Amazing

Amazing! It was simply amazing!

JVS and Anne are truly passionate, wonderful, and gifted individuals. I was completely thrilled when I was asked to assist last month. It was a very long 4 weeks of waiting. To say the least, I was a lil' anxious. The day came to fly out... ahh.. up at 4am, drive to Logan, check in, and take my flight to the big D. I arrive and shoot over to the studio. We get the gear, pack the van, head over to the rental shop, then shoot over to Austin. We stop at the southern staple... Chick-fil-a for some eats...emmm...the sweet ice tea. We eat up, then jump back in the van and head out to Austin. A few hours later, we arrive in Austin. Check in, get the gear out of the car, get up to the hotel rooms, prepared the gear, talk about the game plan, go over the gear usage and then get showered... About 40 minutes later we're ready to go. Going down in the elevator a hotel guest remars "hey, what are you some kinda SWAT team?" hee..hee.. We jump in the van, take a little bit of a ride, and we're at the rehearsal. I'm not shooting, I'm the flash guy. Hey, it's an important role!

The place is beautiful. It was on a lake and was exquisitely decorated. I was really distracted by the beauty. JVS roped me in and went over what I needed to do. He honed in and started shooting away. Picking of details, people interacting, the bride arriving, the groom and bride interacting, and lots of great moments. The dinner followed and was full of speeches, courses, and laughter...Ohhh..and wait staff that loved to be in the wrong places. Lighting for JVS was challenging, I needed to be completely aware of the situation, where he was, and where he was going. Occasionally, we'd get a break in the action and head outside to hang low between speeches. We goofed off a lil... had some fun with lighting the archways, and creating a few fun shadow pictures...(as JVS said... think Metallica). The speeches continued and most were pretty memorable. Here's some excerpts... I was running around in my underwear chasing him with a hockey stick or she drank 15 beers and you...only had one? To... the wedding day survival kit... with plenty of items within.

The night wrapped up with the father of the bride giving a lil 40 minute speech. It was funny, sincere, and loving..... the piano bar opened up shortly after. It was full of cool cubes that changed color every few seconds, as the bar did, and as the area underneath the clear stage. It was so cool! I was just waiting for the people to move into the room for a lil'fun and relaxation... the highlight for me... JVS shooting some saweeeet legz against the color changing bar..hubah..hubah...

We wrapped up shortly after that and headed out for some food and relaxation. We then headed back to the hotel got the gear out of the van and into the room. JVS downloaded, backed up, and prepared the images from the night. Additionally, batteries were charged, radios were charged, and gear was prepped for the big day ahead. It was about 130ish when I headed back to the room. Wow, what a day... and this was just the first. Yaaaawwn... g'night!

Day two - The Wedding Day

After getting a bit of sleep I awoke at 930ish. Just enough time to hopefully get down to the buffet and load up on some food. I throw on some shorts and shirt (the trusty “Star Wars” one) to stroll over to JVS’s room. Knock knock…. “Hey man, how ya feelin?” I asked “Alright” answered JVS. I asked “Do ya know what time the buffet is till?” Anne responded “I think it closes at 10, there’s a brochure over there with the info.” So, I headed downstairs to get my fill of French toast and eggz…emmm, yummy! I head back up to the room carefully balancing my plate of French toast, eggz, and a plate of bananas underneath. In the other hand I’m balancing two cups of apple juice. I arrive at the door, knock, and my cup of juice takes a dive….Doh! I clean up my mess quickly, thank god for the maid’s cart, and jump into the room. I eat up and I open up the Garmin GPS to download the map to the brandy candy new unit. “Hey, ahh you ought to buy a laptop for this kinda stuff” I said. JVS answered “We don’t need no stinkin PC here… you Have seen the commercials right?” “yeah…they’re all lies…lies I tell you!” I empathically answer (Okay, I made that up a bit). Hmm.. okay click, next, next, next… hmm.. north Texas and south Texas. “Gotta register.. damn software.. oh and have an internet connection to do it.” Whateva… so, I setup the GPS and checkout this lil marvel of electronics. Pretty cool!

Shortly after Anne and I jump into the van, program the GPS and head out to scout out the venues. First stop, the church and Anne talks to the coordinator. Looks good and we have a balcony. We’re expecting a full house. It should be interesting. We jump back in the van and head to the reception location. It was a quick little ride but, hey… the UT golf club doesn’t show up. We stop, get directions, and continue to the golf club. As we pull up it’s apparent that there’s lots of activity in preparation for the night. There were flowers of many varieties and colors, a black and white tile floor in the tent, people working on tents, stages, and decorations. It was pure excitement speculating on the outcome. We meet up with the coordinator to go over the details and she mentioned that fireworks would be part of a surprise from the bride’s father. Sweet! Anne snapped some more pictures, took a final walk around, and then we headed back for some eats. We got back to the room, ate up, relaxed for a few, and talked about the venues. Shortly after it was time to get ready. I showered, ironed my clothes, got dressed, and headed down to the van to leave.