As wedding photographers, one of the best parts of interacting with so many couples is hearing their stories. Each engaged couple has such a unique journey that’s brought them to where they are, and it’s one of the first questions we usually ask when we sit down to talk wedding photography with new couples. If you follow our blog, you know that we love to share stories as we show off images from our sessions – both our clients’ stories and stories from our time together.

 

However, it occurred to us this fall that the story that’s featured the least on our blog and social media is our own! Now that the cold weather is settling in and we won’t be shooting sessions three times a week, we finally have space on our blogging calendar to tell our own love story! As high school sweethearts, it’s a long one, but we hope you’ll join us each Saturday this winter as we share our story.

 

On our second dating anniversary, Hunter gave me a photobook filled with pictures, ticket stubs, and other trinkets that we had collected since we had begun dating. He called the album, “Remember that Time?” and it was filled with little reminders of fun dates and adventures we had had. Unbeknownst to me, just a few months into our relationship he had been making small notes on his phone anytime we went somewhere new or had a fun adventure with friends so that he could one day give me that book. When we sat down this fall to talk about this blog series, we couldn’t think of a title that was more true to us than “Remember that Time?”

 

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Episode 7: Remember that Time… We Did Our First Practice Shoot??

 

The spring semester of my sophomore year in college – the semester that our relationship changed forever – was over before we knew it. And looking back on that summer, there was one thing that really stood out to me during that time: photography.

 

Ever since I met Hunter, photography had been one of his hobbies. In high school he had photographed a few family reunions and birthday parties to make a little side money, while shooting a lot of sports and events for our school’s newspaper and yearbook. During the year or so after he graduated high school, he had even started experimenting with portraits – a family session here and a few senior sessions there – and even got a few gift cards as ‘thank-you’, since of course everything he was shooting was just for friends.

 

But that summer, a mom reached out to him about hiring him to do her daughter’s senior session at the end of the summer. This was big. Someone actually wanted to pay him for his photography! Before I knew what had happened, I had become the exclusive model for a summer full of practice sessions. Of course, I had no idea how to model and Hunter had no idea how to pose, so we came up with some… interesting… choices between the two of us. Looking back on these photos now, there were some hilarious mistakes that we made, betraying our lack of understanding of light and composition #selftaughtphotographerstruggles

 

 

But that summer was really where Hunter and Sarah Photography all started. In fact, one afternoon while out on one of these practice shoots, a man come up to us and asked to photograph us for his Facebook Page “Friends of Colonial Williamsburg”. We already had our first ever behind-the-scenes photo!

 

 

That summer I spent a lot of time in my blue dress (which was apparently the only one I liked at the time). As he started to get more and more paid opportunities, I went from practice model to assistant/posing-instructor to help the senior girls feel more comfortable. Although Hunter was the one behind the camera, we were learning most of the photography and lighting principles side-by-side and before I knew it, I had a camera in my hand too. But that’s a whole other story…

 

 

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Check out the rest of our story below!

• Episode 1: Remember that Time… We First Met?
• Episode 2: Remember that Time… I Asked You Out?
• Episode 3: Remember that Time… You Took Me to Prom?
• Episode 4: Remember that Time… You Left For College?
• Episode 5: Remember that Time… You Moved to Charlottesville?
• Episode 6: Remember that Time… Our Relationship Changed Forever?
• Episode 8: Remember that Time… I Decided I Was Going to Marry You?
• Episode 9: Remember that Time… I Took a Chance on Us?
• Episode 10: Remember that Time… I Asked You to Marry Me?
• Episode 11: Remember that Time… We Almost Missed Our Engagement Session?
• Episode 12: Remember that Time… We Said “I Do”?