I shot my second wedding this past Friday.

Wedding number one: Six months ago I was the photographer for friends who got married in a small ceremony in front of family and a few friends. I didn’t know what I was doing, did not have an assistant, and did a truly mediocre job. I was embarrassed by my work but they seemed to like the pictures at least.

Wedding number two: I did not know the family or couple prior to meeting them six weeks ago. I was referred by a photographer who could not do the job and I said yes before thinking; since then I’ve been anxiously reading books and blogs and articles about wedding photography and practicing on friends and butterflies. (I reasoned that if I could get butterflies in focus, I could probably do the same with people.)

As last week progressed — far too rapidly — toward Friday, anxiety, fear, and trepidation took over and I was convinced that I’d made a horrible mistake accepting the job.

When I downloaded thousands of images onto my computer, I breathed a huge sigh of relief when I saw that they weren’t terrible and that there are a few gems in there.

I loved doing the job. I truly enjoyed it even though I was nervous the entire day. I hope they like what I did.