I saw Adrienne’s wedding dress and gasped. It was perfect for her. The dainty fly-away “ties” on the back with flowers hanging from them, the amazing “vintage” beaded piece on the front above the waist, the beautiful thickness of the skirt, and especially the laid-back nature of the dress. Oh, and the pockets. If I’d ever seen a dress that was made for someone, this was it.
Adrienne brought along her most prized possession for the shoot (aside from her TOMS collection, of course! ;). Her Ray-Ban Sunglasses. This is the part where the story takes an interesting turn.
The shoot turned out great. The light was beautiful, we went all over town (and outside of town, after our Fort Worth Club portion of the shoot) to find some amazing Field locations {that would, of course, look beautiful with Adrienne’s dress and the light}, and we found out that Adrienne’s Mom and MIL (“Mother-in-Law”, for those of you who have not yet been totally immersed in Wedding Culture. You probably already are if you’re reading this, though-haha) are AWESOME. They were so excited for the wedding and so not-stressed. It was fabulous. Best of all, we got even more comfortable with Adrienne and were able to get the vibe down perfectly for the wedding (as a result, the wedding pictures are-AHHH-so so pretty! Getting the right vibe/wavelength is a huge deal for the photography. If we know who you really are and what you’re like when you are around your groom/family/friends, you can be yourself in front of us and we can mold the shoot to fit this “you-vibe”, as I call it).
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A few days after the shoot, they realized that the Ray-Bans were not in the bags of bridal paraphernalia that had been brought along to the shoot. We both searched our cars and bags, but alas. No Ray-Bans. We wondered if they might have been left at the Fort Worth Club or in one of the fields, but if that was the case, they were long-gone by now.
Will and I were talking about it in the car one day and he matter-of-factly said, “If they were left anywhere, they’re in Dead Dog Field.” I rolled my eyes because a) How would he know where they may-or-may not be, and b) Why did he have to keep calling it “Dead Dog Field”? Yes. There was a dead dog in the field the first time we had scouted it out. I nearly stepped on the thing. It made me sad. And it smelled really bad.
But Will kept talking about the field and repeating “Dead Dog Field” over and over to make sure that the name would stick (not just in conversations that involved Adrienne’s sunglasses, but in everyday conversation. Like, “Maybe we should use Dead Dog Field for so-and-so’s shoot…” and he’d randomly in a whisper several times per day: “DeadDogField…deaddogfield.”* as if he might be able to subliminally instill it into my brain).
I finally had to adopt this name for the location just to get him not to say it in that creepy whisper-voice. And actually, it is the most perfect field. Just the right amount of trees, and it hasn’t been mowed the times that we’ve been there, which is ideal for pictures with tall grass (kind-of obligatory/significant for tall-grass shoots).
Which is why, one week later, we were back at Dead Dog Field for Terri’s Maternity Session (Terri is being induced TODAY-ahhh so exciting! We’ll be thinking about her and Patrick and the baby!). We were tromping through the tall grass looking for the best places to shoot at that particular time of the evening while waiting for Terri and Patrick to change outfits in their car (yes, you usually have to change in your car if you’re going to do pictures in a field. We make sure we park you far away from civilization, but it is best to bring the one with the tinted windows just-in-case ;). I had known that we were going to look for the glasses, but for real. It wasn’t like we were going to find them.
“Found them!” Will’s head popped up and he victoriously held something in his hand. I knew it wasn’t the sunglasses. He ALWAYS tells me things that aren’t true just to pull my leg and to get me all worked-up and then when I say, “Really?!?” in a very high-pitched, excited way, he gets a great laugh out of it.
“Are you ser-” Whoa. Those were actually the glasses. He wasn’t kidding.
I wouldn’t make such a big deal out of this if the glasses hadn’t survived A WEEK IN THE WILD. I mean, seriously. This was the MIDDLE of a really big field (relative to our usual field-size), and they were buried. Under dirt and stuff. There was even a scratch on one of the lenses and what we think might have been teeth-marks from some ferocious animal (not the Dead Dog), trying to drag them away to help build their home or to shield their eyes from the sun.
So we, of course, took pictures on my phone and immediately texted them to Adrienne and her mom. And then took more pictures with my camera. I think my text to Adrienne was something like, “No way. I am not even kidding, we FOUND THEM!! In Dead Dog Field, the field Will named for it’s dead dog. They were a bit buried under the grass. I can’t even believe it.” They both immediately texted back very excited responses.
Will shows off his super-human sleuthing qualities and beady eyes.
So that’s the end of the story. I probably made it out to be bigger than it was. Most people would say, “…and then we found them in the field the next week. Crazy, huh?” But not me. I went between jubilantly shouting and texting in the car on the way home, and Will went to work cleaning the glasses as soon as we walked in the door. This was all very thrilling for us.
I think Adrienne liked it too, though, because she made a special trip to come and get them from us at the studio the very next day.
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Congratulations on your beautiful wedding, Adrienne! You and Jeoff are married now! We’re SOOO happy for you, and we can’t wait for you to see the pictures from Saturday! XOXO, Lauren and Will
PS-The name “Dead Dog Field” is kind-of growing on me now. I’ve started using it in everyday sentences too. I might add it to my emailable “list of location ideas”, although I don’t think that would attract as many takers.
*In the same voice that John Cusack says “GreatWhiteBuffalo“, if you know of the movie.
by Lauren Aves
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