What a fantastic wedding! This is part one of Erin and Phil's wedding. I had too many favorites for one blog post to contain it all. First of all, Erin is my cousin. If you have a good eye, I bet you can spot the Brown family smile on a number of faces throughout the day. This is actually the first time I've photographed a wedding of someone so close to me, and it was such a fun experience. In many ways, it was a normal wedding day, but it was infused with my family. I ate dinner with my immediate family, got to dance with my wild man of of a nephew, and had the privilege of seeing my dear cousin's wedding from start to finish. So cool.

As a wedding photographer, I am always knee deep in other people's most meaningful moments, and I love that. It's awesome and powerful and it lets me take photos that matter. It's amazing. For this wedding, it was such an interesting and different experience because I knew the full cast of characters. Usually, I just see how things unfold, but this wedding was different. No one had to tell me that the bride's aunt would be one of the first on the dance floor, because that dancing aunt is my mother, or that the bride's sister would deliver a fantastic toast. I didn't know it would be the most epic toast I've ever heard (it was and it's a good thing I had tissues because I downright cried). I knew Erin would be a gorgeous bride and that her wedding would be full of dancing (she's a professional dancer with The Big Muddy - they should consider renting themselves out for wedding receptions because they were so. much. fun.). Knowing all of this, my expectations were set pretty high and they were all completely exceeded by reality. I'll let you see for yourself.