It was August 1, 2009 and it rained.  More like, a downpour.  Christopher and Joel had planned a romantic garden ceremony at Clark Gardens (between Weatherford and Mineral Wells) and the weather did not want to cooperate that day.  At first when our bride and her entourage arrived, she couldn’t even get out of the car.  It was pouring so much there was no way to escape (even with an umbrella.)  She simply sat there and cried.  Brandon and I were already there, but we had to wait undercover before venturing out and at this point  and then the rain finally let up so the bridal party could arrive and start decorating.

I love my iPhone.  We pulled up the radar map on the iPhones and watched the storms.  This was just the first batch of storms, there were more to come.  And they were bigger.  There was a big chance it would hit Clark Gardens again – but we were hoping on that small chance it would miss us.  Every time our bride Chris caught us looking at the radar, she’d hopefully ask “will it pass?” and we would look at the radar and see those storms coming right for us but our response was – “it’s gonna be great.”  Just in case, the wedding coordinator at Clark Gardens and I talked Chris into setting up chairs under the tent (where the reception would be.)  Just in case the ceremony had to be under the tent.

As the sun started to peek through the clouds Chris calmed down.  The funniest part of the wedding day was the wedding coordinator didn’t know Joel was the groom.  So from the moment they arrived and the immediate family and friends set out to decorate, she would tell Joel to do this and that.  Joel was hillarious – he didn’t want her to know he was the groom until just moments before the ceremony.  He thought it was great.  We ended up having a good laugh when she finally realized the guy that she had doing so much stuff was indeed the groom!  ;)

As luck would have it, the storm did miss us and it didn’t rain again that day.  Chris and Joel ended up having a beautiful outdoor ceremony.  It was absolutely perfect.    Sure, Chris’s wedding shoes were MIA, but our happy bride cheerfully walked down the aisle barefoot.  After the ceremony they joined family and friends in that big white tent for the reception.   Chris and Joel thanks so much for choosing us to capture your big day!