What a Jam Packed Weekend

Our weekend wasn't planned on being as busy as we were but life unexpectedly took some turns.

I was on spring break last week and I sit here at work as we speak with some heavy eyes. My week flew by and I didn't really accomplish a whole lot. I was asked in February to photograph a friend's wedding Easter Sunday. So of course, I was nervous and trying to learn some new tricks for lighting. I also borrowed a friend's camera and did my best. I had a lot of shaky photos and missed some shots, but we'll see what photo shop can do for me.

The busyness started Thursday night when our friend Peter Goodwin from Alabama came up for the wedding because he was the best man. He spent the night with us. Friday, he, Jason and I bought stuff for the guys planned bachelor party that night. Paint-balling and barbecue were the activities. Planning took all day. The girls were planning a little get together in Meeteetse for the bride but I didn't want to drive 50 min. there and then back for the evening. (Sorry girls) I went to the guys party for a couple of minutes to capture some shots of the paintball war.




The weather got bad and started snowing so they took off to a shed to start a fire. I went home. By 12:30 AM I'm wondering where Jason and his friend Red are. They came home and told me some horrific news.

The bride Theresa, left her party and rolled her pickup avoiding a deer. Her new sister-in-law was with her. They both survived but Theresa had some major injuries. She broke her scapula (Shoulder), compression fractures in her back, a bruised lung, bruises, and cuts. They brought her to a hospital in Billings. We and many others were shocked and didn't know if the wedding would continue. So, we had a late night of talking and phone calls.
Saturday morning, Red, Jason, Peter and I went for breakfast and went over to the auditorium to help set up for the wedding. They were going to try to go through with it. There were many things to do but we did get 95% of it done and had rehearsal without the bride and groom. We picked up Kurt and Heidi Lancaster to stay at our place along with Peter and Red. We were notified by the groom, John, that the doctors were releasing Theresa Sunday morning.
Sunday morning we all skipped church and had a late breakfast. We all went to our respected positions for the wedding and Peter and I went to take guy pictures. The guys were late getting ready but we did get them done.


I ran over to Theresa's apartment where the girls were getting ready. They were also taking longer to get ready because they were being very careful with Teresa. I mostly got shots of her getting ready and giving her girls their gifts. By then it was 10 minutes till show time.

The wedding went off with out a hitch. You could feel the Holy Spirit all over the wedding. The atmosphere was one of thankfulness that Theresa was alive and able to be at her wedding. She is an strong willed woman. She wanted to walk down the aisle and she stood through the vows and prayers and walked out. She did sit some for the worship music, but she made it. God really worked a miracle on her visible injuries. Her eye was red and she had some bruises but makeup covered it and she looked great.

(She only wore the sling for the reception)

All in all, it was a great wedding. Friends coming together trying our best to do what they would have liked and finish the job. They were both really touched by everything that we put together for them. She had some ideas but we kind of had to go with what we had and what some of us knew what they wanted. It turned out really well.
http://www.codyenterprise.com/articles/2008/03/25/news/news1.txt
This is the link to the local paper. They were featured on the front page. Have a look. I was really impressed with what John said and equally impressed that the paper didn't leave God out of it.

It was a fun weekend with some long nights, but it was fun to come around this couple, bless them and get caught up with some friends we haven't seen in a long while.