I am quite baffled, really.

Technically, this post should have hit my blog yesterday. But, truth be told, it took me until mid day to come to the realization that it was August 8th. And thus here I am. It's the middle of the night and I have just wrapped up another night owl editing session. Now is as good a time to write this post. My daughter is asleep in her bed in the room next to my office (with the dog not too far away from her in his own bed). Alan is down in the other end of the house having gone to bed hours ago. It's just me and my thoughts. And I am blown away.

Ten years.

I photographed my first wedding TEN YEARS AGO!

There is so much that I knew nothing about back then despite having been a bride just a year prior. (Yes, Alan and I celebrated ELEVEN years of marriage just last week!) My emergency kit might have well have been non-existent. No bobby pins, fashion tape, deodorant eraser, pretty dress hanger... the list could go on. And I had no real idea what it took to photograph a wedding. Yet my dear friend could not take no for an answer and had faith in me to capture her day despite my inexperience. And Alan was there with me carrying my bag, helping me in every way he could. Neither one of us had any idea what would come from that day.

Since then, I have driven thousands of miles and gone through three different cars (Subaru, Honda, and now my beloved VW) as I've traveled to weddings as far away as Rhode Island and Vermont. I've photographed intimate weddings on the beach before signing the couple's marriage license, a double wedding with siblings each marrying their long time loves, and large weddings in the biggest ballrooms in Portland. I've bustled more wedding dresses than I could count, pinned on loads of boutonnieres, gone through tons of bobby pins, and even hemmed a wedding dress. As technology as evolved, I'm now using my fifth camera model, a Canon 5D Mark IV, and have terabytes of image files from over the years. I am simply blown away.

What is even more astonishing is that I finally tallied how many weddings I have captured over the past 10 years. And this past Saturday was my 149th wedding. You guys, I am ONE WEDDING away from 150 weddings. Given that I was definitely thinking that first wedding ten years ago would be my one and only.... WOW.

There is so much more that I could say. So many more moment to reminisce about. But I'll leave those memories for my dreams this evening as I fall asleep.

But let me say this.

Thank you.

Thank you for having faith in me to capture all of your weddings and memories over the past ten years. I am so very humbled it all. Suffice to say that I'm sending all of you a big ol' virtual hug right now. And you guys know how much I love a good hug. ♥

My cell phone photo as I watched the sun set over the horizon from Willard Beach in South Portland, Maine, on the 10th anniversary of photographing my first wedding.