I can’t even begin to describe my love for Liisa and Håvard. And yet, I still can’t properly pronounce his name. It was one morning last year that I awoke to a message from Liisa, whom I hadn’t heard from in a good year or two. We met in the States some years ago with a shared love for photography. When we discussed my coming to Estonia for her Tuesday evening, backyard wedding, I realized it would be nearly impossible. I had already been booked the Friday before her wedding in Alaska, and the Saturday after in Ohio. That is half the world away and I like to give myself lots of wiggle room for traveling between weddings, just in case. But I was determined to be there, because I knew Liisa’s wedding would be something so very special. Much planning, many plane tickets, and not even 24 hours later, I was set to shoot in Estonia. Fast forward a few months and I am leaving a wedding in Anchorage to run home and backup images, before immediately boarding a red eye that had connections all the way until Monday evening. Håvard is Norwegian, and Liisa loves to visit him in Norway, but they decided to have their wedding in Estonia because Norway is known to have some temperamental weather, whereas Estonia does not. But Monday night it poured. And in continued to pour. Tuesday morning as Liisa got dressed, water droplets pelted agains her win. But it didn’t spoil anyone’s joy even for a moment. It rained so hard at the reception that you couldn’t even hear the person beside you speaking, but everyone laughed and ate while the candlelight burned and the stars emerged. Liisa and Håvard’s families began treating me as one of their own from the moment I arrived, until the brief two days later when I left, and I will never forget it. Their wedding day was short and sweet, not because of the rain, but because they were most excited to fellowship together around the dinner table. So the next day Liisa, Håvard, and I headed out for a few more photos. In my opinion, the wedding was perfection, and the following day was perfection, but the howling rain made for some lifetime memories.
