Smooch

.

The Thursday Arch Series is on break because I don't have a bit if new material. Gotta find time to get down there. Besides, I want to run a few more wedding shots. New career?

Our friend Lynne Placek presided at the wedding. After 30 years of teaching, she became a reiki master. Her new interest is being a "celebrant," presiding over weddings and such. She performed a beautiful ceremony. At the end, I made the bride and groom repeat the traditional smooch a couple of times so I could get a good shot. I love the little wrinkly thing with their noses

The Flower Girl

.

Both Dawn and Mark have children and they took an active part in the wedding ceremony. Dawn's three daughters were her attendants. Above, Brinna, one of her twins, strikes the perfect pose. Below, older sister Hannah runs with excitement later in the evening.

A few comments to yesterday's post observed that it was unusual for a group of co-workers  to produce a wedding for one of their colleagues, but that's just what happened. The core of us have been together for ages. We genuinely like one another and treat each other like family. Julie and I started the firm 26 years ago. Cindy, my paralegal, has worked with me for 29 years (since late childhood, I believe). The third lawyer, Don, has been with us for - what? - 23 or 24 years. A couple of years after he showed up he married Cindy (Hey, Bob, he's pretty cute. Get him to take me out to dinner.)  but she will only work with me, a difficult but probably wise decision. Joan, Julie's sister, has been her paralegal for 25 years. Dawn has been Don's paralegal for close to 20 years. It's a wonderful experience to work with people like this.  

My First Wedding

.

No, not as a participant, as a photographer. I went through one of these myself 37 years ago and it seems to have worked out okay. Dawn, our superb paralegal, got married last Saturday. It was a second marriage for her and her husband, Matt, so it wasn't too formal. The ceremony was held outdoors on the small farm that my law partner, Julie Shanahan, owns. Everybody from the office pitched in to put it together.

My contribution was the photography. I told the bride to expect to get what she paid for. Never done this before! I actually got some pretty good stuff, as well as a lot of complete garbage. I think Dawn will like the results well enough.


More of this over the next few days.
 

The Frozen Bride

.
"Honey, tell me again, why are getting married in St. Louis in January?"

"Babe, it was Maui or that rock you were begging for. You can't have everything. But look, you got me."

There are certain locations downtown and in Forest Park where you often see wedding parties and their photographers. Of course, down around the Arch is a prime venue. I spotted this couple on a blustery winter day at the foot of my favorite monument. Did she have to do bare shoulders and arms? Not even a white quilted bolero vest? Anyway, I couldn't resist a little sniping with the telephoto.

The Rest of the Wedding Party

Well, it looks like there was no open bar on the photo bus of yesterday's bride and groom and their attendants. Otherwise, they would never make it down the long concrete stairs (equivalent to about three stories) that lead from the base of the Arch to the levee along the river. I like the way the setting sun catches the lime-colored jackets of some of the bridesmaids. And no, Mr. Blackwell did not design their outfits. They were quite elegant in bright green and black, a daring color choice.

TOMORROW: Thursday Arch Series. The whole big thing, not just a little bit of it. And with something interesting in the middle.

The Happy, Freezing Couple

Would it amuse you to photograph the wedding parties of complete strangers? There are places around St. Louis you can do that on almost any Saturday: in front of the cathedral, several locations in Forest Park and, of course, around the Arch. I run into them all the time, schlepping around on small buses from one scenic backdrop to another, in varying states of happiness and inebriation. (The bar is frequently open on the bus. I have seen more than one bridesmaid swoon, and not from joy.) It's fun in a perverse way to stand back and be catty - oh my gawd, did they hire Mr. Blackwell to do the bridesmaids' dresses? Can the best man stand up long enough to get back to the bus? and so on.

This couple, standing at the foot of the Arch, must be dedicated to love and imagery. The temperature was right at freezing. The bride might collapse from hypothermia before the ceremony.

TOMORROW: same deal as today. A bit of the Arch is in it but it's still not the Thursday Arch Series. You will just have to come back on Thursday for that. It'll be worth it. Promise.