If not for a friend asking me to second shoot with her four years ago, I might not have any part of this wedding industry.  And with so many up and coming photographers wanting to get their foot in the door to shooting weddings, well, second shooting is the way to go!  I did shoot a wedding in 2007 for a friend up in Nashville, but on my drive over there, I was terrified.  I had a basic idea of what I needed to get and I’d been scouring wedding blogs like it was my job, but I was still nervous.  It was a small wedding and everything turned out fine.  Yes, there are things that I now would have done very differently, but there are also some images from their wedding that I LOVE.  But like I said, if a friend had not asked me to second shoot with her that following year, that may have been my one and only wedding!

So here I am, 20+ weddings of my own and four years later and I still love to second shoot (I tried counting that number, but it’s different each time!  That may be around 20 as well).  Not only do I get to hang out with an awesome photographer for the day, but I get to see how they work and how they approach things.  It also helps me see what Ben sees when he and I work together, so I can then explain to him a little more of how we can work better together!  For Monica and Jay’s wedding, we were at Grace Church Downtown (where we got married and I’ve shot several times), but Rebecca had never done a wedding there before.  And it was so much fun to watch her approach things and get shots that I never would have thought about.  So, be sure to head over to her blog to check out her first post from Monica and Jay’s wedding!

I got pictures of the guys while Rebecca got the getting ready shots of the girls.

And this might have been one of the cutest first looks ever!  They were adorable.

And those crazy high temperatures from the end of July?  These two handled it like pros.  You can’t even tell how hot it was outside!

I was IN LOVE with the dresses the bridesmaids had. Monica had given them paint swatches for the color and they picked out their own dresses!

The flowers were nothing short of beautiful either.

That smile was on Monica’s face the entire day :-)

This is one of those images I was talking about… Rebecca used this wall for several bridal party portraits and I loved it!

And while she was finishing up with the wedding party, I went around front with my 14-24 lens to get a picture of the church.
I’ve been photographing this church for two years now. But this wide angle lens on my D800 (full frame!) allowed me to stand at the FOOT of the stairs and get this shot!

These were actually taken after the ceremony, but Rebecca included these in her post so here are mine also.  It’s kind of fun to compare posts and images!
Y’all will recognize this spot because we shoot here a good bit too.  But the light at this time of the evening??  To die for.

Rebecca was using her 70-200 and I was using my 24-70 so my images from here are wider than hers.

Rebecca, thank you for letting me shoot with you!  I always have so much fun.  Monica and Jay, thank you so much for being so sweet and genuine.  It was such a pleasure to meet you and an honor to help document your wedding day!