.:allison and alan:.

I need to preface this blog with two points.

1. It's stinkin' hard to make pick out the best photos of a wedding to stick up on your blog. That's why it took me so long to put these up. (Allison & Alan were married in the middle of April!)
   
2. I always try to make friends with the flowergirls at weddings. I love shooting little kids in action and it's awkward if I shoot all of the kids there (especially if the bride and groom end up with 50 shots of a really cute kid from their reception who was the child of someone's date they'd never met before...). To avoid the previous mishap I concentrate on the flowergirl to photograph as I always know I have full permission to shoot at least her. You'll find a lot of photos of her to follow. What can I say, the girl was not only beautiful but loved to smile at me (or, perhaps the camera, but I'd like to say me!).

K. So I met Allison officially when she was in a production of Godspell multiple years ago that I was designing costumes for. She was fun to be around and had a great sense of style (oh how I wish I could dress myself with her pizzaz). I liked her. That's pretty much it. I had several moments of "Wow I wish she was going to Mizzou and not to that school that shall not be named in Springfield so that we could be friends." But, alas, that's where she was, and that's where she stayed. There she met Alan.

• Confession #1: Can I admit that I cried at their wedding? There's nothing more touching at a wedding than seeing the groom tear up when he sees his bride for the first time. I can't remember which part of the ceremony it was (maybe it was most of it... who knows since it always goes by so fast!) but I had to pause and put the camera down for almost a full minute as I worked to compose myself and continue shooting. It was absolutely crystal clear watching Allison and Alan together that day and during our engagement session that they love each other with an enduring love that will weather anything that comes their way.


• Confession #2: I cried again at the reception. Yup, again. It was when Allison was giving her toast to Alan at the reception and her words sounded nearly identical to the vows I gave Brian on our wedding day. It went something like this, "I promise to always love you no matter what, but I can't promise I'll always be nice to you and for that I am sorry."

Maybe the reason I cried so much with Allison and Alan is that they remind me so much of Brian and I. Their marriage has a purpose and a calling. In our nearly two years of marriage Brian has yet to raise his voice with me or get angry at me. Yet I can't count the times I have been frustrated or yelled at him for some dumb reason. Through my short temper tantrums (don't worry, I haven't had one for several months!) Brian is always calm and kind and gentle, even as I act like a brat. My "fits" don't last very long as I finally look over at Brian and see in his eyes how deeply he loves me and how much my anger hurts him--if you saw him you couldn't help it, your heart just melts.

Although I highly doubt Allison is subject to temper tantrums like me! So don't get any bad ideas about her!

Another story. (Now I'm rambling.) This one shows that Allison really is a better woman than I. During Alan's toast he mentioned how it blessed him so much that though when he met Allison she had next to no interest in baseball, let alone Alan's beloved St. Louis Cardinals, she worked hard to become a fan of them and even took up reading the baseball stats from the paper to talk about them with people (although Alan claims she didn't know what half of the stats actually meant but he loved that she was trying!). Alan says that shows what an amazing woman she was and how it meant so much to him that she was trying to take an interest in what was important to him. This part of his toast reminded me of a fateful night when Brian and I were sharing a meal at Country Kitchen after one of our pre-marital counseling sessions. We had a list of a few "homework questions" to discuss. One of which was, "If I could do anything different to bless you, what would it be?" I asked the question of Brian, expecting his reply to be, "Absolutely nothing, you're perfect just as you are," which was his usual response to everything. (Told you he was amazing!) That night, however, his response went something like this, "Mallory, I've been thinking a lot about that question and I don't want you to feel hurt by this in any way whatsoever. You know that I love sports--I follow them all on ESPN.com: golf, tennis, hockey, basketball, football--you name it I follow it. But to be honest I would like to watch at least one on TV from time to time. The problem is that I don't want to be one of those husbands that watch games without his wife while she scurries around the house doing things. I love you and I want you to be by my side always. Even when I'm watching a sport. So, Mallory, what would really bless me is if you picked one of those sports to take interest in and watch it with me from time to time." My response? I cried. Isn't it amazing he still loved me enough to marry me? Boy am I blessed.


So enough rambling. Here are a few of my favorites from the Hughes' wedding, FINALLY. (And check out Alan's groom's cake!)