I love when previous couples refer me to their friends. For me that is both the ultimate compliment and the ultimate approval of the work I do. Being referred to a couple also carries the wonderful benefit of giving both parties common ground to stand on. One of the most important things in the dynamic of a couple and a photographer is simply getting along. When all of you have something in common, even if it’s just knowing the same person, it makes this dynamic that much smoother. In short, I love referral business!
In the case of Allie and Steve, they weren’t even referred to me by a previous couple. A year ago I shot the wedding of Patrick and Gale (which you can see here if you are curious). In that wedding was Gale’s sister, who also just so happened to be in this wedding! She told Allie and Steve about me, they hired me, and here we are! To top it all off, Allie and Steve are also Virginia Tech grads (Go Hokies!), so needless to say I think we all got along very well!
This wedding had a very personal touch to it. The ceremony was held at the church where Allie grew up. There’s a park with an ark on the church property that Allie used to play on as a child, and since the rain thankfully decided to hold off until after the ceremony, we got pictures of Allie and Steve on the ark! It was this wonderful, and for her I’m sure very surreal, moment highlighting how far in life she has come. Their love of video games was displayed by their totally awesome wedding cake topper (just wait till you see it). Even one of the favors to the guests was homemade applesauce! It was these little personal touches throughout the whole day that really painted a complete picture of this couple. The wedding day wasn’t just an event with nice dresses and expensive food, the wedding was them!
Let’s back up real quick though to talk about that cake. Besides the topper being incredible (seriously, it’s so cool!) and the whole thing being quite beautiful, the cake itself was fun-fetti! I mean honestly, how bad could the wedding be if it had a fun-fetti cake?
So just to recap, we have two awesome, down to earth Virginia Tech grads who absolutely love each other getting married in the church one of them grew up at in an area both have ties too surrounded by friends and family. And they also had a fun-fetti cake!
Yup, not even the tornado warnings could bring this wedding down! On to the pictures!
Congrats Allie and Steve! Thank you for allowing me to be apart of your big day! Here’s to many happy years!
A freelance photographer serving the Northern Virginia, DC, and Maryland area, I specialize in weddings, portraits, and event photography.
jon@jonwmillerphoto.com