I photographed Liz and Trafton’s wedding at the Briar Patch Bed & Breakfast Inn in Middleburg, Virginia. Though I work as a wedding photojournalist in Denver, they had heard of me when I was still in Washington DC and they brought me back. They were one of those couples that don’t take things too seriously. Well, they do and they don’t. Big things yes, small things no. It was a nice, intimate wedding, but they didn’t spend a year planning it, as they were much more interested in getting married than all the details of the event itself. A lot of my clients are like that.

Liz’s mother came in from Germany for the wedding.

This is one of my favorite pictures from the wedding. Documentary photography is a fundamentally different way of covering a wedding. The focus is to record, to remember a specific moment or relationship. You can’t stage that, you can’t arrange for such things to happen. They were waiting outside the door to go into the ceremony, and while I don’t usually like people looking at the camera or having that reflection of my presence in the images, but there was so much in his expression. Pride, sadness, a little wistfulness for a relationship with his daughter that was about to enter a new phase. I think sometimes the viewer of a photograph has to make eye contact.

Shots with a bite of lemon.

There are certain patterns at weddings, behavior that flows naturally from ritual. Then there are kids, who literally and figuratively tend to color outside the lines. You have to be ready for them.

I focus on the bride and groom, but friends and family are important, both to me as a photographer and for the couple getting married. There are little stories everywhere.