DMV Destination Wedding & Portrait Photography

Bonjour! If you’re reading this, I’m guessing that you’re engaged, about to be engaged, dreaming about being engaged, or maybe just love all things wedding and can’t get enough of them! Either way, I’m thrilled you found me! My name is Sarah and I’m a wedding photographer currently located in the beautiful suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia. Like any photographer (and most small businesses in this century), I was told that I needed to have a blog. “You must have a blog!” my photographer friends said. “You must have a blog!” my web designer said. “You must have a blog!” my brand strategist said. Ok, ok, I’ll start a blog. So here I am, starting a blog. I decided for this first one I would just introduce myself a bit, talk a little about my story so you could get to know me a little and hopefully by the end, be able to think of me as a friend. So as I love to do with my friends, I invite you to grab your favorite beverage, get comfy, and let’s catch up!

So to bring you up to speed on my story, I officially became a photographer the day I accidentally bought a camera. How does one “accidentally” buy a camera? Well, it goes a little something like this. I had always been “in to” photography, having owned some starter DSLRs throughout the years, but never really took them out of the automatic mode (i’m kicking myself for that now…more on that in a future post). So on the evening of Thanksgiving 2015 (yes, I’m blaming you black Friday sales!), while visiting my husband who was away for job training, I decided to poke around on some camera gear websites to see what kind of deals they had (what else was I supposed to do? It was early yet, but my poor husband was exhausted and already passed out). Well, as some websites do with rather expensive things heavily discounted, you had to put the item in your cart in order to reveal the sale price. Ok, well I’ll just put this fun looking camera in here, “just to see.” Fast forward a few minutes later to the “holy crap” moment when a “congratulations, thank you for your purchase” screen flashed before my eyes! What had I done?! How did that happen?! Oh no, there must be some mistake, they’ve got it all wrong, my husband is going to kill me!!!! I frantically look to my right to make sure he didn’t some how instinctively know I just spent way more money then he’d ever be comfortable with. But no, I was safe for the moment, he was still fast asleep and none the wiser.

Well of course being a holiday weekend, there was no chance of getting ahold of a customer service representative to correct my error until Monday. So I had all weekend to worry and figure out what in the world I was going to do. But slowly my worry turned into optimism. I’ve always wanted to get “serious” about photography. I’ve always said “someday” I’ll be a photographer. Maybe this “someday” is today! Maybe this is a sign, Devine intervention stepping up and saying “now is the time to follow your dreams Sarah.” Yes! I said. This is it, what better time than now?! Well, I’ll tell you, there are probably a ton of better times really, but why put off till tomorrow what you can do today? (Besides, tomorrow is never guaranteed). So I called my parents and informed them I had bought my Christmas present from them to me (this was the story I was going with for my husband….which was great, until he found the PayPal statement…oops, that’s what you get for being dishonest to your significant other I guess haha), and decided I was officially a photographer. Now, I had no idea what I was really getting myself into, but that’s a story for another time. The only thing I knew for sure? There was no way in this universe or any other for that matter, that I would ever be a wedding photographer!

So what am I? A wedding photographer, and I can’t imagine being anything else! I don’t know what exactly possessed me to reply to a girl in a photography message board looking for a second shooter for an upcoming wedding, but I’m so glad that I did. Capturing weddings instantly captured my heart. Maybe it’s because I truly am a hopeless romantic, and watching couples just starting out on their journeys makes my heart burst with joy. I often feel we’re bombarded with sadness, from what we see on the news or on our social media feeds, or just from events in our everyday lives. But weddings are such a joyous occasion, and that joy is so contagious. You’ll often find me with a silly grin on my face while the bride is laughing and having fun with her bridesmaids, and tearing up at ceremonies right along with the guests. I was shooting a wedding yesterday in fact, when a guest asked me if it “ever gets old, do the weddings eventually all start to look the same?” “No,” I replied, “every one is different. Each couple is so different and their story so unique.” And that’s why I do this, to capture each couples unique story so it can be told for generations to come!

So that’s it. That’s all there is to know about me! Ha, not by a long shot, but I’ve been told to always leave them wanting more, so I hope you’ll come back to read future blog posts where you’ll learn more about who Sara Parker is, what it means to be a Sarah Parker Bride, and get to see my fabulous couples on their special days!

Below are some of my favorite photos with my fabulous supportive husband, who didn’t kill me, and who has become a part of this crazy ride with me!