Everything about Lauren and Phil and the wedding day they put together makes me want to photograph weddings for the rest of my life. They just got everything so right. They surrounded themselves with their favorite people as they got ready at the light-filled, historic Grand Hotel down the street from their venue, the Mckinney Flour Mill. The day went at a relaxed pace — so much so that Lauren informed me she’d had time for a bubble bath late that morning and Phil and his groomsmen were ready in time to leisurely walk to the Flour Mill before portraits began. Beneath the calm and the laughter in the hotel rooms we could all still feel the weight of the significance of this day, this day that Lauren and Phil would become Lauren-and-Phil-forever-and-ever-alright-oh-yeah.

They saw each other for the first time of the day in the same space where their ceremony would take place that evening. They met in the middle and took a moment to hold each other tight, to laugh the kind of laughs and smile the kind of smiles that one exchanges in the last couple of hours before they marry the person in front of them. We followed this with portraits during the best light of the day. I loved that time with Lauren and Phil on their wedding day, seeing how happy they were, getting the honor of documenting a bit of it.

During Phil’s vows to Lauren he thanked her for marrying him. Not once, not twice, and not three times but even more than that and with each time he repeated it, earnestly, everyone laughed not just because it was comically redundant but because it was so obviously sincere.

And then they danced and ate Texas BBQ and spent the rest of the evening under string lights, celebrating and enjoying their friends and family, some of whom had travelled quite a long way to be there with them dancing and eating and celebrating.

Lauren and Phil, you two and your wedding day are what my wedding photographer dreams are made of. And with that, hopefully the photos tell the rest. Enjoy!

For those of you who made it all the way to the end and are thinking, “WHERE HAVE I SEEN THIS ADORABLE COUPLE BEFORE??” it may have been from their NYC engagement session in Grand Central Station and the Brooklyn Bridge. Or I suppose it could have just been in passing on the subway (although they did confess they’ve become more “taxi people”).

Lauren and Phil — I think you guys are SO GREAT. I couldn’t be happier for you two and your growing family. Like Phil in his vows I feel the need to repeat it over and over and over, from the bottom of my heart.

Thank you

thank you

thank you

thank you

 thank you

for choosing me as your wedding photographer.