What a beautiful day! The Thomas wedding had been circled on my calendar with hearts and butterflies and unicorns around it for all of 2014 (okay, not really - I can't draw unicorns.) I adore Jake and Joelle and have not only loved the photos I had taken of them, but LOVED spending time with them during the sessions themselves. Is it weird to say the three of us had chemistry? If it's weird, then pretend I didn't say it...If it's not weird, then, we totally had photographer - subject chemistry.
I think it might be because Jake & Joelle are two of the easiest going people ever. This became particularly important on their wedding day. If you'll recall, Thursday, 7/17 was the mill fire. I will always remember the billowing black clouds of smoke darkening my drive home to celebrate my nephew's first birthday. On Facebook (who needs KEZI?), there were unconfirmed reports that the fire was actually at Mt. Pisgah - where the Thomas wedding was scheduled to take place the very next day. Tarra Roberts, bridesmaid extraordinaire, decided she had to clear up the confusion and drove herself right up to Pisgah - dear Facebook, Pisgah's not on fire. Whew!
Fast forward to the next afternoon. Photographer (psst, that's me) is driving towards the venue. I have to pull over to let multiple fire trucks pass me; I see smoke coming from the hill. Don't panic...Just keep going, just keep going. I arrive and ask Jake to check his EPD scanner...He thinks I'm joking. The bride is getting ready on-site; the wedding party is there; the tables are set. Shortly thereafter, a ranger arrives and tells us we must immediately evacuate. Jake and his best man, brother Jesse (in a moment later retold in Jesse's best man speech) look left, look right - who's going to tell Joelle?!
If this news had befallen me on my wedding day, I'm pretty sure my freakout would've been felt in Dubai. Joelle, however, recalibrated the plan. We packed up and headed out to her mom's house - I got the added bonus of traveling with Hannah and her adorable 3 month old, Jayce because I actually had a carseat on-site and no one else did (shout out to Marissa Maehem!!)
So, we made do. The make up artist (also named Marissa) and hair magician Kristen Myers (past client!) set up shop on Joelle's mom's dining room table and went to work. In the meantime, I had called Kandice Kelso (my sister, event-coordinator, all around superhero) and told her about the situation. Within 14 minutes, Kandice called Jake back, "I've got you a venue, tables, linens, chairs if it comes down to that!" (I'm sure she said it more artfully). Thankfully, it didn't come down to that...Eventually, Joelle got THE CALL...the all-clear that we could return. We lost some photo time, but made up for it with memories that will be retold to Thomas great grand babies. You would have never known of the ordeal looking at Jake and Joelle - the three Cs of dream wedding clients - cool, calm, collected.
I tell you this story because someone has to tell it (duh!) and the photos below do their job to tell the love story of the day. Two beautiful people; high school sweethearts. A day for the record books.
