If it’s August, this must be… um, where am I? I’m finishing a string this weekend of 5 weekends, 5 weddings, 4 states. For those of you scoring at home, that’s Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia last weekend, and Massachusetts on Sunday.

Anyway, this past weekend, it was the New River Gorge in central West Virginia, a kayaker’s paradise. In fact, for North Carolinians Tiffany and Craig, two people who met on a river in their kayaks, this was where they’d gotten engaged, and this was the place they wanted to share with friends and family. Since their love of whitewater extends to nearly all their friends and to Craig’s family, it was a given that the vehicles lining up at the Confluence Resort for their wedding would be toting a rainbow’s worth of colored kayak shells.

The resort was a fantastic place for a wedding. At the bottom of the hill, there was a path, leading to an overhang with a magnificent view of the river gorge below. That was the setting for the wedding ceremony, conducted by a minister who had known Tiffany since she was a small child. Their reception took place at sunset with a bluegrass band playing the music, a wonderfully appropriate touch for this serene location.

More photos from this wedding are available, as always, on the Facebook page!

I know, I know. My stuff was in the new issue of Kentucky Bride, but I wasn’t at the show? What gives?

Well… I was doing a destination wedding for Tiffany and Craig, a lovely couple from North Carolina, at the Confluence Resort in the New River Gorge out in Fayetteville, West Virginia, which, for this pair of kayakers, was a dream location.

I’ll have some photos of their wedding up later this week, but I had to share a couple from their day after session right away– towards the end, we found a waterfall, and bless their hearts, they didn’t care if it was ice cold if they could get this…

More to follow soon!

As frequent readers of this blog know, I shot Danielle and Jaush’s engagement photos a few weeks ago. During that time, they let me in on a little secret… “We’re already married.”

They had originally decided to have a very small ceremony back on Valentine’s Day, only a couple of family members present. But somewhere along the way, they decided instead to go ahead and have a bigger ceremony later on, which they could share with their friends and even more family members. This might have had something to do with the fact Danielle had seen a really spectacular dress. On the other hand, it would mean that she’d have to speak in front of people, and that kinda terrified her a little. (Having talked with many brides, I can assure you, it’s a common feeling.) She was more than a little nervous that morning…

Well, the big day came at last, and Danielle and Jaushwa got married at Choateville Christian Church, just outside of Frankfort. Danielle said all the right words in the right order and sounded terrific doing it. Jaush not only played and sang a song he’d written for Danielle, but he also sang his vows as well. It was a touching, heartfelt ceremony that readily acknowledged the fact that they’d done this once before. In a way, it made the whole service just feel like it wasn’t just about the couple but that it really involved everyone who had come out to support them in this part of life’s journey…

By the end of the day, it was easy to see not only how much they meant to each other, but how much they cared for their families, and their friends. Talking with them throughout this process, it was clear that they weren’t the type of people who were doing the bigger version of the wedding because our society tells you this is the type of wedding you’re expected to have– they were doing it because their marriage was something that they wanted to share with so many of the people who matter most of them. And in the end, isn’t that what we all want to preserve most from our wedding day?

For more images from this wedding, click here to visit my business page on Facebook!