Wedding Blog

I love my fiance, I really do. But right now, I’m totally crushing on our photographer. (Sorry, baby. I’ll try to be over him by the wedding.)One of the first things I looked into after the question pop was photography, and at first, prospects looked bleak. Everything I saw was uber-cheesy and just plain boilerplate. Finally, I stumbled across a website that stopped me cold, in a good way: Chris Richards Photography.

“Chris Richards,” I read, “is an award-winning photojournalist based in Tucson, Arizona. His clients include the New York Times, USA Today, Rolling Stone Magazine, and (here I had to wipe the drool off the screen to see the rest) and National Geographic Adventure…” I clicked through to the images, and it was Game Over. His wedding shots were amazing, but it was actually his published work that really floored me.

Do you know that feeling, when you find something you want so bad, it actually makes you panic, because you’re afraid you won’t get it? Well, that’s what it was like. I was instantly, irrationally stressed out about it, convincing myself we wouldn’t get him: “Oh my god, we have to get this guy, but he’s probably booked, I’m sure he’s booked, he’s clearly the best around, he’ll never be available, oh my god, what are we going to do, WE HAVE TO GET THIS GUY!!”

After setting me up with a Xanax, my blanky, and a Harry Potter book, Mr. L emailed my new crush. Luckily for all involved, he only made us wait a half day before putting me out of my agony: he was, praise be, available.

We set up an appointment to see his portfolio; his suggestion that we meet at Club Congress (a hipster hangout downtown) only made me more gaga. He brought with him a few different portfolios, showing the full collection of photos from weddings he’d done recently. Over a thousand shots taken at each, and they were consistently thoughtful, expressive, and well-composed. He currently works for the Arizona Daily Star (and was just named employee of the year!), so he’s definitely of the realism-not-cheesism school.

One of the things we loved about him was that he asked us a lot about ourselves, our relationship, what sort of wedding we envisioned, etc. He asked about my dress, our wedding party, and wanted to see our wedding website. “Anything I can get to know about you guys before hand will help me take the best, most personal pictures possible,” he said.

He talked about the couples in his photographs as if they were old friends, which seemed to us a great sign. Plus, he’s all about creative, crazy ish: when I told him my idea of sneaking into some of my old UofA classrooms for engagement pics, he said, “Oh, I’m always down for a little B & E…”

And while we saw that we’re on the same wave length as far as artistic, journalistic pictures, he let us know that he’ll still be sure to take the parent-pleasing, posed, group shots; but that he’ll do it as “quickly and painlessly as possible.” Yes! Happiness, thy name is an understanding photog!

Enough gushing. Some samples of his work:

We’re dying to do an engagement session, but since it’ll involve running around the city to fun locations, we think it’s best to wait until after the brutal heat/monsoon season. But I can hardly wait!