Sarah and Chris had a beautiful and elegant but casual beach wedding planned for September the 17th, 2011. The ceremony was to be officiated by a close friend on the beach, and the reception was to follow right there on the same spot with bar-b-que, drinks, dancing, pie, popcorn, and candy. Nothing but beach, and therefore nothing but totally awesome. In fact, Sarah never even purchased wedding shoes, because she pictured herself barefoot throughout the entire event(her friend/bridesmaid, Marie, bought her the super cute jellies you see pictured below, just in case she wanted a beach worthy shoe to wear).
But . . . dun, dun, duuun . . .
The weather gods were not digging this plan. Not at all. So they brought on the wind and the rain. And by about 12:30pm it became quite clear to everyone that this wedding was going to have to find an alternative venue. Unfortunately there was no plan B because it was too windy to even attempt putting up a party tent, so out came the telephone book, and so began the search for an indoor venue that could fit all 200 guests. After a very somber hour or so of realizing EVERYWHERE was already booked or too small, they finally got a yes from the Ocean City VFW(Veterans of Foreign War). Phew!! Then that wonderful thing happened where friends and family come together to help a loved one in need. Everyone began the mad rush to throw all the decorations and food and booze and details into a handful of cars and drive it all to the new venue and set it up. Everyone was cold and wet, but didn't seem to care. They just did what they had to do. It was pretty awesome to see how much everyone loved this really wonderful couple.
I then headed up into the room of the beach house where Sarah would be getting ready and got down to business photographing her doing so. I've known Sarah for a long time now. We met in photography school at RIT. And therefore I know that she is the best kind of person for this to happen to, and the worst kind of person for this to happen to all at the same time. Out of anyone you know she is the one person who could handle a disaster like this with ease, and poise, and an almost shocking calmness. But her heart is so big and so loving, and she is sooo incredibly compassionate to all those around her, she is also the last person you would want to see go through this. It wasn't until Chris came back from the VFW to let her know everything was all set up, but that he wasn't sure where they were going to find room to do the actual ceremony, that she realized, "wait a minute, I don't want to get married in a VFW." She turned to him and said, "I don't want to get married today, this is not how I pictured it." And then like a knight in shining armor, with no ifs ands or buts, he simply kissed her on the forehead and said, "ok, whatever you want." (It was like Wesley from The Princess Bride saying, "as you wish." hehe)
Long story short, all the guests made it to the new venue. It was tight, but no one seemed to mind. The 90's cover band, 'White Ford Bronco,' brought down the house, and Sarah and Chris basically just threw a really really killer party. We talked about doing the ceremony the following morning, but the weather had not let up, and Michael and I had to leave that afternoon to get back to the city.
Sarah and Chris were wed on the beach amongst an intimate group of family and friends on Monday September the 19th, 2011, under blue skies and white puffy clouds just as they had originally pictured it. I was so bummed I couldn't be there to witness it or photograph it, but I could not be more happy that my friend married the love of her life exactly how she had always wanted.
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