THE ESSENCE OF AMY AND LUKE

Due to the Covid-19 Pandemic, Amy and Luke had to postpone their wedding to a later date. I got a message from Amy saying that the two of them were going to elope and get married with a pastor they both knew as a friend officiate for them. Even up until a several days before, they didn’t have a location in mind. I got a text saying they had settled on the Carmel, California area. We had all made sure that everyone had been quarantining, had been taking all the proper pre-cautions in sanitizing and good hygiene, that we hadn’t come into contact with people. Amy had told me it didn’t matter if I agreed to do the job, that she had an iPhone and that she would just take photos on her phone because the only thing that mattered was that they got married together. Wherever. Whenever.

I decided to take the job, and drove 13 hours to Carmel, California. The next morning we drove out in separate cars to find a specific location for the ceremony, just wandering around taking in the scenery. The couple grabbed takeout from one of the few restaurants that were open, amidst a sea of empty shops and vacant dining options.

There was no semblance of plan in place except to find a location, and then get married.

Amy would stop and jump out of the car to pick flowers off the side of the road in order to make her own bouquet. Because all the dress shops and tailors were closed, she ordered three dresses off the Internet, had them overnighted to her place, and she picked one and had to hot glue it together so that it would fit her (because all the tailor shops were closed). And because all the ring shops were closed, she took the A string (for Amy) off of Luke’s guitar and made a ring out of it.

While Amy got ready, Luke hopped on his skateboard and cruised the empty streets of Carmel. Surfing and skating are actually something that both him and Amy do together at their home in Venice, so I imagine the sound of wheels hitting pavement and feeling the slight rumbling as he carved the asphalt relaxed his nerves.

Because Amy and Luke were only going to be saying the vows to each other, they wrote long letters to each other and read them as if there was no one there, because there wasn’t, and speaking to each other candidly and honestly and openly, about the heartaches and the rocky road they had taken to get to the edge of that cliff.

The vows were extremely long.

And it was perfect.

The portrait session was short. We didn’t have a lot of light left so we made do. But we just hung out, talked, and they just enjoyed each others company. And I just followed along and shot it.

THE STORY OF AMY AND LUKE