What I love about Julie: She works in fashion, rides a motorcycle, has a female cat named Dwight, and despite saying she didn’t want an engagement ring, has two of them.
What I love about Jonathan: When he first met Julie, at a bar in New York, he got her number before she excused herself to go to the restroom (“You always get the number early”) and then texted her WHILE she was in the bathroom, saying “I’m still here.” For her 27th birthday, he ordered a drag-queen Beyoncé impersonator to come to her office at The Row and sing songs while wheeling her around the office in her office chair. “It was absolutely mortifying,” Julie said.
Julie and Jonathan are originals, and they are a delight to be around because they are unpredictable. On the morning of their Baltimore wedding at the Maryland Science Center (because Julie loves dinosaurs), Julie, upon having her hair and makeup completed to perfection, decided she was hungry. Instead of ordering room service from our nice hotel, she lead her bridesmaids across the street to Hooters for nachos, mozzarella sticks and beer, and bought a deck of cards with photos of bikini-clad Hooters girls on them. Naturally, Julie and her friends played Go Fish and also picked their favorite girls from the deck as they waited for their food.
For his part, Jonathan, an intense, fast-talking, kind of intimidating guy who works in finance, totally surprised us at the after-party by changing into custom fluorescent-colored sneakers (a gift from Julie).
This day was all over the place, from the hotel to Hooters to a merry-go-round to a science museum to a boat complete with a DJ, buffet and balloon artists dressed as clowns. And all day long, I kept thinking, “I just love this.” I love a bride and groom who can surprise us, even after all our years of photographing weddings. And I especially love a bride who insists on having, in lieu of a champagne fountain, a fountain that streams vodka out of a dinosaur’s mouth.