Love is the ultimate outlaw.  It just won’t adhere to any rules. The most any of us can do is to sign on as its accomplice.  Instead of vowing to honor & obey, maybe we should swear to aid & abet.  That would mean that security is out of the question.  The words ‘make’ and ‘stay’ become inappropriate.   My love for you has no strings attached.  I love you for free.  — Tom Robbins

This isn’t the sort of wedding you try to describe in words.  It’s a wedding you only hope to capture in images.  To infuse them with all the warmth, life, beauty and abandon of everyone and everything involved.  When Amalie wrote to tell me of a backyard wedding on a secluded ridge property where she grew up … a wedding of local food and details that were special but not superfluous … I knew I’d love it.  But nothing describes the feeling I had that day. Of being there, of feeling so immersed in what was happening.  Because it was laid-back, because it was personal, because Amalie & Eric and all their friends and family welcomed me as a guest in so many ways … I was able to document from my heart.  And my heart aligned right up with everything and everyone.  New friends.  New memories.  I love feeling as if I’m part of a wedding … and not just some photographer-lurker that is somehow separated from the real emotion and heart of the day.

Amalie and Eric, I just adore you.  I don’t know what else to say that I haven’t already.  You two know how to throw a celebration, that’s for sure.  Thank you for everything and for trusting me more than ever.  You are both warm, kind, thoughtful, intelligent and creative.  And beautiful.  I can barely stand the way you look at each other, it’s too perfect.  xo, AM

Enjoy a small preview of your day:

I’m so thankful to have worked with a great, fun team for this wedding.  Thanks so much to Jennyface for her unsurpassed hair & makeup talent … and to Athena for being my assistant.  We had a blast working together. Some dance shots of the two of them below:

And another big shout-out to Jenny and Amalie for capturing these photos of Yours Truly below.  I’m a rockstar at hula-hooping.  Dare anyone to challenge me on that.

On a final note, there is so much to be said about people for whom the marriage means more than the wedding itself.  About people who want me there to document what happens … the actual day itself, as it was, and no other way at all. I am at my best when I’m not chained to a list of shots or preconceived “moments” that the couple envisioned as their “perfect day” based on someone else’s photos they once saw or on Pinterest boards flooding the industry.  Every minute spent capturing something contrived subtracts from seeing & capturing what’s really happening. Thankfully, I work with people who trust me week to week, and with people who want the day to be laid-back and about them and their own new memories … and not about looking back at their wedding album and saying, “oh yeah — that’s the photo I told my photographer she had to re-create/stage and take.” People just like Amalie and Eric.  And I’m just really thankful for them all … and wanted to say that here and now. xx.

This wedding was featured on Green Wedding Shoes!  Check it out HERE.