Musings on Life's Little Moments...: Whirlwind Wedding Weekend!

This past weekend, James and I had the pleasure of flying out to San Antonio for our good friends Caleb and Jordan's wedding. Caleb has been a close friend of James' since he started pilot training about 3 years ago and served as an usher in our wedding. Jordan is from San Antonio originally and was introduced to Caleb through a friend at an Air Force party last fall. They fell in love pretty rapidly and, because of AF timing, they had to have the wedding this month or else wait a very, very long time. It all worked out really well, though, and we really like Jordan. She and Caleb are both strong Christians and James and I look forward to spending more time with them after they move here in a couple weeks.

The ceremony didn't start until 6:00 pm, so James and I caught an early flight out of Phoenix Saturday morning and arrived around lunch time. Luckily, a lot of our good friends from Del Rio were in town and agreed to pick us up and cart us around for the rest of the trip. James was asked to be an Usher and serve in the saber arch (a fun staple of Air Force weddings) so we had to be dressed and ready to take pictures at 4:00 pm. We made hotel reservations at the ritzy Sheraton Gunter where the reception to cut down on driving time. However, check in wasn't until 3:00 so we were awfully rushed trying to get settled and dressed for the wedding. Thankfully I'm not a girly girl who requires hours to get ready for an event!

When we arrived at the church, James went off to the holding room for the guys to congratulate Caleb and get ready for pictures. Since I wasn't part of the wedding party I was left to my own devices for two hours. I had all of my camera equipment with me because I was hoping to get some good wedding shots to add to my portfolio, so I asked if it would be OK for me to go up to the bridal room. Thankfully both Jordan and the photographers were very gracious and let me follow them around all night taking candid shots of everything. The only thing that I missed was the private pictures of Jordan and Caleb after the ceremony because James and the guys had to get to the hotel in time to welcome them to the reception with raised sabers.

Both the ceremony and the reception were really fun. Jordan took almost no time in planning this wedding, but you would not know it because of how grand and detailed it all was. The food was tasty, the guys enjoyed the open bar, and the band was great so we had fun dancing and goofing off until late in the night. Our only criticism was how long the reception lasted (6:45 to midnight). But, since they were not only getting married but moving away, I don't blame them at all for partying as long as possible with their friends and family. We were just exhausted because we had to get up at 4:30 am to catch our flight and really wanted to go to sleep. ;^)

The trip home was uneventful the next day, which was nice. The only problem was trying to figure out how to catch the shuttle back to economy parking. Sky Harbor (the primary air port here in Phoenix) is one of the largest in the country and as neither of us had much experience with it, we got a little turned around. Hopefully our next trip through there will be a bit less stressful.

When we got home, I immediately started uploading and editing all of the pictures from the wedding. Turns out I took a grand total of 625!! Only about a third of them really turned out, but that's why I take so many! (It increases the odds of having a lot of good ones.) With all that hard work, I helped realize every bride's dream...an album of 160+ pictures ready to look at less than 24 hours after the wedding. Jordan sent me a face book message from Maui to let me know that she had seen them and "loved, loved, LOVED" them. =^)

I'll admit that I did have a slightly selfish reason for working so hard on these photos. I've been thinking about paying to put together a professional photography website for a long time now, but didn't think I had enough high quality images to really market myself well. But now that I have a full album of wedding photos on top of my collection of portraits and event photos, I think it's time. I spent all day working on putting that together, and after my official URL address processes tomorrow, I'll be able to launch kzwentzelphotography.com!! A part of the website will be a new blog devoted to showing off the best shots from each of my shoots. I've already created that here on blogspot so if you want to see the best shots from the wedding, check out: http://kzwentzelphotography.blogspot.com/

The official blog does not include personal pictures from the wedding, so here are some of the shots of James and myself. I spent a lot of time driving around to local stores trying to put together my outfit. I don't really think we got any pictures that do the dress justice...but you can get the basic idea. It's all very retro, which I love. I bought the extra ribbon for the waist band, and paired it with a pearl necklace my grandmother gave me for my birthday 18 years ago. (I'm pretty sure that's the first time I've worn it out in public since I was a toddler...but I think I've finally grown into them. ;^) Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Above is a picture of me and my friend Alanna Reger. Her husband Chad went to pilot training in Del Rio and went heavies. He's currently flying an AWACS out of Tinker AFB in Oklahoma City.

James and our friend Ryan Worrell enjoying a well deserved drink after the Saber Arch is complete.

James and I didn't want an AF wedding, but you gotta admit that's pretty cool!

James and Mike Leary. I was upset Mike didn't bring his wife Ashley with him to the wedding. It would have been good to see them again after 2 months!