It is a true joy to be able to share these images with you from my best friend’s wedding to her new best friend: Barbara + Ben.  In the summer of 2010 Barbara, myself, and our other dear friend, Waverly, met with Waverly’s parents in Charlotte, N.C. to discuss our heart’s desires not just to be married, but to be married to godly men and to have marriages that were honoring to God.

Little did I know that I would meet my husband, Geoff, just months after that discussion. In addition, Barbara would meet Ben too.  One of Waverly’s dad’s pieces of advice was that as godly women we needed to put ourselves in positions where men could see our character on display.  As Barbara met Ben through their church, she took this advice by starting to volunteer for every possible church activity she could just to make sure that Ben could see her character clearly…and it paid off as Ben started to notice!  Last January, Ben told his family that one of his goals for the year of 2011 was to be married.  They thought it was a slight stretch given the fact that he wasn’t even dating anyone at the time but sure enough on December 18, 2011, Barbara and Ben celebrated their marriage with their closest friend’s and family at Christ Our Shepherd Church. We then celebrated with a truly beautiful reception at St. Francis Hall in D.C.

The wedding day was crazy as Geoff had shot a wedding the previous day in Austin and then drove to Dallas to catch a 8 am flight the morning of the wedding.  We knew it was going to be cutting it close but Barbara and Ben really wanted Geoff to shoot the wedding so we made it work!  I was horrified to get a text from my husband the morning of the wedding saying that his plane broke!  He had to get on a different flight into a different airport where one of previous brides picked him up and drove him to the church as quickly as possible.  Unfortunately he walked in right as we were exiting the ceremony and while I was slightly bummed, he made up for it with some incredible images from the rest of the day.  Thanks to my mom and one of Barbara’s close friend, Steph, we were able to capture images of the ceremony and thanks also to Jackie for being flexible and jumping in to help with photos! (Don’t worry future brides, this is why we don’t typically fly the day of the wedding!)

I was honored to stand up beside my best friend as one of her bridesmaids, but what was even more amazing is that my husband was her wedding photographer and had the opportunity to capture these beautiful images.  How crazy of a year it has been that in 2011 we were both married and get to start walking this next phase of life together.  Enjoy these images of this couple that is so dear to both Geoff and I.  -R

All images by Austin Wedding Photographer Geoff Duncan