I was invited to Alabama to shoot Miranda and Chad’s wedding by Mark Turner, Turner Photography & Design. I LOVE to travel and was excited to journey the farthest I’ve gone from my home base yet for a wedding. Many people aren’t aware of this about me, but I am, in fact, a National Photographer, and this was a good taste of what I hope to be doing much more of in the near future!

When I arrived at the ceremony site, I took some shots of the couple’s adorable little chapel interior and photographed the bride and her family finishing up all the preparation for the ceremony, including cutting off some unwanted green foliage from her bouquet. Someone in the family joked, “what are you taking pictures of?” I told them, “I photograph EVERYTHING, and you never know what it is that you’ll look back and laugh at someday!”

Bouquets properly “de-greened,” the show went on and I stayed with the bride while she and her beautiful bridesmaids got ready for the big event. First we prepped the maids.

Then it was the bride’s turn.

I am still wildly entertained by this shoe shot… “How many bridesmaids does it take to put on a high heel?” Answer: At least two and four hands!

When Miranda was all ready to go, she asked for a shot of her holding the ring. As usual, I am always MORE than happy to fulfill any specific shot requests.

Waiting for the ceremony to finally begin, Miranda sat on the floor in a perfect little poof with no prompting from me. I saw a shot opportunity and quickly climbed up on a chair, pointed my camera down on her and asked her to look up for a minute.

During the ceremony, I hid myself behind a small half wall at the altar and literally had to crawl around as needed to keep from being noticed while I got my shots. I was relieved when the bridesmaids took their places in front of me, and provided me a little coverage to peak my head up and get some great ceremony shots from my little corner on the floor.

For a lot of shots I was able to shoot straight through the gap between the nearest bridesmaid and the pastor, while for others, I utilized the narrow opening to my advantage.

Never much for traditional-looking formals, I later noticed the bridesmaids all naturally lined up against this wall. Some noticed me clicking and turned to pose, but I told them to just keep doing what they were doing naturally. The result was this shot.

Another natural shot… This one makes me laugh because I don’t think this little girl smiled for one single photo, and then BAM a silhouette, now who knows she’s not smiling?!

A couple of formal shots, including this yes, *choke,* posed one…

At a bridesmaid’s suggestion to me, we took some shots in front of the double doors. The huge white expanse of snow outside created the perfect opportunity for these silhouettes, and shots like these are the reason I always encourage anyone with ideas to speak up. There is no such thing as a silly or bad idea and you never know what I’ll make of it!

The reception was a simple one, and I particularly liked my detail shots of the cake and the chocolate fountain, which someone conveniently dipped a marshmallow into while I was taking it.

This wedding was also one of the first times I’ve seen groomsmen actually fight over the garter. Maybe it’s the South, but out here in the Northeast, the youngest little boy in the crowd somehow always miraculously ends up with it despite being out-sized and under-coordinated.

Finally we made our way outdoors to take a few more shots in our now GORGEOUS winter wonderland. This is a natural shot of Miranda and Chad heading down to play in the snow… I didn’t even remember taking it but was thrilled to uncover it in my collection later.

I couldn’t believe how willing the bride was to get down and snowy in her dress on the day of her wedding, but boy was I grateful when someone yelled “Snowball fight!”

After the whole bridal party was done having their fun, I couldn’t resist a few veil-over-both-heads shots with the freshly snow-covered dark branches in the background. While the one of the two of them just kissing is classic, I somehow preferred this shot of the bride giggling at the fun of it all!

Looking back, it’s funny how I had been complaining to my husband how it snows once a week in the Poconos and my shoots never manage to land on snow days. Then I go to Alabama, where it has snowed only twice in four years and I finally get my white photo-shoot. To make things even better, it’s a wedding and a beautiful, outgoing couple more than willing to make the most of it! That being said, I really do think this will remain one of my favorite weddings to photograph for a long time to come.

*All Photos By Lauren Brimhall*