09/05/2026
The day that made me a documentary wedding photographer.
Three years ago, I photographed my first wedding in a little cabin tucked into the Blue Ridge Mountains.
I was still figuring out exactly what I wanted my work to look like, but I already knew how I wanted it to feel.
I wanted the photographs to hold onto the people. The relationships. The tiny exchanges happening when no one thought they were being photographed. I wanted the beautiful portraits, of course….but I wanted everything that happened in between them, too.
And I had a bride who trusted me enough to let me follow that instinct. She trusted my vision, my direction, and the way I wanted to tell their story and along the way, Yesenia Noemi Wagner became a wonderful friend.
Coming back to these photographs three years later feels a little surreal because so much of what I care about in my work now is already here.
The movement. The imperfect moments. The people. The photographs that don’t just show you what something looked like, but remind you what it felt like to be there.
My work has grown since then. I’ve grown since then. But the heart of it really hasn’t changed.
And I think there’s something really special about being able to look backward and realize that the things I believe most deeply about wedding photography weren’t something I adopted because documentary became a popular word.
They were there from the beginning.
This wedding helped me understand why I photograph weddings the way I do…and three years later, I’m still building everything from that same place.
