Weddingbee Blog

Remember how I said that after we let go of our first photographer we were lucky enough to find another amazing photog with our wedding date available? Well, that is not exactly the entire truth. The truth is that the amazingly talented photographer only had our date open because prior to us hiring her, she was going to be our guest! Jessica Oriole Salay of Oriole Photography is a good friend and sorority sister of mine and I have been obsessed with her work since we lived across the hall from each other in the dorms as freshman. I know, I know, I should have hired her from the start but after standing by her hubby through multiple deployments (who doesn’t love an Army wife?) and having an adorable baby boy, she and her family finally settled back in Richmond and she officially opened up shop at Oriole Photography a few months AFTER we hired photographer number one. That’s what I get for being impatient!!

Fast forward to less than two months before the big day. I had the break up talk with our original photographer, hired Jessica, and set a date to have a far more successful engagement shoot than the first. We had canceled a few times because of weather or Mr. Cloud’s crazy scheduling issues, so even though it was raining on and off all day I was determined to get the pictures done—even to the point of risking frizzy hair! Lucky for us, Jessica was down and tramped around downtown Richmond with us to get some amazing shots!

In the seven years I have lived in this city, even working for quite a while in the Shockoe Bottom area, I had NEVER been to The Canal Walk! It a little slice of Richmond heaven that runs the north bank of the James River near the flood walls.

Ironically this location actually has a big significance in our relationship even though we had never been there. We met at the end of August in 2004, the same month hurricane Gaston hit. Those very flood walls we held our shoot near were no match for Gaston, leaving some parts of downtown under up to ten feet of water. Since my roommates and I were still young bucks, the fabulous Mr. Cloud braved the storm to buy beer and Jell-O (for shots, of course!) for the hurricane party. I’m telling you, it was love at first hurricane with us.

In fact, we were so comfortable with Jessica that we giggled through the whole shoot. We could not. shut. up. It was ridiculous, but so fun. So we ended up with a few shots like this…

Or of Mr. Cloud trying to be a funny guy…

Oriole Photography has a blog to drool over, and Jessica, being a gal after my own heart, was quick to let me know that quite a few of the pictures would make fabulous headers for a blog!

I love every single one!

And I knew we had made the right decision as soon as we saw these fabulous shots!

Did you fall in love with your photographer (for the first time or like me, all over again) when you got your pictures back from your engagement shoot?