Three weeks ago, Catherine and Jim married one another at St. Anthony’s on the Creek in Lowell, Arkansas and their fall wedding was everything.
Catherine and Jim (now Mr. and Mrs. Chaffin!) met at Vet School in Louisiana and, honestly, I just love how much these two love one another. Their love for one another is super palpable and happiness pulsed from, like, every single part of their wedding day: from the First Look to the Ceremony to the Dance Party – even to the Family Photographs! – Catherine and Jim’s wedding was the happiest wedding ever and their guests were all smiles all day long.
Here’s three things I loved about their day!
One: The Leaves!
Fall sure waited to show its colors off this year but, the week of Catherine and Jim’s wedding, fall exploded in Northwest Arkansas. The trees were yellow and orange and red and gold and I loved the leaves so much. Like, the sky looked like it was glittering from one o’clock in the afternoon to sundown and it was perfect. Way to show off, Arkansas!
Two: These Bridesmaid Rings
For a bridesmaid gift, Catherine gave all her girls rings with a scripted initial and they were lovely.
Three: That Catherine Walked Herself Down the Aisle
When the doors opened in the back of St. Anthony’s on November 4th, the guests in the audience audibly gasped. As in, the whole room took in a breath and then went totally silent. I have been to tons of weddings over the years – twenty so far just this year! – and, honestly, this was the very first time that I have heard an entire chapel take in a collective breath at the bride’s entrance. There’s so much love for this (wonderful!) girl and her walk down the aisle was magic.
And Bonus! No One Judged Me When My Flash Camera Threw a Hissy Fit
During Catherine and Jim’s family formals, my flash threw a bit of a hissy fit.
I use three different flashes and, of the three, one of them is always a bit of a drama queen – it takes a few minutes to warm up and, once it’s warmed up, it likes to buck against me every now and then and, basically, it just needs a little extra love to work 100% right. Due to this, I wasn’t concerned when my flash started acting up and, after changing the batteries didn’t work, I pulled out a different (non-dramatic) flash for family formals. But! The new flash kept misfiring! I had no idea why this was happening (literally none. Like, zero. Zilch.) but, because I was photographing family formals and I had a bunch of people waiting on me, I switched my camera out for Andrew’s and shot the rest of the formals with his camera instead of stewing over why mine was throwing a temper tantrum.
After family formals, though, I found the root of the problem: a teeny, tiny, no-idea-where-it-came-from itty bitty piece of dust had wedged itself into the hotshoe of my camera body. This turned the communication from my camera and flash into a super dramatic will they / won’t they relationship rather than an awesome marriage and, when I found the dust, I laughed really hard. Like, of course I would be the photographer whose camera stopped working because a random piece of dust found its way into her camera body. Haha!
So! HUGE shoutout for all of Catherine and Jim’s family for being awesome when my camera took a time out to throw a fit. Y’all are awesome. And more importantly? CONGRATULATIONS, Catherine and Jim! I’m so thrilled for you both and I absolutely loved being your wedding photographer. Thank you for being so wonderful and also for having the happiest fall wedding ever!
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