This is the story of how my whole life-plan fell apart. When I graduated from UCI in 2001, I was one of those annoying girls who had it all together. I had the diploma, the man and the full scholarship to law school. And then it happened… I picked up a camera and everything changed.
Some time between receiving that fancy acceptance letter and taking the dreaded Bar Exam, I fell in love with photography and started shooting weddings. In June of 2005, I left my law school graduation ceremony early to photograph a wedding. I chose to be a photographer over being a lawyer; I chose job satisfaction over job security; I chose the artist’s life over the corporate life and I never looked back.
I’m a hopeless romantic and I suppose that is why I love weddings. I met my darling husband at the ripe old age of twelve; we dated through high school and married at twenty-one. From the moment we met in 7th grade English class, I knew that he was The One and I began planning our wedding. And so my romantic history has given me a mild obsession with love and marriage (and also the movie, “Moonrise Kingdom,” but that’s a whole different story.)
Having kids only heightened my love of family and photography. Over the course of two years, I had two babies and made a million memories. I watched my tiny babies, Maxfield and Scout, grow to rambunctious toddlers through the lens of my camera. Now when I look back at photos of their first baths, their first steps and their first days of school, I am so grateful that I took the time and expense to capture these perfect little moments that I will never get back.
And so, even after 10 years and hundreds of weddings, I continue to devote myself to wedding photography. Because I am crazy about love, because I understand the importance of family, and because I know there are no “do-overs” when it comes to memories.*
xoxo, Chenin