Sarah & Eric's Grow Dat Youth Farm Wedding, New Orleans, Louisiana
This is Sarah & Eric’s wedding that I shot in New Orleans earlier this year. Sarah & Eric found me on A Practical Wedding and contacted me after searching tirelessly for a wedding photographer. We bonded over some unconventional music choices I had made for some wedding photo slideshows I created for clients, and that was that, they flew me out from Los Angeles to document for their celebration last April!
Sarah & Eric were married at a Grow Dat Youth Farm, an Urban Farm and Youth Development Organization that employs over 100 youth from across New Orleans, Louisiana. Their wedding brought a sudden and crazy hurricane-esque storm and had us all on our toes on the day-of (as New Orleans has been known to do), and wondering if the wedding would be postponed until the storm had safely passed. After some strategizing, Sarah & Eric decided to test their luck and go forward with their plan. These kinds of situations always highlights the life force of your family and friends coming together and tends to give you treasure in the dry-comfort of remembering. I weaved in and out of fierce rain, lightening, thrown flower petals, a tented dinner party jammed with everyone they hold dear, and crowds of family members and long time friends twirling parasols and handkerchiefs in the air on the dance floor. I captured it all and my face hurt the next day from smiling so much. Sarah texted me the morning-after and told me that a friend had described me as “everywhere and nowhere”, and just like that my job there was done.
Here is the wedding slideshow that I put together for Sarah & Eric, which truly brings us full circle.
“Gina is amazing! When choosing a photographer, we were drawn to her photos because they felt unique and it was clear she had a point of view. So many wedding photos felt generic to us but hers were artful and full of life. We wanted a documentary style of photography that told a story without us having to spend a lot of time posing or stepping out of the moment to take pictures. We also wanted personality and a cool perspective, and Gina’s eye is special. That was obvious looking at her website.
We don’t live in L.A., so our first ‘meeting’ with Gina was via phone. Even through the phone we felt that talking to Gina was like talking with a friend, and it was obvious from the start that we were on the same page in our goal to capture our wedding in a way that felt natural and organic to us. She is a great listener and clearly dedicated to her clients’ wishes. We felt that in the first phone call and we definitely felt it at our wedding. It was totally natural to have her there and genuinely felt like she was our friend, so easy to talk to and so fun! One guest described her as being ‘nowhere and everywhere’ as a photographer, and that’s so true. She seemed both omnipresent and not at all intrusive. Our wedding day brought a crazy storm and, with it, crazy unpredictable last minute changes. Gina was not only totally flexible and responsive, but in seeing our wedding photos, we realized that she told the story of that day and its weather in the most beautiful, true way. The pictures capture the emotion and vibe of the whole event so, so well, and we will cherish them forever. We loved hanging out with Gina, we love our pictures, she is organized and professional beyond any other vendor we worked with, and we would recommend her a thousand times over. Her affordability is just a bonus. She’s the best!” — Sarah & Eric
Congratulations again and again Sarah & Eric, you two have made me feel full.
☀︎ ☂︎ ☀︎ ☂︎ ☀︎ ☂︎ ☀︎
Get in touch if you’d like me to come to you and do the same! I travel wherever you build your party.
