Jen Russum

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That time I was a wedding photographer…

Back in December Micah’s best friend, Justin, got married. Micah was his best man. The wedding took place at a gorgeous evergreen-covered park on the Washington State peninsula. Everything about it was perfect.
Here is the funny part. About two months before the wedding, Justin called me and left me this cryptic voice mail about how he and Ashley had something to ask me. I was puzzled. I thought maybe they were going to ask Zianne to be the flower girl. It was the only logical thing I could come up. You can imagine my surprise when I called him back and our conversation went something like this:
Justin: So Ashley and I have a question for you… We’re wondering if you would be our wedding photographer?
Jen: Umm…. what?
Justin: Yes, we want you to be our photographer. We are trying to save some money in our budget and we would love it if  you could take our pictures.
Jen: But I’m not really a photographer. I am not even that good at taking pictures.
Justin: Well, I really like your pictures. I think you will do a great job.
Jen: Has Ashley ever seen any of my photos?
Justin: No… but she trusts you.
Jen: Congratulations on having the most laid-back bride ever…
Eventually, we got to the point where I said something like… “I’m honored you would ask me. I ‘m overwhelmed. I feel completely under-qualified, but I will do it.” Then I went on a two month-long journey to become the best photographer I could be. I finally finished the Photography Concentrate Extremely Essential Camera Skills course I bought forever ago {highly recommend!} and played around with my new fixed lens. A couple days before the wedding I did a practice shoot with my brother and sister in law.
Finally, the big day arrived. I carefully picked an outfit that would allow me to run around in the woods all day but still look appropriate as a semi-wedding guest in the evening. I took the ferry over to the venue in the morning and began shooting pictures just as the wedding party finished decorating the reception hall.
Here are my thoughts:
1) Being a wedding photographer is tiring, y’all. I started shooting around 10am and by the time the ceremony started at 4pm I was physically aching. It probably didn’t help that I was 13 weeks pregnant. Thankfully, the reception ended around 7pm since it was a Sunday wedding. If it had gone until midnight I might have passed out and missed the departure pictures.
2) It is really hard to get good pictures of the rings. All you wedding photographers out there… how do you get gorgeous close-ups of the wedding rings in books or perched on flowers? It literally took me at least 30 minutes to get decent pictures of the rings and Micah had to assist me.
3) Being a wedding photographer is really fun. I would never do it as a career, but I can see why some people do. It’s so exciting to capture the joy and love of a wedding celebration and try to tell the story of a couple’s day.
So without further adieu, here are a few pictures that tell the story of Justin and Ashley’s happy day…

 

Comments

  2. JEN! These pictures are beautiful, you did a really fabulous job. I think my favorite is where Micah is cutting his eyes over at you during the ceremony, that's awesome. You are so talented and amazing, you did all of this while pregnant too. I'm too chicken to commit to wedding photography, I don't want to mess up somebody's perfect day. That's a lot of pressure!!!!

  4. These are awesome!! We had a friend do our wedding pictures and they are only okay. Sometimes I wish we had sprung for an expensive photographer, but it's not really something that comes up THAT often now that we've been married 6 years and pictures of Grayson are all we really care about anyway. ;)But you did a GREAT job! These are lovely!

  6. We had an amazing event here this past weekend. We had a friend create some custom drink options that the bartenders served throughout the night and the designer easily collaborated with the vow renewal space to address her needs.