I approached the table and a women nicely asked, "Have you picked a wedding date?" Not wanting to reveal that I was not yet engaged I replied, "We aren't sure yet, just starting to get ideas." The woman continued to speak with me about wedding details and I nodded to be polite, but what she said is fuzzy because I was lost in the photographs. I knew that I had to take the information with me to show my Mom for the future. When I arrived home I could not wait to show my Mom, so I pulled up the photographer's website to show her some of the images. Mom said, "Yea those are beautiful, very pretty...but aren't you putting the cart before the horse? You aren't even engaged, and we don't know if that is going to be in our budget. We will have to wait and see when the time comes."
A couple of years later, and the time came. After the engagement it did not take long before we started talking budget, and I started thinking DeFabis photography again. One of the most important aspects about planning the wedding for me was doing what was necessary to fit this photographer into our budget. We began looking at venues, thinking about colors, coming up with honeymoon ideas and we finally nailed the important details. We booked three of the most important aspects...the chapel, the reception venue, and DEFABIS PHOTOGRAPHY! We were super excited.
As the months went by, our guest list continued to grow. It seemed that everyone had their own list of people that had to be present, and it suddenly felt as if the wedding plans were slipping out of our control. During an annual trip to Mexico; Kenny, my parents and I were eating at a restaurant and discussing the stress of the growing guest list. Feeling frustrated I said, "At times I wish we would have just planned a destination wedding and brought everyone here. It would definitely make the guest list manageable." My Dad replied, "Why couldn't you?" I said, "It is too late for that, we already booked venues and then we would not have Joe as our photographer...you know that is important to me."
Well, I took my Dad's advice and checked to see how much money we could get back from the venues if we cancelled. Once I found out that it was possible to receive a good amount of money back, I made a nerve-wrecking call to Joe DeFabis to find out if he would ever consider going to Mexico to shoot our wedding. As the phone rang I thought to myself, "What if he wont travel to Mexico to shoot our wedding? What if it costs too much money to have him go? How will I ever find a photographer in Mexico that I like as well?" I was basically basing my decision on changing all of the wedding plans on whether or not Joe said yes or no to going to Mexico. I knew I had to convince him to say yes.
Thankfully, it did not take any convincing. Joe said that he was more than willing to go to Mexico to shoot our wedding, and that him and his wife Terri were thrilled. I was surprised at how affordable he made it for us, and he even offered to do a special shoot after the wedding called a "Trash the Dress" session. Everything fell perfectly into place, and so we changed all of our wedding plans from Indianapolis to Akumal, Mexico. I do not know what I was more excited about... knowing that I was going to have my wedding in a dream location, or that my dream photographer was going to document our special day?
We could not be happier with our entire experience with DeFabis photography. Joe and his wife Terri made us very comfortable throughout the day, and actually made it a ton of fun. They work well together as a team...Joe provided us direction of where to go next, and Terri stepped in to make sure I felt beautiful and that no strand of hair was out of place. Terri would have Joe pause before taking the next shot of us, "Wait Joe, I am going to straighten the bottom of Amanda's dress." It felt good to know that not one detail was being looked over to ensure we had the most beautiful photographs. And the day after the wedding, the Trash the Dress session was a blast. We started out by taking photos at the lagoon, then moved to a colorful resort and ended at our most favorite beach in the world. I will never forget the memory of laughing together as newlyweds in our wedding attire, as waves crashed over us while Joe captured every moment.
All good things must come to an end, just as our Mexico wedding weekend did. It was bittersweet boarding the plane to leave Mexico, and moving on to our dreamy Disney honeymoon. We boarded the plane and reminisced about the details of the weekend, feeling a little somber that it was already over. Just as Kenny and I mentioned that we could not wait to see photos when we returned, I received an email on my smart phone. I saw that it was Joe, but I assumed that he was just wishing us well since it was only the day after we finished shooting. As I opened the email I gasped, and Kenny quickly replied, "WOW!" Joe wrote, "I know that I am supposed to be on vacation now, but I could not wait to send you some of the images I edited already." A nearby passenger looked over and seemed interested in all of the excitement. I was so excited, I decided to show a complete stranger the images on my phone. Next thing you know, my phone was being passed down the aisle with our fellow passengers in awe.
About a month after our wedding weekend we had a "Picture Party" to show our closest family and friends the wedding photos. Joe went above and beyond for us to get our photos on disc quickly in order to showcase them at the gathering. He even allowed us to borrow his personal copy of our wedding book since ours would not be finished for a bit longer. As friends and family viewed the photos we heard them saying, "these should be on the cover of a romance novel" and "this looks like something you would see in a dream". We could not agree more with all of the positive reviews of our wedding images. I have to pinch myself when I look at the photos, because I cannot believe how amazing they look. And now, I get to wake up each day to see these beautiful photos that make me smile from ear-to-ear. I am so glad that we chose Joe to document our special day. He was worth every penny, and I look forward to the day when I can share these images with our children and grandchildren. Thanks to his work, we will remember every important detail.
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