Winter Wedding | Kari and Billy

After Kari and Billy’s Wedding I looked up Webster’s definition of “Adore” and here it is: Adore 1: to worship or honor as a deity or as divine 2: to regard with loving admiration and devotion 3: to be very fond of …now, Billy may be fond of pecan pie, but it’s rare to see the way a groom regards his wife-to-be with such loving admiration and devotion. Kari is absolutely a beautiful, sweet, incredibly talented girl that deserves to be adored the way Billy does her. Billy told her over and over how many times he couldn’t believe how beautiful she looked in her wedding dress. I felt so special to be able to witness this incredible love as their photographer.

Being their photographer was special in so many ways for me. Kari and Billy are musicians (www.kariandbilly.com) in Nashville, and we met through a friend of mine who saw them during the making of their music video http://youtu.be/1qZOMo9rDDk. My friend chatted with them a while and said “you guys would love Sara, a photographer of musicians and weddings.” Thank you for the connection, Tammy, because, you were so right! We connected over email and then our first phone conversation we hit it off like friends for years! When we discussed their snowy, Minnesota wedding and I was absolutely thrilled that they wanted me to photograph! What a unique wedding theme, I was excited.

After their engagement session in Nashville, I just knew their wedding was going to be sweet and special…but I wasn’t prepared for how overwhelmingly wonderful I would feel for having made the trip. Kari and Billy both thanked me at their rehearsal dinner and their wedding in front of all their guests for flying from Florida and driving up to Roseau from Minneapolis, I’ve never felt so special and honored.

An aspiring photographer just wrote to me recently and asked me my advice on how to get started in photography, how to build a photography business. My response was, after photographing hundreds of weddings, the number one thing I can tell you as a photographer is connect with your client on a personal level. Photographing a wedding day is one of the most personal, trusting events in a couple’s life.

Making that connection with Kari and Billy was imperative. They trusted that if they went out in negative degree temperatures, freezing, windy and cold, they would have memories they could treasure from their wedding day, and gave me complete creative reign to make those images for them. I was all bundled up in multiple layers, gloves and a hat, warm enough to handle the cold as long as no skin was exposed. But, Kari through shivering teeth in antique leather gloves, a gorgeous beaded wedding ball-gown and mink shawl, kept insisting on more photos outdoors!

Thank you, Kari and Billy for trusting me. The uniqueness of your wedding day and the love you have for each other, I hope is shown through these photos. It was absolutely incredible to see your wedding day through my camera lens and I couldn’t be more grateful you chose me as your photographer.