Wedding of the Week


A Story of Perseverance, by Aaron & Whitney Photography

May 18, 2017

By Jacqueline Tobin

All photos © Aaron & Whitney Photography

Being based in Missouri and wanting to expand business to the Northeast, Aaron and Whitney DuRall decided to hold a “small contest of sorts,” asking couples to submit their wedding stories and they’d choose one to shoot, charging only for travel. Little did they know that one of the submissions from Pennsylvania, made by bride-to-be Fiona, would knock their jaws to the ground.

Fiona wrote:

Antonio and I met when I was studying abroad in the Dominican Republic. He was friends with the professor who ran my program, and we were both invited to a party at my professor’s house. When I first saw Tony, I thought he was the most beautiful thing ever. When he opened his mouth and said that he was a law student who specialized in women’s rights and family violence law, I fell in love. I went up to talk to him immediately and offered him a drink, which was very unusual for a woman to do in the Dominican Republic. We started dating immediately, and after a year, decided to get married.

However, just before we started to apply for a visa for Tony to come to the United States, the Constitutional Court of his government passed a ruling that denationalized 210,000 children of Haitians who were Dominican citizens, which meant that Tony was now stateless. Over the next few months, we paid bribes and applied for Haitian citizenship which afforded him the passport he would need to come to the United States. Then we began the very long U.S. visa process, which is only now coming to an end. Tony is finally coming to the United States.

Aaron and Whitney spent three days documenting the couple’s wedding celebrations at Fiona’s family home in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania. “They treated us just like one of their own and we were made to really feel like we were a part of the family. Not to mention the amazing home Fiona grew up in—I mean, heck, the inner walls were made from the remains of a Civil War-era barn that was moved from Gettysburg to Huntingdon. From taking a trip to a secluded cabin in the rolling hills of Pennsylvania the night before the wedding for a bonfire, to the incredible cooking, beers and shenanigans, to a big group brunch the day after, it was an awesome experience. And when Fiona and Tony led their entire wedding party, including guests through the woods in collective song after their ceremony—too freaking rad.”

Their time there was basically flawless, except when Aaron got stung in the face with a wasp 20 minutes into shooting on the wedding day. “You’ll notice there’s this adorable greenhouse in some of the photos. I went in there to shoot some of the elements because we truly love the ‘real’ details—not just the place settings and table toppers. I stepped in there and started to shoot. I heard a buzz, looked up at a center wood beam, and this wasp just flew right down and popped me right on the forehead. I still laugh about this. I went inside and Fiona’s sister Olivia set me up with some baking soda and water. Aside from walking around with what looks like a big red zit on my forehead, it wasn’t bad at all.”

Wasps aside, Fiona and Tony’s wedding really hit home for the DuRalls. Getting to photograph their union was witnessing perseverance of the most romantic kind. In Aaron’s words: “Love absolutely finds a way.”

GEAR FOR THE DAY

Cameras: Canon 5D Mark II, Canon 5D Mark III
Lenses: Canon 35mm, Sigma 35mm Art, Canon 45mm Tilt-Shift, Canon 50mm
Lighting: Canon 430EX II flashes (x2)

Submit your wedding to Rf editor-in-chief Jacqueline Tobin or features editor Libby Peterson for a chance to get featured here.