Rochelle and Joshua's wedding mattered to me more than most. Joshua is a dear friend, and that day he was also my client. Both things were true at once, and I would rather tell you that up front than have you work it out later.

The summer of the cicadas

June 2024, which in Chicago meant cicadas.

They were everywhere that year. You could not walk across a car park without stepping around them, and the sound did not stop. So when I went to photograph the rings, one of them had company — a cicada sitting on the same wet leaf as their wedding bands, entirely unbothered.

I do not expect to make that picture again. Those broods keep their own calendar, not mine.

A grey day by the lake

They booked The Lakeview Center in Wilmette, close enough to Lake Michigan that it felt like part of the day.

The day itself was grey. The sky was solid rain cloud from the morning onward and it never broke. I will not pretend that is what you hope for on the drive over. But a sky like that is one enormous softbox, and once you stop wishing it away, faces sit better in it than they ever do under hard noon sun.

The traditional kind of day

Unlike a lot of what we photograph now, this one ran start to finish. The only part we were not there for was the two of them getting ready at home and the drive over. Everything after that happened under one roof.

So we arrived early and photographed the room while it was still empty. The tables, the linen, the chairs, the way the whole thing had been put together. Somebody had thought hard about that room, and it deserved to be recorded before a hundred people filled it up.

Her brother, in uniform

Rochelle was walked down the aisle by her brother.

He is in the Army, and he came in his dress uniform with his medals on. She had her hand on his arm the whole way down.

Rochelle later wrote about "the nerves of walking down the aisle." That is her phrase, not mine. What I would add is that she was not doing it by herself, and you can see in the frames what having him there was worth.

The pastor took them through the ceremony — the vows, the rings, the walk back out. Then we moved into the next room for the reception, and the evening turned into dinner and dancing and the full program.

The bouquet

And then the thing I will remember about this wedding for as long as I am working.

Rochelle did not throw her bouquet over her shoulder. She passed it, by hand, to her brother's girlfriend — a decision to give it to somebody who mattered rather than throw it into a scrum.

And then her brother, the same man who had walked her down that aisle a few hours earlier, still in uniform, got down on one knee in front of the entire room.

Nobody saw it coming. Not the woman holding the flowers, and not Rochelle either. He was the only person in that room who knew, and he picked his moment. I have photographed a lot of receptions. I had never seen that before, and I have not seen it since.

The room and the light

We brought our own strobes that night. In a room that elegant you want to light it properly rather than just survive it, and the ceiling and the drapes gave us plenty to bounce off.

At the end of the night we took everyone outside. There is a lot of greenery around that building, and we walked with the bridesmaids and the groomsmen until we had used all of it up.

What they said afterwards

> "I was surprised by the level of detail and care that was put into taking photos for our proposal. On our wedding day, they went above and beyond, even though there were so many people. From the nerves of walking down the aisle to the first dance, and even getting exhausted throughout the program, the photos came out flawless. We love you, Trampka Photography!"

That is the argument for photographing a day end to end when a couple wants it that way. You get the nerves and the first dance and the exhaustion. And you get the brother on one knee, because you were still in the room when it happened.