Pictures up to my eyeballs!

So I had a really big New Year's Day...

I was asked to take...take...Wedding Pictures. Gasp. Please, pick yourself up off the floor...

Here's the story: Alicia's little brother, Matt, was getting married. And ya'll know I've known Alicia's fam as long as I've been alive. Plus, I've gotten to know his fiance, Robin, through the dog & pony show & other family functions. (Remember she helped me out at the birthday party I took the great nieces too when Erin got married?!) Sooooo, when she asked me to do her wedding pictures - I had an anxiety attack. Here's the thang - I have no clue what I'm doing. Sure, I can point the camera, focus the lens & push the button. Yup, I got that.

I told Robin, "Hold up. Wait a minute. I'm not professional or anything!" She's a brave little soldier & said that was fine. Like I said - brave... She's a super laid back kinda girl & she said she'd feel more comfortable with someone taking pics that she knew. PLUS that meant I got to stalk the Gettelfingers on their special day!

Of course, they all know I love to be bossy & they had no problem letting them boss them around. It was the.best.day.ever. Matt's dad kept saying, "Hey - we just do what she tells us. If she tells me to stand there & smile - I will!" Score!

I did have a epic FAIL moment. During the ceremony I was holding my camera at the ready. And after a certain time, the flash goes into a 'sleep' mode. Well, uhm - I didn't wake it up before the moment of truth (the kiss...) & when I hit the shutter button, it woke the flash up & poof! The kiss was over. However - I'm sure lotsa people in the crowd got that pic!

Like I said - epic. fail...

But lets not dwell on the negative! Here are the lovely bride & groom! So I took about 200 pictures at the wedding in the afternoon. Shauna had let me borrow her super heavy external flash to help with the pics. I was there for about 2 1/2 hours. After the wedding, the bff had asked me if I would take their family pictures. And she just didn't mean HER 4 person family. She meant the 15 person mom, dad, sisters & their families pictures!

I left from the wedding & went to Carrie's sisters house. We started with the whole group (uhm-I still need to work on photo-shopping these -so don't judge...)

Awwww - what a good pic. The chick who took this is awesome-sauce!!
So I had about 2 hours (& 200 pics) of photo taking for the bff. By the time I got home, my shoulders & arms were killing me! Robin had invited us to the reception that evening at their home. They only live about 10 minutes from us so I told B-rad we'd run by for a little bit.

Robin's new brother-in-law, Mike, said, "There's Jaime Mac! Did you bring your camera with you?!" Uhm - no. I could barely lift my arms enough to take out my contacts. I didn't even have the strength to hold the camera up! We had a great time & ended up staying for a couple of hours! Everyone just went on & on about how good of a job I did & if you think I was leaving one second early to miss any of that, you are ca-razy!

Thanks again, Robin GETTELFINGER, for letting me capture the memories on your special day & for letting us share in the reception celebration! It was a truly an honor for me!!!