread after spread of adoring gazes, spontaneous laughter or emotional vows. But a girl can dream.

Here’s a couple images from Sarah and Greg’s romantic wine country Wedding that to me anyway, speak volumes of love. And not a single ‘detail’ in sight.