It is true that we have been blessed to work with a lot of really great brides and grooms throughout our wedding photography career, and we have come to love them all for various reasons, but with Andy and Stephanie there was so much about them to fall in love with! The list is long, but two things we will always remember them for is their amazing sense of humor and how much fun they truly had on their wedding day! It would be a good assumption to say that most brides and grooms enjoy their wedding day, and that may be true is most respects, but Andy and Stephanie actually had FUN the entire day and really soaked up the value of every minute. Stephanie's emotions were raw and unfettered, and it was easy to tell that through the smiles and through the happy, sentimental tears, that this was the wedding day she had been dreaming of all her life.
Andy and Stephanie met in a rather unconventional way, and their love story is sweet and truly unique to them. They owe their long distance relationship to the modern communication of Twitter. Stephanie lives in Akron, Ohio and Andy hails all the way from England. Although distance and space made their ability to date challenging, they pursued each other anyway and very soon were madly, deeply in love.
We were honored when Stephanie and Andy contacted us back in February of this year about photographing their wedding. Originally they had entered our 2013 Wedding Giveaway contest, and although they started out near the top of the contestants, they eventually began losing their lead. Because the wedding was approaching quickly, Andy and Stephanie didn't want to wait too long to book a photographer and so they started talking about options. About this time, Stephanie mentioned to her friend Nate (who originally introduced our photography to Stephanie) that she really wanted us to photograph the wedding, but she didn't know how she could make it work. Nathan was impressed by her desire and was compelled to contact us to let us know that he would like to purchase our services as a gift for Stephanie and Andy as an anonymous giver. Uh....WOW! Were we ever impressed by Nathan's amazing generosity and kindness to his friends! We kept the identity of the giver a complete secret and had so much fun contacting Stephanie to let her know that she had been given a wedding collection absolutely free with no strings attached! Her joy and her tears were heart touching.
The wedding day came quickly and we drove down to Akron the day before the wedding to meet up with Andy and Stephanie and to capture some great "engagement" portraits of them before the wedding day. Immediately we fell in love with them both and teased Andy that he could just keep on talking all night long and none of us would complain - you gotta love a british accent!
There were a few delays on the set-up details for Stephanie and Andy, so as soon as we arrived in the area we gladly pitched in setting up the ceremony area and decorating the tables for the reception. It was a great way to get to know them both better in a purposeful and fun way. We loved being able to lend a hand! Afterward we headed over to the Virginia Kendall area of the Cuyahoga National Park for their portraits. However, on the drive over the clouds began rolling in and almost as soon as we pulled up and unpacked our gear, the rain started pouring! The winds gusted and the rain fell in waves. Within seconds we were all drenched and dripping wet. We ran back to the cars and took shelter from the storm. Unfortunately, the engagement portraits were a complete wash out, but we decided to make the best of it and took Andy and Stephanie out for a pre-wedding dinner instead. We were all a bit water-logged, but it was a great alternative regardless.
Andy and Stephanie's wedding day dawned stormy and windy, but with perfect timing the rain split it's course and rained north and south of the Turkeyfoot Island Club, but not a drop fell until after all of the guests had left that night. What an incredible blessing! Enjoy all of these teasers from the couple's beautiful day and I think you can see from the pictures how much fun Stephanie and Andy really had! Thank you, Stephanie and Andy, for allowing us to be a part of your wedding day, and for being so sweet to us the entire weekend. Your friendship is truly appreciated and we wish you both the very best as you journey on your life together. We hope we can meet up with you both next summer in Europe!
~ Kevin & Heather
