Alan Wirth loves to fly. Meg Fromuth spends a lot of time at 37,000 feet on business trips to Africa. If you only read this far you'd probably conclude these guys were made for each other, which is true. But you'd be missing so much more, including the way they finish each other's thoughts, their silly jokes that start to resemble Monty Python sketches, and perhaps most of all, a three-inch rubber lizard that embodies the deep love they have for each other.
For twelve years I've been telling brides and grooms that I am most definitely not an insert-photographer-here kind of wedding shooter. I like to think I have a bit of a distinct personality, one that comes along to every one of the 450-plus weddings I've shot. Well, I'm happy to report that Alan and Meg are not an insert-bride-and-groom-here type of couple either. They are wonderfully different, hysterically funny, and often seem to speak a language whose Rosetta Stone is known only to them.
Meg and Alan came to me, by the way, through one of my former students, Nikki Novotny Davis. Nikki is a talented young photographer (everyone's young compared to me) and I really appreciate her making this connection. It's always great seeing a familiar face at a wedding.
A month or so before their big day, Alan, Meg and I wandered the streets of Maryland's capital, joking that we needed a picture that "said Annapolis." I wasn't sure what that was exactly -- the dock? the Naval Academy? the Bay? -- but we did our best. After two hours of fun pictures, I was ready to get into my car when I looked across the street at a bunch of newspaper boxes. The faded brick wall behind those boxes had an old advertisement painted on it and I asked Meg and Alan to go over and find a spot to sit. And as they stuck their tongues out at each other underneath a huge banner that read "Boston Shoe Repair," I was pretty sure we didn't have a picture that "said" Annapolis. But I knew we had a picture that said Meg and Alan.
I really like these guys a lot, if you couldn't already tell. (And I swear it has nothing to do with the fact that Meg's mom remembered my love of Mallomars and gave me a box of them when I arrived at the hotel. But that helped.) It's more in the fact that Alan and Meg have this tradition of exchanging this three-inch rubber lizard, the kind of thing one gets in the gum ball machine, whenever they're apart. Meg might be packing for a trip to Africa and behold, there's the lizard in her suitcase, left for her by Alan. The lizard, it seems, pops up in all sorts of places, a constant and fun reminder of their love.
What's in your suitcase?
Happy Holidays!!
Matt
