Jenny & Leviy! Congratulations you guys! I am so excited to work with you over this next year. I want to thank everyone for the overwhelming number of entries to our second annual Free Wedding Photography contest, and votes. We had so many votes for the 3 finalist couples, who were all wonderful. Thank you all, I’m blessed to have heard each of your stories.
For those of you in the industry that wonder why I do this … well … here is why. When I spoke to Jenny this morning, she had me crying and she was crying as well. Wow! I am greatful. And, last week, I received this from Nate (the groom from this year’s winner). Seriously, I am so happy to offer my services to such amazing and deserving couples. Nate, thank you for everything (and for giving me permission to post this)!
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So Karie, my dear, what on earth would we have done without you? I want you to know how appreciative both Angela and I are that by some chance star crossing you and your family came into our lives. There is something magic that you do and the way you do it. You make time stand still and preserve moments as they were in a way that takes my breath away still.
I know how much your career and what you do means to you. I can tell how invested you are in your career and see how being so selfless to your passion has made you successful. I thought instead of just telling you thank you for all you have done I would play off of your 2010 giveaway rules to say thanks, so here goes:
Our names are Angela and Nate Talocco and I suppose you could always respond back to this email if you wanted to get a hold of us. Our wedding date was on June 13th 2009 at the Botanic Gardens in Denver.
You know how we met and how important to me Angela is but just as most things do, our love has grown since the last time I wrote you. Before I sat down and wrote you I looked at our engagement photos and just fell apart. Seeing Ang as beautiful and stunning as you captured her that day makes me just stop and appreciate her for all she is. Thank you for that. Thank you for reminding me of how we felt that day and how excited and nervous we both were to be getting married. I can look at those photos and remember a time in our lives that was so special and exciting. Because of you I have a souvenir of my life like no other with Angela. Thank you.
Since those photos Angela and I have become quite a team. We have worked hard to start a life together and experienced the ups and downs of disappointments and successes. We have committed to each other eternity and then some. We have fought like enemies and made up like lovers. We have been stripped down to the soul and bared all to one another only to fall in love more. We have bled, sweat, and cried together and for one an other. We have grown up and also grew young at heart. We have found the joy that only lovers have as well as the trust that partners have. All of that led us to our marriage that we were grateful for you to be a part of.
June 13th, 2009 was the most amazing day of my life. I was nervous, anxious, amazed, awestruck, elated, excited, joyful, and exhausted all in about five hours of my life. It was like no other day, I promised the woman of my dreams forever and had the favor returned. I will never forget the way that felt….and because of you I will never forget how it looked. I looked at our album you gave us today and made it about five pages before I was in tears. You have an amazing gift to take people back, to give them a second and third chance to relive a moment; a moment that means the world. I cannot be appreciative enough for that gift.
You ask what photography means to me and I would have to say it is like a door. A magical door that when opened can take you back to a place, a moment, a memory that is so real the emotions from that time poor out of your heart and pump through your veins. There is one photo of Angela over my shoulder after all was said and done of just her eyes that I can’t look at without the world standing still. She looks absolutely amazing and is the happiest I had ever seen her. You captured that and gave that to me. While it is just a simple photo, you gave me the happiest women in the world every time I look at it. I can’t thank you enough for that.
It is amazing how looking at a photo you took can bring me tears. I can look at a photo and remember just how sweet Angela smelt as I “kanoodled” with her and how my heart stops when she looks at me with those deep beautiful eyes. You capture the essence of her and I just know in fifty years I will be able to look at what you have done and have that same feeling I did then and my heart skip that same beat it did that day.
So our love story may not be much different than the next couple but I do know one distinct difference. I have the memories you have given us. I have images that I can look at, and no matter the day, they will be the doors that take me back. Thank you Karie for all that you have done, and all that you do. The next couple who wins you contest will be just as lucky as us and I only hope they appreciate it and see what a great artist and person you are.
Thank you!
Nate
