"Everyone wants great wedding photos!"

[Your wedding photographer is a very important decision - I know you know that because I'm sure you have looked through a ton of great wedding photography sites.]

Everyone wants great wedding photos. That included me.

Before I met Keith or knew that I was even going to get married, I already had in mind the type of wedding photographer that I wanted.

I was in no particular rush to get married, in fact I quite enjoyed my single life in NYC - but for some reason I would occasionally sit in a bookstore with a stack of glossy wedding magazines, flipping through the pages, my eye drawn to an editorial style of photography. I would see Denis Reggie’s images in these magazines, his photos were devoid of cliche, unobtrusive, documentary in style and I knew that was exactly what I wanted.

I didn’t want trendy, I wanted iconic.

I didn’t want ruffled blue tuxedo, I wanted black tie sophistication but in a beach setting.

I wanted to see what everyone was up to at our wedding. And I wanted to look really good in my photos.

I wanted to feel my photos.

I wanted to cry when I looked at some and laugh when I looked at others.

I wanted to be oblivious to the camera but I wanted to be able to relive my wedding day years later.

I didn’t want static set ups by the photographer but instead I wanted photos of the two of us, our family + friends, the love and emotion happening all around us,

I wanted the laughter, the tears, the entire day captured in a way that would always bring me right back to these moments no matter how many years had passed.

Yes of course I needed to have posed family portraits, because these photos become family heirlooms but I also wanted photos that meant something else to me. I wanted timeless, classic, real photography. I wanted a retelling of what was going on with Keith and I and everyone that had made the voyage to St John to celebrate our wedding with us. I wanted the full story.

What I got was exactly that.

Now, almost 20 years later I look at my wedding photos and can relive virtually every moment of my wedding day. The villa perched above Trunk Bay, the smell of the light rain that fell right before the ceremony began, my friend Sarah writing out K&M in seashells collected from the beach, my sister crying almost all day + night (happy I hope!), my cousin hugging me after the ceremony, Keith and I running from the rain during our photos, the steel drum duo playing for hours because the DJ did not show up, everyone sweating and having a great time on the dance floor.

I knew what spoke to me. I knew what I liked and what I didn't. I couldn't be happier. This is what was important to me.  What is important to you?

(PS Side note: Denis Reggie did not photograph our wedding. I loved his photo journalistic, documentary style. We were honored to have Keith's best friend as our photographer for the long weekend of wedding festivities. We wouldn't have had it any other way!)