Would you believe it if we told you that Jon once thought he ruined a wedding!? Well, it’s true…in his eyes. But before we tell you about it we want to calm your fears right away! It had nothing to do with photography!
As a matter of fact, we weren’t even shooting together when it happened. Something you may not know about Jon is that he is also a musician! He has been playing guitar since he was 12! Music has been a huge factor in our relationship. Just like we talk about in Our Story, Jon wrote, sang and recorded songs for Erica even before she realized she liked him back! Jon has always been involved in playing and singing at our church too! But one thing he had never done? Played the role of wedding singer!
So we were completely surprised, taken back, flattered and scared when some friends from our church asked us to coffee to make a very special proposition! We had no clue why they wanted to meet. We thought it was a casual coffee get together. Then…the question came: “Will you guys sing at our wedding!?”
WHAAAAAAAAT!?!?
We can still remember the feeling sitting there under the twinkling lights of a Starbucks patio on a cool-er-ish Arizona evening. It was a mixture of, ‘Why Us!?’ And “WOW, us?!” We were beyond flattered at the question, and so we determined to make it happen for them.
That’s when Jon realized there is a huge difference between the music he usually plays and Pachelbel’s Canon in D. Nerves set in and he practiced playing that song more than Erica had seen him work at anything. This sounds pretty ridiculous, but he practiced until he could play it without thinking…with his eyes closed…and the guitar upside down behind his head. Not stressing at all right?! I mean who does that!?
When we arrived at the private estate in Northern Arizona we were totally floored! An evening in Northern AZ together with cooler temperatures and a beautiful, expansive estate made for a picture perfect romantic date night. We set up our equipment, ran a sound check and tried our best to settle our nerves.
As we got closer to ceremony time, it was our job to play and sing some love songs for the guests. We absolutely killed it! It felt SO good! As the bridal party made their way down the aisle, Jon continued playing soft music on his guitar to create a really romantic scene as they walked into the meadow under the soft sunlight and made their way up to the altar.
Then, it was time.
The song Jon had ridiculously practiced was on cue.
The bride and her Father were staged to walk in at any moment.
So he began playing the wedding song everyone recognizes as the signal to stand for the bride.
It was going so well! Then, about halfway down the aisle something went SO wrong.
He blanked.
Right at the part of the song that speeds up and serves as a climax for the moment.
First it was a wrong note. Then, nothing. He frantically tried to recall his place. A million thoughts and emotions flooded his head at once. Everything from, ‘Oh my gosh this can’t be happening,’ to ‘they are going to hate me forever,’ to what the heck am I supposed to be playing’ all ran through his mind simultaneously.
He strummed a simple chord.
The moment ended.
He was mortified.
To make it even worse, we weren’t done. We still had to get up and sing their first dance song.
Jon was completely devastated. How could something he practiced so intently and committed to completely nailing have gone so wrong? Music has always been something that came easy to him, with little need to practice. So having spent so much time working on that song and having it crash and burn dealt him a crushing blow. He literally didn’t want to show his face.
But you know what the crazy part was? No one said a word about it. And not in one of those – ‘it’s awkward let’s not make the poor guy feel bad’ kind of ways, but in the ‘no one really noticed’ kind of ways. One person came to him with an encouragement, and we found out she was a musician herself, so she caught on. But no one else seemed to notice. And if they did, they really didn’t care!
We realized that their attention wasn’t on Jon. It was on the beautiful bride walking down the aisle with her Father who was about to give her away to the love of her life for the rest of their lives. Looking back on it now, it made us think – how many times do we fail at something and think that it is the end of us? That everyone must know and be secretly laughing. That there is no way you can show your face again?
One reality we’ve come to terms with is that as creatives, we can also tend to be perfectionists. But our perfectionism doesn’t necessarily bleed over onto everyone else. To others who don’t have the same talents, even our slightly imperfect efforts are notable. As photographers, what we do is amazing to people who have never picked up a camera before. Just like an architect that can design an immaculate custom home is amazing to us, because we’ve never designed a home before!
So, if you’ve felt like a failure. If you’ve felt like you can’t possibly go on because something happened that didn’t go as you’d hoped – know this: We got back up that night and played and sang their first dance song together. It took us getting up again, and not letting the failure keep us down! It took us choosing to give it another try, and learn from what went wrong. And we left that night feeling amazing, despite what happened earlier that day.
Because it was literally magical. The beautiful courtyard was lit up and strung with lights. The guests were enjoying each other’s company and celebrating with family. And the bride and groom shared the sweetest dance together under the open sky.
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