07/25/2020
This is my baby brother on his wedding day. My blue-eyed baby brother, who used to play in ditches with me and let me marry off his Ninja Turtle action figures to my Barbies when we were kids. We’re 15 months apart and when he was 18, he nearly died in a car accident and lost his best friend on his high school graduation day. I was there when he was in a coma, in a rehab hospital, and every step of the way through some of the hardest and most emotionally painful times of his life. He has been through so much, and when he asked me to photograph his wedding, I honestly was scared. Wedding photography is so special and unique, and I didn’t feel like I had the skill or knowledge to do their day justice behind the camera because I’ve never had any training or even practice. I thought about it the whole drive to his fiancée’s family home, and as soon as I got out of the car and saw my brother, all of the fears I had went away. The smile on his face was enough. He was so happy, and happy is beautiful. It didn’t matter what lens I had or how long I had been taking photos or any of that. Their happiness mattered. And we laughed and laughed that day. It was hot, in the middle of a pandemic, and not on the day they originally planned, but it was beautiful. I’ll always be grateful to my brother and his wife Rebecca for asking me to capture their day. Happy is beautiful.
