so we're wedding photographers

As you may recall, I married a for-real wedding photographer, thus fulfilling my fondest wish/most unrealistic dream of getting to be a husband + wife wedding photographer team. The very first wedding we shot together was before we really knew each other ("strictly professional") (hah!), the second one was a friend's wedding and he asked me to dance at the end of the night, and since then, we've shot at least 21 more weddings together.

And now it's been almost an entire year since our wedding and we've gone from winter projects and engagement and senior shoots to the slowly-starting wedding season in the spring (with plenty of time for vacations!) to the full-blown, hardly-a-moment-for-anything-else summer season. August has been CRAZY. As well as record-hot for mild old Oregon. 

we're obsessed with central oregon weddings, like this incredible desert wedding last November. freezing cold, bonfire, floating lanterns, and trailers for all of the guests (and us!) to stay in. the best.

We're wedding nerds. We really are. We know way too much about every intricacy of a wedding day, and have an alarming amount of conversations about our favorite kind of bridal gown, bouquet, vows, and hairstyles.

It's such a crazy thing to be able to be a part of a couples' best-day-ever, and get a window into their always-unique relationship, families, and friends. We always get too attached (Peter in a less weeping-during-the-ceremony kind of way).

We're getting better and better at working together--something which is not always a piece of cake, especially with how high-stress weddings can be. Thankfully, I married someone who deals with stress like a boss. So that helps. Things like differing work ethics (his is exceptional... mine is howshallisay--weak), figuring out who does what for post-processing, publishing, etc.

We're in more and more of a groove, and I love having more and more of a system. I'll help cull and reply to emails, do all hand-writing related activities :), write for the blog, do most of the facebook stuff, and the increasing list of little post-wedding things we have to do. By the way: linkage. Our site, Peter Mahar Photography and our facebook page!

Some favorites from the most of the weddings we've shot since getting married:

denver, colorado in january. this family is the best. we shot their second daughter's wedding in June, and are shooting their third daughter's next month!

eastern washington. roadtrip adventure + amazing people + crazy weather.

vancouver, BC. I had no idea that Canada was so stunning. sheesh.

denver again! 

we'd always wanted to shoot this guy's wedding. (a friend of Peter's, who incidentally teased him about me from the very beginning.) :)

our friend-since-forever married a girl from pennsylvania short notice on a tuesday because he's a pilot and their original wedding date wasn't going to work anymore. it ended up being incredible aaand also the hardest week ever possibly because we did three weddings in five days. 

(it's always a plus to get to shoot a wedding that your CUTER THAN ANYTHING nephew is at.)

a rare actually portland wedding for old friends. 

quirky venue that made us all nostalgic for our wedding!

...also with a photo booth. contrary to facebook rumors, this is a wig I'm wearing. 

bend, oregon. one of the most emotional + breathtaking weddings I've ever seen. bride & groom completely in love and never able to stop crying.

two friends we both grew up with--the kind of friends you match-make from infancy but never to each other and then all of a sudden bam--they get together and of course they're perfect for each other. (she can handle his bizarre and hilarious behavior).

(all three of my brothers were groomsmen which was the coolest.)

sunriver, oregon. got to stay at the resort and stay up late watching cooking shows in bed. ♥

sisters, oregon. fell in love with the utterly adorable couple and we got to stay in the most incredible room we've ever seen. (guys, water for the giant tub came from the ceiling.)

hood river, oregon. she's an olympic skier and the mountain view was stunning. came home sunburnt with a beer-soaked shoe. a grand time was had by all.

I can't even describe what an outrageous blessing it is to get to work alongside my main squeeze. Top seven reasons it's the bomb:
1. we're married, we get to photograph people getting married. it's bonding and reminding and emotional.
2. he's my favorite photographer and I get to learn his ways.
3. we get to hang out like, a lot. we both have time off at the same time, we both work at the same time, we both get to work at home in our pajamas at the same time, we both distract each other from actually working...
4. I understand what he does for a living (unlike an engineer or a mathematician or something). we can relate about things, not to mention all the shared experiences of the goodbadandtheugly of wedding days. and we get to brainstorm together.
5. he's the hardest dang worker I've ever seen, and I get lots of character building from becoming more like him. he wins at all the really hard, businessy, numbery, rubber-meets-the-road parts of the business. a wedding day is stressful and exhausting (especially when it's a 12 hour + day of shooting), and I couldn't do it without someone as hard-working and magical as him. plus he knows that foot rubs are more valuable after coming home from a wedding than being handed a million dollars.
6. it's exciting. you never know when you might completely bomb, or when you might the most amazing inquiry or review or booked wedding that sends you over the moon.
7. he's super sexy in a vest & tie.