They fell in love at 16. Sixteen!
For nearly half their lives, Zach and Alexis have been learning to know and love each other, and boy, do their years of practice show.
Some weddings shine in their thoughtful details. Others shine because of the love at the heart of them, with all the little details simply adding to the beauty of the day. Zach and Alexis’s wedding was the latter. It was a celebration of a love that had been growing for years, surrounded by the people who had watched it grow.
And somehow, I got to be there to photograph it.
A friendship of unusual beginnings
I first met Zach at the finish line of a half marathon. Actually, scratch that. We’d never spoken in real life. We’d simply shared a few miles during the race and followed each other on Strava afterward. (Think social media, but for runners.)
Seven months later, Zach drove Alexis to San Diego so he could run another race, and we planned to meet up for a run the following day, the first time we’d ever meet face to face.
Little did I know, Zach’s race wasn't the main event that weekend. He had a proposal up his sleeve.
By the time we met for our run, Zach and Alexis had been engaged for all of 12 hours! And as it turned out, he'd popped the question in my very favorite spot, both as a runner and as a photographer.
A month later, they returned to San Diego, this time for their engagement session at the very spot where Zach had asked Alexis to marry him. It was my first time meeting Alexis, and I must say, I fell in love. (You picked a good one, Zach!)
The way these two adore each other, not to mention their sweet dogs, made me want to get them in front of my camera again and again.
So you can imagine my delight when they asked me to photograph their wedding!
From occasional visits to calling it home
Long before the wedding day arrived, Zach and Alexis decided that occasional visits to San Diego just weren't enough. They packed up their lives and moved to this little slice of paradise.
Naturally, one of my first orders of business was recruiting Zach to join the local racing team I run for. Now, it's hard to remember a time before he was part of it.
Over the past year, I’ve shared countless miles with Zach (and I have him to thank for pushing me through countless hard workouts), and have gotten to know so much about his & Alexis’ sweet relationship in the process. I knew their wedding would be something special, but I don't think I was fully prepared for how much the day would move me.
There's something uniquely meaningful about photographing a couple surrounded by people who have known them through so many different seasons of life. Almost everyone at Zach and Alexis's wedding had known them for at least a decade, and some for 20 years or more.
These were the people who had watched them grow up. Who knew them when their love was brand new. Who had celebrated with them when they became fiancés. And now, they had traveled to a gorgeous Escondido estate to witness Zach and Alexis joining their lives together as husband and wife.
Being surrounded by that much shared history made the day feel especially meaningful. This wasn't just a room full of people celebrating a wedding. It was a room full of people who had been part of the story all along.
The moments I'll remember most
If I had to choose my two favorite parts of the day, it would be the first look and the toasts.
Zach and Alexis chose to read their vows to each other privately before the ceremony. It was an intimate moment, set apart from the beautiful busyness of the day, when they could simply be together and remind each other what this commitment meant.
Between the two of them, my husband (who was second shooting with me), and me, not a single eye was dry.
And then there were the toasts. The decades of shared history in their friends’ and family members’ words made these toasts special. By the end of them, I felt like I’d completed a crash course in Zach & Alexis, and in the beautiful love story they have built together. These are two people who, in the way they conduct themselves in a crowd, could not be more different if they tried. And it’s the most endearing kind of polar opposites you’ve ever seen. But when the crowd fades away and it’s just the two of them, it’s like watching two hearts become one right before my eyes. They have unique passions but support each other endlessly, they see and bring out the best in each other, they are patient and playful and kind and goofy with one another, and they give off a warmth that invites everyone around them to be at ease. Zach and Alexis are the cream of the crop, and I wish them all the best in the beautiful marriage they have just begun!
