Tony and Cindy- Fort Belvoir, VA

After this weekend I’ve made a huge decision when it comes to my photography business. Something that I’ve said from the beginning is that I didn’t want to photograph the wedding of my friends. That might not make sense to some people, but I’ve heard from several other photographers that sometimes mixing friendship with business isn’t the best idea, so I had made that my general rule of thumb… until now. Cindy was literally the very first friend I met when I came to CNU. Scratch that, it was even before I got to school! We were in the same freshman orientation group the summer before and hit it off instantly. We were glued to each others side the entire time and talked about everything from our high schools to the excitement of coming to college, and even braved the dance party that the RA’s threw that night (any other CNU friends remember that dance party?!) I had been excited to come to college all along, but meeting Cindy and instantly clicking with her made me that much more excited to get to know her and for all the other amazing relationships I knew I’d made at school. 

So fastforward a few years, and Cindy and I end up in the same class our last semester, so now the conversations change from excitement for college to excitement for the rest of our lives. Cindy was engaged to Tony and just starting the wedding planning process, so naturally I very strategically just happened to bring my computer to class and edit pictures, secretly hoping that Cindy might see and ask about it.. and it worked! I was THRILLED when she contacted me about shooting the wedding because I knew she would be the most beautiful bride, and I was genuinely so excited to be by her side as she married her best friend. I loved being with my friend on her wedding day and getting to capture all of the laughs and tears and excitement everyone felt as they celebrated Tony and Cindy. Their wedding was everything I’d pictured and more, and you can tell in these pictures how absolutely head over heels crazy in love these two are. Tony and Cindy, thank you for inviting me to capture your wedding day, it meant so much to me! Hope you are LOVING Aruba!! 

A couple finishing touches and the guys were ready to go! Needless to say, the guys had fun with pictures ;0) Tony was looking quite handsome (see Tony I told you these would go on the internet! :0) ) and Cindy was absolutely stunning… hooooly smokes.. tony you are a very lucky man! Love this one of Cindy! there were so many i loved of Tony and Cindy’s first dance, but here are two of my favorites: sometimes a videographers super bright camera light can pose a bit of a problem… aaaand other times it makes for really cool images like this one! okay SO hilarious… one of Tony’s groomsmen had recently gotten married, and decided to pass on one of his wedding gifts to Tony… and yes, that is Cindy very proudly  holding the key behind him ;0) most of you who know me well know I’m such a sucker for daddy/daughter moments, and I’m not exaggerating when I say that Cindy’s dance with her father literally had tears running down my face. I’m not talking just getting a little misty eyed here… ooooh no, I’m talking “I (sniff sniff) neeeeed (sniff sniff) a (sniff sniff) tiiiiiiiiissue!!” kinda tears! They were dancing to “Butterfly Kisses” and it was the last when you could see her dad pull his baby girl in just a little tighter as if he never wanted to let go… and i was a goner… and then the party reeeeally got started! ;0) I was asking Cindy what other people she wanted to make sure she got a picture with, and I was so excited when Cindy asked her uncle to take a picture of us together :0) Love it! Last dance :0) I love the joy in their expressions!! Here’s your slideshow!