This weekend, we photographed Hahn and Sam's wedding. They came in from New York, they wanted to come home and marry where they met and fell in love. I spoke with Hahn over the phone before we met, we also did some chatting over instant messenger. We met once, 8 months ago, give or take. She has been in her second year of medical school in New York, so her time is extremely limited. I met her again on Wednesday before the wedding to discuss final details of her traditional Vietnamese ceremony.
I have a baby, Bishop, he is 1.5 years old. He often accompanies me to meetings, that Wednesday was no exception. I was taking notes while chatting with Hahn and Sam and the baby wanted to be feisty, so Hahn just grabbed him right out of my arms and started playing with him (she has a 5 month old nephew herself.) I thought that was the coolest thing in the world. I want people to be so comfortable with me, and me with them, that they wouldn't think twice about going into my frigidaire and grabbing a snack or a soda. Or grabbing my baby to entertain him. We actually chatted about this exchange at her wedding I told her how much I loved it that she felt comfortable enough with me to do that and Sam told her after our meeting, "dude, you grabbed a white girl's baby." Sam is caucasian, Texas born and raised and Hahn is Vietnamese raised primarily in Australia, these types of comments flowed all day. Apparently in her family, which is extensive, it's perfectly acceptable to grab someone's baby, I felt like family. I was honored.
We arrived at her ceremony site 45 minutes early to scope it out, and meet all of her family. What an amazing group of people, Steve and I kept saying, "Have you met Hahn's sister? She is the sweetest!" "Have you met Sam's mom? She is out of this world!" Their wedding was broken up into 2 sections of the day, the traditional morning ceremony and the modern evening reception. At the ceremony in the morning, I wept like a baby, I know how important this was to the whole family that their families join in this cultural service and I was truly moved. The evening went off without a hitch, pictures, cupcakes, dancing, sparklers, amazing. At the end of the evening, Hahn ran through her line of sparklers, like she'd been training for it, her entire life. At the end, by the car, she grabbed me and hugged me and told me she loved me. And I love her, this is the kind of relationship we should have if that's your thing, if it's not, then I'm probably not the photographer for you.
Congratulations to all of you who have found the RIGHT photographer. It's a painstaking process, but it's worth the effort.
She-N-He
Austin Wedding Photography and Design
