This post is part 1 in a 3-part series. Read Part 1 – Read Part 2 – Read Part 3

When Sarah and Jon got married, the Red Bats split up as usual for the getting ready part of the day. Patrick went to the groom’s designated location in a sort of cabin in the redwoods, and I hung out at the house where the bride grew up. It was a privilege to be part of this event – the house was clearly full of family love and good memories. Places like that are my favorite places in the world, and I drank in the warmth and the laughter and felt glad to have been invited along.

There were eleven bridesmaids! That’s right, ELEVEN. (Also, three junior bridesmaids and two flower girls.) A new Red Bat record. While looking at the photos later, I realized I didn’t know much about bridesmaids. How were bridesmaids invented? What was their original function? As a wedding photographer, I should know these things. So I went to my good friend Wikipedia, and asked about bridesmaids.

Wikipedia on bridesmaids: The Western bridesmaid tradition is thought to have originated from Roman Law, which required ten witnesses at a wedding in order to outsmart evil spirits (believed to attend marriage ceremonies) by dressing in identical clothing to the bride and groom, so that the evil spirits would not know who was getting married. Even as late as 19th century England, there was a belief that ill-wishers could administer curses and taint the wedding. In Victorian wedding photographs, for example, the bride and groom are frequently dressed in the same fashion as other members of the bridal party.

Well how about that! I had no idea bridesmaids were a defense against evil spirits. Of course, in their contemporary form, they’re usually clad quite differently from the bride, as they were at this wedding. In fact, when surrounding the bride in their orange dresses, Sarah’s bridesmaids could be said to make her more of a target to lurking evil spirits than she would be otherwise.

Fortunately, all evil spirit efforts were destined to fail on that day. Instead, bride and bridesmaids got ready and posed for portraits and drank tea and made their way on foot up the long driveway (this house is in the woods of Ben Lomond) to the limo. All eleven bridesmaids plus the bride crowded into the limo, and because this photographer insisted on getting in too when there wasn’t any more room, I got to sit on top of the bar for the duration of the ride. These limo rides with the bridesmaids to the ceremony are not to be missed. There is often screaming and raucous laughter and dirty jokes. And while it’s hard to get clear shots in such a dark and shaky location, it’s worth trying because the ones that work out are priceless.

Enjoy these photos, and tune in for the rest of the story in a few days…

Why, who makes much of a miracle?
As to me I know of nothing else but miracles,
Whether I walk the streets of Manhattan,
Or dart my sight over the roofs of houses toward the sky,
Or wade with naked feet along the beach just in the edge of the water,
Or stand under trees in the woods,
Or talk by day with any one I love, or sleep in the bed at night with any one I love,
Or sit at table at dinner with the rest,
Or look at strangers opposite me riding in the car,
Or watch honey-bees busy around the hive of a summer forenoon,
Or animals feeding in the fields,
Or birds, or the wonderfulness of insects in the air,
Or the wonderfulness of the sundown, or of stars shining so quiet and bright,
Or the exquisite delicate thin curve of the new moon in spring;
These with the rest, one and all, are to me miracles,
The whole referring, yet each distinct and in its place.

Miracles
by Walt Whitman

I wanted to give you some photos that aren’t focused on people getting married, because I know many of you aren’t necessarily holding your breath waiting for new wedding photos to appear here. Also, lots more photos of the nuptial variety will be posted here in the near future, and I figure even those of you who are in the process of choosing a wedding photographer (and thus becoming professional evaluators of wedding photographs) could use a bit of a breather between glorious love stories.

So I’ve dipped into the personal archives and come up with a few from a day in the forest back in June of last year. I believe it was my first day out with my new macro lens, and I remember how exhilarating that was, and how sore my arms felt after a day of trying to hold the camera steady to practice my flower shots. The legs were sore too- there is a lot of squatting involved when photographing bugs, who often do their stuff rather close to the ground.

Anyway, miracles: all over the place. Don’t forget.