Their wedding weekend started with no agenda. A walk. A chicken that had no interest in moving. Coffee and pie at Leoda’s before it was even noon.
The next evening the clouds had rolled in off the water and they were standing on the beach in a wedding dress and a lei, a conch shell echoing out across the channel.
They beat a random storm by about twenty minutes. Very Hawaii.
Genuinely one of my favorite elopements. Thank you both for letting me tag along to Maui to be apart of it.
🌺
I’m sitting here at my desk rifling through photos from the last few weeks and noticing how much the main characters have shifted over the years — evolving from Megan, to Rover, and now to Madison.
Not for any reason other than of course — we’re parents now — and Madison’s care forms the basis of almost every decision we make.
The background shifted too. Day-to-day photos used to be Megan and I at airports, grabbing late night beers with friends, lying on the grass at a park, studying together in libraries.
Now they’re mostly at home. Literally.
I think any outsider could look at that and reasonably wonder if there’s some resentment or longing for a version of what was.
Those days were special but so are these. Even though they look wildly different.
The joy is quieter now. Less documented. More absorbed in a single face learning what the world is.
Madison’s forming her core beliefs about herself right now: whether the world is safe, whether she is capable, whether she is loved.
And to play a role in shaping that sense of self — to be her first answer to all three of those questions — outcompetes any longing for the way things were before.
Kristin and David and their sweet elopement in the redwoods of Glen Oaks in Big Sur. Forever grateful to be a part of the epic dance floors and scaled up wedding days, and equally so to have small, simple days punctuate the week like this.
I used to stress so much about engagement sessions when I was first starting out.
With weddings, a lot of the aesthetic decisions are already made. The location is set, the design is dialed, and the couple has their people around them. It’s not all on me to carry the energy.
But an engagement session? It’s just me and the couple. The location is on me. The pacing is on me. Somehow, I even felt like the weather was on me.
So I over-prepared. I’d bring props, preload poses (sometimes literally written in my phone lol), and always have backup locations ready in case we burned through the first one.
Now, 250 sessions later, it’s funny how none of that really mattered.
It was never about the location, or the outfits, or the props, or the weather.
It was just about roaming around with two people who love each other and photographing that slice of life.
Paying attention and being a witness.
(Do dogs count as props? If yes, please bring.)
Just a few from Bret and Betty’s intimate wedding last week at Timber Cove.
And just a quick shout out to the mist. You understood the assignment.
Also with the legend @bun_bun_bridal_lab
