It’s not every day you get to photograph a lifelong friend’s wedding, especially one as small and intimate as Kathie and Matt’s. I don’t remember when, exactly, I first met Matt, but I’m pretty sure Kriss Kross and parachute pants were all the rage. Needless to say, I have many totally inappropriate stories about shenanigans with Matt, some of which fall precariously close to the borders of legality… Like the time I was 14 and Matt talked me into “borrowing” my brother’s girlfriend’s car and driving over to his house to play hooky on National Video Game Day (an actual holiday). We even spent four years at the same college, studying different aspects of photography. I liked to take bad pictures of otherwise pretty things, and Matt liked to photograph bullets going through eggs and tomatoes. You know, for science. Though what I remember most was his discovery of an Arnold Schwarzenegger voice synthesizer our freshman year that led me and my roommate to unhook our answering machine… But I digress.
Planning a Vermont wedding in October is a lot like shooting a game of craps, with the payout being a beautiful fall day with foliage and cider donuts. October 1 was not such a day, but that’s when I got to learn a lot about Kathie, and see just how perfect the two of them are for each other. Instead of wearing the “perfect” heels that matched her dress, Kathie donned an awesome pair of blue Hunter rain boots, and we went out on an adventure. We braved wind, rain, and heavy traffic to get the pictures we had meticulously planned. All the while Kathie’s positive and energetic nature displaced the cold and wet weather around us with a warm glow, and encouraged Matt’s ever-playful and light hearted nature. Instead of fighting the weather, they made it their own, and we just had fun, but that’s evident enough in the photographs, where their love speaks volumes and transforms an otherwise gloomy fall day into something brilliant.
– Judd
