“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” ― Albert Einstein

Kansas city is one of our very favorite places to hang out. It's the little city in the middle of the country everybody forgets until you're there. With so many neat little cultural spots, old nooks and crannies, and a booming night life we've never left KC disapointed. Heather + Damon contacted me what seems like ages ago to be a part of their wedding and after all of the planning and all of the chatting it went by in a blur. I guess it's safe to say it really is clients like Heather + Damon that make me love the part of the job where we get to help our couples remember the little things they might not have without the photos.

Heather is about as sweet as they come, but don't let the smile fool you she's kind of a big deal. FACT : I know she just rolled her eyes at me saying that. We actually really met Heather for the first time at a Walmart + Nestle event where she wrapped up this super big super pricey meeting with a little speech all about her experience. There's obviously more to the story than that but the bottom line is, Heather has a lot of people who look to her for her opinion and so when she asked me to take the reins on helping her remember such a huge time in her life I was pretty flattered. In reality though all of this makes Heather sound pretty serious and that's one thing (at least outside of Walmart world) she is NOT. Heather is a laugher, a joker, and a pretty sarcastic person. She's super quick witted, super happy to be around, and all around funny. I'll never forget when she first described Damon to me. We have so many brides with HUGE stars in their eyes talk all about how kind, gentle, and loving their husbands to be are that I get pretty used to those words being thrown around but Heather led with something pretty new to me. "Miles, You're going to LOVE Damon. He looks just like John Travolta." .... (Pause for effect)

SERIOUSLY THOUGH : Damon is a clone of John. And not the weird old aging John but the young cool one. It's a little weird to witness but thank goodness he's cool with it because it's definitely a topic of conversation. Speaking of Damon - this guy is the real deal. I have watched a lot of brides walk down a lot of aisles. I've seen guys that cry, guys that smile, guys that feel REAL emotion and guys that try to hide every hint of it and then there's Damon. He wasn't a wreck all day long - but this was a VERY big day to him and he wanted to soak it up. When he first felt Heather's arms wrap around him he had no idea she had been behind him watching him read a letter from him and the guy's reaction was something no picture could really retell. It was like the air got heavy and stiff and still for just a second and then with his next breath he realized that it was Heather hugging him and the gravity in that moment brought with it a breeze that just let all of the nerves and anxiety go with it. From that moment Damon felt everything, and through his tears (and Heather's tears) there was about 10 minutes on their wedding day that I'll never forget. In fact the photo that Delyn got of Damon wiping the tears out of his eyes through the mirror on the car that Damon was sitting in may be one of my favorite wedding photos of all time just because it so perfectly describes what had just happened.

I'd be completely amiss to not give Lynn (the wedding planner) a shoutout for her hard work on this wedding. If you've kept up with me for long you've heard me gripe a time or two about wedding planners. Don't get me wrong - a few of my favorite people on earth are wedding planners and that's not only because they're friends but because they are the exception to a weird rule. FACT : Wedding planners don't HAVE to be grumpy OCD people on a weird power trip trying to control every aspect of a very emotional day for a couple with no empathy to how important it is to them that they enjoy the moments more than the schedule of events. That said - we certainly know a few who really do pull their weight. Not just in setting up incredible events and designing gorgeous spaces but in helping our couples navigate through a busy time in their lives and come through it smiling and proud of the wedding they get to call their own. Lynn Henderson (check her out here) was totally that planner. Smiling, happy, organized, and so helpful I have to thank her publicly for rearranging the ENTIRE transportation schedule for me on the fly on the day of the wedding. (I may have thrown her a little bit of a curve ball when I found a killer location that I just couldn't pass up for the couple's photos.)

ANYWAY - I clearly could go on forever her but I don't want to take away from the photos. This wedding was absolutely beautiful and we LOVE KC but in reality what made it so special really was the people. The wedding party was a blast, the planner was so sweet, the venue was incredible, and Heather + Damon are amazing together. We are so flattered to have been behind the cameras during these important moments and LOVE the way they turned out!