Picture Perfect Blues

My wedding was in weeks, we hired all the people we would need to ensue a beautiful day. The day of my dreams. Except for one minor detail. We quickly realized that having the wedding of your dreams cost money. Lots of money. And we only had $300 to hire a photographer. I was heartbroken! I was sitting at the kitchen table with my mom going over things and she said, “I’m sorry honey, we saved but emergencies kept popping up”. I did not want her to feel bad, so I reassured her that I would figure something out. But it turned out that it was mom who solved the problem.

    She came in from work and called my name. I hurried downstairs because she sounded frantic. “Mom, what’s wrong?” I asked. She was excited! “I solved the photographer problem. My boss at work has been doing photography for years and he showed me his daughter’s wedding pictures and they are beautiful!” I replied, “That’s great, mom. But will he do it for $300?” She assured me he would, and we were all set.

    The next few weeks went by like a flash. There were final fittings, and last-minute details to be worked out but finally it was the night of the rehearsal dinner. The wedding party had a wonderful time and were all excited for us to finally be married. We had been going out for five years.

    The day had arrived! Mom came back to help me in my wedding dress, and I at last met my photographer. His name was Bob and he seemed super sweet. I was happy. He took some pictures of my mom and I, and I thought he was perfect. I wanted candid shots of my mom and me.

    He went on to snap various pictures of people at my wedding, and the wedding party. He seemed like he really knew his business. He even got pictures of my grandma, which was special because she really wanted to be there. She had a lot of health issues so she wasn’t sure she would be able to come.

    The vows were spoken, everything went off without a hitch. We were finally married! Yay!

    We went two blocks to the reception hall where we were going to celebrate. My dad had brought lots of liquor, as he wanted everyone to have a good time. People started drinking right away, and the party was in full swing. My husband and I were on our way to our honeymoon after, so we didn’t drink that much. As the night progressed, I noticed Bob snapping lots of pictures, but it seemed to me that he was staying awfully close to my mom.

    I went over to mom and asked her if she had noticed the same thing. She said no, he was everywhere. So, I took her at her word.

    A little bit later, everyone gathered outside to see us off to our new life. I did see Bob the photographer outside taking pictures of us in the getaway car, so I just brushed away my concerns.

    We had a wonderful time on our cruise but was excited to come back to our new life together. We settled in our new apartment, and our man and wife status and were very happy.

    I called my mom the day after we returned to see if she picked up the wedding pictures, and she said she had and to come over so we could look at them together. I headed over to moms excited to see them.

    We settled at the kitchen table and started to look at them. He took very nice pictures, and I was especially happy with the ones of me and my husband. He captured some very loving looks between us. My mom and I agreed that the pictures of the wedding came out gorgeous. However, we were about to open the reception pictures and get a big surprise.

    There were about a hundred pictures of the reception, and surprisingly my mom was in at least seventy-five of them. I sat there, my mouth agape while we browsed the incredible story of my mom at my reception. It’s not that I didn’t love my mom, I did. But I thought I should have been the main focus of MY big day! I looked at my mom and she looked up at the ceiling. “Mom, is there something you need to tell me about your and Bob’s work relationship”? Her eyes left the ceiling. “Ok, maybe he has just a little crush on me”. “Maybe? That might be an understatement! You are in over half of my reception pictures! I mean, I don’t want to be bridezilla but come on!”

    The hard part was going to explain the pictures to my new husband. I fixed dinner and sat him down. He looked over the wedding pictures and said they were nice. He got to the reception pictures and looked at all of them, and I was getting nervous about what he was going to say. He got up from the table, said he was going to take a shower, and then in an offhand manner, said “Oh by the way, your mom looked beautiful”. I about choked on my tea. I ran after him and smacked him on the head, playfully. Then we both laughed. He told me that he had talked to mom earlier. She felt bad and called him.

    After dinner I went to my moms and brought some cookies and cream ice cream. That was our go to talking session snack. She said she talked to Bob, and he said he may have had too much party fluid, and he was sorry. I had no other choice except to forgive and forget. Although it was my only wedding, so it was a tad difficult.

    It’s been years since my wedding. My mom has since passed away. But when I look back at my wedding pictures, I’m happy she’s in so many of them.

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