Saja: How did you meet?
Catherine: Ben and I met while we were taking pre-medical classes together. We both decided to go back to school after being out of school for a while and now we’re in medical school together!
Saja: How did he propose?
Catherine: We live in Philadelphia and there is this awesome mural series that follows an elevated subway line in West Philadelphia called ‘A Love Letter for You’. The series of 50 murals have these sometimes sweet, sometimes cheeky phrases written on them, and all together they’re supposed to make up a love letter. We would catch glimpses of them during our daily life but never got to see them all, so Ben planned a day for us to hunt down all of the murals and take photos of them. When we got home he gave me a book that he had made of our relationship (photos, ticket stubs, maps) and asked me to write the rest of our story together.
Saja: Where did the wedding take place? What made you choose there?
Catherine: We got married at my parents’ home in Heath, Massachusetts, which is in the western corner of Massachusetts right up against the border of Vermont. We wanted to have a low-key, outdoor wedding and my parents’ home, which is a farm (although they’re not growing any crops of livestock) was perfect for us. We love being in the mountains and spending time outdoors and our visits to Heath have always been really special. It was also a great opportunity to share that little slice of the world that we love so much with our friends and relatives. My parents had just moved out there about a year ago and the farm had been neglected for years before, so we spent a lot of time up there doing manual labor to get the land ready. We have such an intimate connection with the place and it was so special to get married there.
Saja: What was your favorite part of the day?
Catherine: I thought I would feel very awkward standing up in front of everyone, but I loved the ceremony itself. Our pastor from Philadelphia traveled up to Massachusetts for the weekend to perform the ceremony so it was very personal, and being surrounded by loved ones as we exchanged our vows, laughed, and cried felt incredible.
Saja: Which of the photos is your favorite?
Catherine: I love the photos with the confetti, just because they look so full of joy and life. The happiness I felt walking back down the aisle at the end of our ceremony surrounded by our loved ones was the most fantastic feeling I could ever imagine.
Saja: Is there anything you can point out about your pictures that we might not have noticed?
Catherine: Apart from the catered dinner, which was amazing, we did almost everything for the wedding ourselves. I made our invitations and favors by hand, we made the wedding arch out of branches trimmed from trees on my parents’ land, we picked the flowers from gardens and nearby fields, the whole family worked together to arrange the flowers into vases and jars, and to set up the sound system and decorations. Choosing and doing so much of the wedding preparation ourselves was a lot of work, but it meant that in the end our whole day was so personal and felt completely like ‘us’.
Leave a comment