Trystan Photography: An Intimate Portrait.

Please click the photo or follow the link to view Mary and Ben’s wedding at First UMC and Tre Luna.

Yes, loyal blog readers: I know. This is our 3rd wedding this year at the exact same ceremony & reception sites. Apparently, we are the unofficial photographers of First United Methodist Church and Tre Luna (I must admit, we do make them look pretty awesome…)

So the first thing that comes to mind is, were we able to mix it up enough between weddings, or were we stuck in a rut ( a huge danger of overshooting a locale)? Looking at all three weddings (here, here, here), I am confident that each of our couples got very unique shots and looks, with some of our standard UMC “money shots” thrown in to boot. My new challenge to myself for 2009 weddings at UMC/Tre Luna is to find new ways to photograph the ceremony in the sanctuary. Don’t get me wrong, I love our shots, but between all our 2008 weddings, the ceremony photographs are the most similar, mainly because of the limitations on where we can shoot in the sanctuary.

“So, if you’re movement in the sanctuary is limited in the first place, Trig, then how are you going to get new looks?”, you might be thinking.

Well, no one said it was going to be easy. It’s going to involve losing a lot of weight, and getting my “Shaolin Monk in 2 Weeks” training program (I paid 9.95 for VHS + $45 S/H. I wonder why they don’t have DVD…?)

The brochure said that within days I would “… master the art of levitation, time travel, and teleportation…”. All skills that I think are pretty obvious that they would come in handy at First UMC.

I also plan to shower the staff at UMC with gifts of chocolate and flowers, with suggestive notes like, “From the Big Guy in Black. You’re the nicest church wedding staff I’ve ever worked with… by the way, you should just let Trig move around in the side aisles during the ceremony.”

I’m also developing a camolflage suit I can wear that’s printed with a photo of the pews and the wall so I won’t be distracting to the wedding guests.

I can’t believe how many weddings we did at the exact same church and reception venue. It was funny that these weddings were the first weddings that Julia assisted us on. She must have thought that we only shot weddings there.

Overall, the wedding was a miracle wedding. First of, it was a November wedding with warmer than normal temperatures, no rain or snow, and a sunset to die for. Secondly, Mary was astoundingly resilient. She found out while she was getting ready that her pregnant sister, who was her Matron of Honor, was having some kind of medical emergency right then and there and was being rushed to the hospital. Mary could have and should have been crushed, her wedding ruined. She did get upset when she heard the news, but then something came over her, and regardless of the pain and worry, she and her whole family pulled together and let the joy of the occasion envelope them, and she was the most positive, happy bride. There were moments as the ceremony came that it was too obvious that her sister was missing, and there were tears, but in the end it was a perfect wedding. Her sister ended up being fine, by the way. Just a really unfortunate and heartbreaking medical scare. However, the day is that much sweeter for Mary and her family I’m sure, knowing now that her sister is OK.

At least, Mary and Ben have great photos to show her!