Emily + Ryan // Oakland Micro Wedding

Oh, weddings, how I've missed you so. I've been a wedding photographer for the last seven years, and while I've been madly in love with my job and the opportunities and people it has brought into my life since the very beginning, I never knew I would miss it THIS MUCH after just six months of not being able to do it. We are all more than our jobs, but for me, photography has always been my outlet, and a way for me to still tap into who I am as a creative, and let's be honest...a break from stay at home mom life.

While 99% of my weddings have been rescheduled for next year, a few clients have been interested in keeping their wedding date, but pivoting from "large gathering" to a small, intimate ceremony with just family and a few friends. I've been calling these "micro weddings", and Ryan and Emily were the first of my clients to plan one, and it definitely brought on all the feels. If this is what weddings will look like for the unforeseeable future, I. AM. HERE. FOR. IT.

You may remember Ryan and Emily from this forest engagement session. This was the first time I had met them in person, and they felt like old friends by the end of the session. On the day of their Oakland micro wedding, we laughed (cried?) about how much life has changed since we last saw each other, only six months prior, and then focused on the beautiful day they planned, with 13 of their closest supporters as witnesses. While everyone was wearing masks and remaining six feet apart, it held just as much meaning as any large wedding I've shot in the past, and for a moment in time, or rather, for a moment in the last six months, I temporarily forgot about the pandemic, and felt like my old self, doing what I love: documenting love.

Thank you to this couple for still figuring out a way to let me tell a REALLY INTERESTING part of your story that none of us will ever forget (and thank you for giving me a reason to wear an actual outfit for the third time in 2020).