The Best of 2018 Wedding Photography

Apollo Fields Wedding Photography | Best of 2018 | Colorado and New York Weddings

Happy Times Lift All Spirits, Sad Times Fortify Them

As the rain continued to fall on that foggy, cool, northeastern October day, all I could feel was Heather’s cold hands. I remember holding them as our dear friend and wedding officiant, David Miller, recounted Heather and I’s relationship with his warm, welcoming voice. I can still see him smiling when I think about it. I can still imagine being hoisted up by my friends during the horah, even though neither Heather or I are the slightest bit Jewish. When I think back on it, every height we reached on our wedding day seems untouchable—like your most nostalgic childhood memory—only we were just a couple of adults in love.

Two months later and we were back in sunny Colorado but Heather’s hands were still cold. Only this time I looked into her shivering eyes and watched as she tried to speak through her quivering lips, still blue from the anesthesia. “I’m sooo cold,” she muttered, as tears ran down my cheeks like warm little streams of gratitude. “We’re going to be all right,” I told her. The laparoscopic surgery to remove the ectopic pregnancy from Heather’s Fallopian tube was a success, but it ran longer than expected, and just fifteen minutes earlier I was pacing in an empty hospital waiting room like I needed to be admitted to a psych ward. It was 6:00 am on Christmas morning and I’d never felt so devoid of emotion—my heart as vacant as that waiting room—yet there we were, still just a couple of adults in love.

As 2019 begins I can’t help but ruminate on these highs and lows and think of the constant, unshakeable love that saw us through all of it. The end of 2018 dragged my heart through depths that I never wanted to know, but just a month prior we were literally leaping with joy from cliffs into the aquamarine waters of Negril, Jamaica on our honeymoon. Life apparently has a funny way of teaching us important lessons—and by funny I mean unforgiving and agonizing. If it’s anything I learned in 2018 is how important it is to cultivate and maintain a steady love as much as possible—because one minute you can be celebrating with ease—and the next minute you can be holding the hand of the person you love in a hospital bed. It is only with a constant love that you can weather the harshest storms and ride the highest highs and always come out on top.

The rest of 2018 was filled with a medley of moments, both big and small, that made us grateful for everyone in our lives. From launching Apollo Fields, shooting Hailey & Mark’s, Don & Aaliyah’s, and Kate & Jeff’s weddings in Colorado, to joining all of them on their dance floors afterwards. To seeing my first moose and calf on a hike to Lake Isabelle near Nederland, Colorado! Not to mention the friends who came to see us off at our going away party at Sloan’s Lake and Oasis Brewing Company, affirming the quality of people that we are attracting into our lives right now. This was further proven in the endless red carpets that were rolled out during our traumatic December in Colorado while we were working through our ectopic pregnancy. I don’t know if we will ever be able to appropriately thank you all.

What I can promise you is that I will be there for all of you like you were there for us. Where happy times lift all spirits, sad times fortify them. Heather and I have never been stronger and for that I am thankful—to her, to all of you—I will hold your hands tightly when they are cold, and I will let them go to fly into the air when they are good and warm. I love you all.