One of my favorite wedding memories I’ve ever had is Whitney picking up her friend and throwing her up in the air on the dance floor. That was at her sister Evan’s wedding on a snowy night in Colorado more than 10 years ago. From that second, I remember thinking, “I want to photograph Whitney’s wedding.”
Over the years, we’ve stayed in touch with the Greene family. We’ve photographed them on family vacations in California, stayed in touch on Facebook, and Whitney’s mom Barbara event sent our newborn daughter Roxy a baby gift. So when Mrs. Greene wrote saying Whitney was engaged, we were thrilled for her.
Whitney and Tad say that when they first met, lightning struck, but only in the form of friendship. They were friends for six years, until, as they say, the lightning finally caught fire and they fell for one another.
They live in California, working for Stanford Health Care (where they met), but they chose to return to Whitney’s hometown of Annapolis, Maryland, for their September wedding. After a welcome party at the Annapolis Yacht Club, the wedding itself was at the Gibson Island Club on Gibson Island, a beautiful, serene escape that dates back to the 1920s.
Whitney and Tad are a bright, effusive, happy couple who know how lucky they are to have found one another. The smiles on their faces all weekend brought everyone’s already-high spirits to another level, and everything just felt sublime. And on an otherwise windy and overcast day, during the ceremony when their officiant referenced “God’s light,” the clouds literally parted and basked the most beautiful warm glow on them for their first kiss. It was magical.
For the weekend, I stayed at the Greenes’ home. We cooked together, and I got to play with Evan and Jon’s two beautiful young daughters. We talked about our lives over the past 10 years, and I got to experience the love this family has for one another. Plus, I got to see Mr. Greene lose his mind when the chartered van taking all of us to the ceremony broke down on the interstate and we had to get Ubers to the ceremony. Whitney laughed through the entire ordeal, showing me once again why I wanted to photograph her wedding.
We feel so lucky to have been welcomed into this family’s lives and trusted with such an important task – namely, showing what it looks like when a mere strike of lightning is given the time to grow into love. When Tad looks at Whitney, you feel it. They say true love waits. But Whitney doesn’t have to wait any longer.