I was incredibly excited when I woke up the morning of Jennifer and Stefan’s wedding day that was taking place at The Barn at Raccoon Creek. Ever since I met Jennifer and Stefan more than two years ago and had a blast during their fall engagement in Evergreen, I knew this would be a date to circle on the calendar. They opted to get married in front of close family and friends last year when this big celebration had to be postponed. I documented those important moments for them and have been looking forward to celebrating with them again this year.
I was reminded of how organized and carefully thought out their day would be while listening to Jennifer’s mom, Sue, address the wedding party during the rehearsal the day before. Like myself, this wasn’t her first rodeo and it has been a pleasure to exchange messages with her, Jennifer and Stefan so that this could be a stress-free celebration. The smiles and laughter were plentiful when Travis and I arrived that morning. It’s a good thing that spirits were so high because Mother Nature had her own plans for their day that we would soon experience.
Shortly after first look, the sky opened up and didn’t seem like it was going to stop. While we monitored the weather, we suggested starting cocktail hour before the ceremony in hopes of a small rainless timeframe sometime later on. After navigating Jennifer over to the cocktail hour using several umbrellas, I saw on the radar that we were going to get our window. I took the good news to Jennifer and she said, “let’s do it.”
Guest sauntered over to the ceremony site, everyone took their places and after pushing the ceremony back an hour and four minutes, Jennifer walked down the aisle with her father. But we weren’t dry for long. It started to drizzle again and Jennifer’s father was having none of that so he fetched a slew of umbrellas for guests and the bridesmaids in the middle of the ceremony. I’ve seen a lot but that moment will be etched into my mind.
The photojournalist in me began to enjoy and relish in the challenging conditions. The images are unique to their day and I was happy to get soaked, dry, soaked, dry and soaked yet again to capture the authenticity of their rainy summer wedding in Littleton. This one will be hard to forget. Connecting with great people like these two and their families makes days like this the reason I love what I do.
A huge thank you goes out to Shelby from the venue for being incredibly helpful, understanding and flexible on the wedding day. It’s wonderful to have someone like her around to do everything possible to make things happen, even if that means driving a scissor lift over for one of my portrait ideas.
Congratulations Jennifer and Stefan, it has been a pleasure to be part of you throughout this whole journey!
