As you can imagine we talk weddings with a lot of people… most of our client-base right now are couples who have or will tie the knot. We like to take the time to meet with people to hear about their wedding plans and usually end up spending a few hours engaged in conversations about love. A lot of couples have had a question for us: what was your wedding like and who shot it? I thought I would give a little background on Lyle and I for our loyal readers.

We met in 1999 when I was working as an admin assistant for a large diamond company in New York City–I had just moved there from the Midwest, right out of college and was told by everyone I didn’t have enough experience to get a photo and/or journalism related job. I started my job (which I hated, unfortunately it’s not as glamorous as it may seem ) and a few months later someone who worked there pointed out a cute computer tech that came by our offices every few days to do work. I was standing in the office and he was behind a plate of bulletproof glass, and she said we would look cute together. My co-workers did a little dirty work and found out he was single and got me his email address. The rest is history. I knew from our first date (at TGI Friday’s ha!) that we would get married. And almost a year to the day of our first date we did. August 11, 2000.

We were married on the top of the World Trade Center at sunset. We eloped. Some of our family members found out and threatened to disown us if they weren’t invited (ok not really) and were there with us. We took a limo over to the World Trade Center and were escorted in a private elevator by the nicest people. I actually wore a long pink dress and carried pink roses. My hair was up with little flowers in it. I glowed (Actually I literally did because I was still extremely sunburnt from a recent trip we had taken to New Hampshire). It was amazing. We said our vows overlooking New York City and the clouds broke and it stopped raining. There was a group of tourists that gathered around. It was perfect.

There was one thing missing from our wedding, though. A photographer. We had put it all together so quickly and figured our family would be there to take snapshots. What we ended up with were a few photos, most blurry on film and a few tiny digital photos (so small that they could not be blown up or anything). I keep thinking now about how I have no photos to print to put in our house except the few we have… nothing to print on a canvas or make an album with. I will never look that way or feel that beautiful again. We will never have another wedding. And unfortunately there will not be a World Trade Center like that to go back to and eat dinner and celebrate our anniversary. If there was ONE thing I could tell potential brides it would be this: hire a photographer (actually two hehe!). You will never regret it. Yes it can be expensive, but good photos and well-trained photographers are worth paying for. Hire someone who knows what they are doing, because just because your Uncle Bob just bought a Nikon D40 that he saw Ashton Kutcher shooting a wedding with in a commercial, it’s not as easy as it looks. There is so much going on and the lighting conditions constantly change. Just putting a camera on auto mode and expecting it to do the work for you is only going to result in a huge amount of disappointment when you see the photos.

Your memories will begin to fade over time. Photos are priceless. Sometimes they are even a work of art. I cannot tell you how much I would give for even 10 amazing photos from my wedding day.