Last weekend I was talking to the groom at my wedding. He was asking me about different things that I do when working and said, “I’ll bet you see weddings differently than everyone else that is there.”

Well, yea, I guess so. I mean, every job comes with it’s priorities and quirks. You do it long enough and you start to see it like that screen in “The Matrix.” You see the code and not the world. You see a beautiful beach wedding setup and I see that the sun is in a bad position. I notice that the bride and groom aren’t centered. There’s a cellphone in my shot.

But I still feel the love. I still get choked up during the Bride/Daddy dance. I still smile when I see the flower girl.

And there’s one thing I get that no one else gets. It’s like a little private moment between me and the bride right in the middle of the ceremony. It doesn’t happen at every wedding but when it does, it always makes me smile.

The bride will be standing at the alter and happen to glance my way. She locks eyes with the camera for a second and then, self-conscious about realizing that she is being photographed, she looks away… always with a little guilty smile or a laugh.

bride looks

I love it when that happens.