It’s hard to put into words how great this wedding was. How great this couple is.

And it wasn’t even just that Debbie and Travis flew me and James over several states to be their wedding photographers. It wasn’t that we would get to sight-see around Southern California in the days following the wedding. And it wasn’t that their ceremony and reception took place in an awesome, desert canyon.

(Although all of those things were unbelievably amazing.)

It’s mostly that Debbie and Travis’ love for each other, for others, and for Jesus is so overwhelmingly evident that it just draws people to them, which made for the kind of day that makes a couple of photographers forget that they were going on less than three hours of sleep after shooting a wedding halfway across the country the night before. Once our plane touched down in California, we drove straight to the hair salon where Debbie warmly greeted us in a ball of giddy, bridal excitement. And that pretty much set the tone for the entire day.

And it was riiiiiiight about at then that I walked backwards into a cactus.

Below is the photo documentation of HOW INCREDIBLY SWEET you guys are, Debbie and Travis. Upon my calm proclamation that I had tons of cacti needles embedded in my leg, they both IMMEDIATELY dropped to their knees and began picking them out for me. On THEIR wedding day. I like, didn’t even have time to object they were so fast. Gosh, they’re so great.

(Check out that sweet Cali sunburn I’m sporting in the above photo.)

Debbie and Travis, thank you from the very bottom of our hearts for welcoming us so heartily both into California and into your beautiful wedding day. I’m not joking when I say that I miss you guys after only spending one day in your presence. That’s some kind of powerful welcoming.

Y’all are awesome. Marriage is awesome. And finally getting your wedding on the JZP blog is awesome. X’s and O’s to the Gilleys!