We met via google hangout. They were in Brooklyn and I was in SF. They were new to New York, after having moved there from Oakland about a year earlier, and so they were planning on coming back to Northern California to get married with their closest family and friends by their side. They had chosen Precious Forest as their wedding site and it was going to be a full weekend affair, complete with barbecue, music, beer, s’more’s, plenty of dancing, and a “Queertastic” theme. Yup, Caroline & Jay-Renee (aka “Jaroline”) are my kind of people.

Months later, after the long drive from SF to the Mendocino Forest on a Friday afternoon in May (and a half-panicked call to Caroline after thinking I made a wrong turn up the side of a mountain), I made it to the wedding site and was warmly greeted by Jaroline’s friends and family. From that moment on, I was treated like one of the guests. It was an honor to spend time chatting with Jay-Renee’s aunts near the campfire, help with the wedding decorations in my pajamas on the wedding morning, listen to Caroline draft her vows that included the lyrics to “Home” by Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, sit at the head dinner table with the newlyweds, and then have them ask me to put down my camera to dance and celebrate at the end of the night.

“Home

Let me come Home

Home is whenever I’m with you…”

Jaroline, the best part about being a your wedding photographer is that now I get to call you “friends”.

xoxo,

cristal veronica