Typically when I share wedding stories on this blog, I talk about the couple and their day, and it’s a lovely (albeit contained) post. But I feel as though I have to go further back for this particular story — and it’s a bit more personal this time, too. Four years ago, I walked into a neighborhood jewelry store to get extra links from a new watch removed. When an associate asked me how to spell my name to put me into their customer records, there was another young woman working behind the counter — well, studying me, really, like we’d gone to elementary school together — who interjected with, “Elissa R? The photographer?”
“That’s me,” I said, wondering if we’d met before.
“I’m Kristin!” the young woman said, jumping up from her seat. “I love your work! I’m not engaged yet, but I’m totally going to call you when I am!”
It was amazingly flattering, to say the least, and the first time anything like that has ever happened to me! I stopped by that jewelry store often, to window-shop and to drape my hands in diamonds while Kristin and her new rescue dog Lola (the sweetest pitbull who sat quietly in a corner of the store) kept me company, and I learned that Kristin had been dating her boyfriend Zhiyi for a while. When the couple moved to Amsterdam, taking Lola with them, I was pretty bummed: I really thought that I would never see them again, outside of social media.
Lo, several years later, Kristin popped up in my inbox: “I’m engaged!” she said. “I’m ready to hire you for my wedding in Houston.”
And what a wedding! Kristin and Zhiyi had had a wedding in China a few months before the Houston one, so this was a little more subdued, but still tremendously gorgeous. They had a double-happiness backdrop custom-made and set up at the altar; the wedding was a smorgasbord of deep, rich colors, including Kristin’s bouquet and lanterns strewn throughout. It was a lovely, overcast afternoon wedding with Dutch stroopwafel and sausage served for brunch, and I’m so, so happy that I was able to be a part of Kristin and Zhiyi’s Houston wedding.
Credits: 5226 Elm Events; Hedrick’s Catering and Events; Secret Floral Garden; Village Bakery; New Olympic Bakery; L’atelier de Art On It; SpeedPro Sugar Land (custom backdrop); engagement ring designed by the bride’s sister and executed by Varna
Elissa!!! This is perfection!! Oh my gosh – so so gorgeous. Love that black and white of the veil blowing while she was dancing!