Ally + Jake Webb: Wedding Weekend in Texas City, TX
My beautiful cousin Ally and her fiancé, Jake, got married exactly two months ago in September, and I got to fly down to Texas to capture it. But before jumping into the story of their incredible wedding weekend, I need to set the stage a little bit:
I’ve always grown up relatively close to my cousins - who are actually my second cousins, but we were raised like firsts. But not geographically close, because the five of us have been spread out between Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Houston, NYC, and Minneapolis for quite some time now. But it wasn’t until about six years ago that we started developing real relationships.
Thanksgiving 2012 involved a double surprise where all five of us happened to be there at the same time despite Ally and Sharayah each trying to surprise the rest of the group by showing up. Instead they surprised each other.
2016 - We got the message in our group chat that our eldest cousin Ally was pregnant.
March 2017 - Four of us road trip from Pennsylvania down to Houston to visit Ally, baby Abigail, and meet Jake for the first time.
Thanksgiving 2017 - Ally introduces us to the app Marco Polo that lets us communicate via saved video chats every single day, keeping each other updated about our lives.
Earlier in 2018 is when we got the exciting news that Ally and Jake were planning on getting married later that year! I immediately knew that I wanted to fly down for the wedding, and when Ally asked me to photograph, it cemented my purpose in going.
It seemed like everything started going wrong from there on out. Being a recent college graduate, I couldn’t book a flight until I knew if I would have a full-time job by September, and if I could even take extra days off before the wedding. With no job in sight, I finally booked my flight two weeks out…the exact day the prices jumped almost $100 from the day before. As an unemployed college graduate with only a part-time job and photography gigs to sustain me, this was a heavy hit.
One week before the wedding, I came down with strep throat. I felt absolutely miserable, but quickly got it under control with antibiotics…until then on Saturday morning, the day of the wedding, I woke up with a sore throat again.
It rained the entire week leading up to the wedding. I mean, steady rain for hours on end without break. Our plan to perform the wedding ceremony outside at a park near their house was quickly washed away, and we had to improvise using their back patio instead. We cleaned and decorated with burlap, lace, lights, and sunflowers everywhere to brighten it up, and it turned out better than we could have imagined.
The wedding day itself was gorgeous - the rain subsided despite the forecast predicting otherwise, and we were left with a mostly sunny day that dried things out and made for the perfect backdrop for the ceremony. Everything went smoothly with putting the finishing touches on the patio, getting the girls ready, and the ceremony itself, performed by our cousin Sharayah. It was as if we finally were reaping good karma from enduring all the troubles to get there.
But we spoke too soon. Despite the seemingly perfect start to the day, there were still hitches all throughout - Abigail, now almost two, decided it would be a good day for a tantrum; Ally’s dog Gator cut open his paw in the yard not 30 seconds before Ally was to walk out for the ceremony; three of us sustained various cuts, burns, and bruises from prepping food in the kitchen for the reception.
But despite it all, this was one of the most genuine wedding ceremonies I’ve ever seen and been a part of. Jake and Ally’s love and commitment toward each other was evident through it all, pervasive through the mishaps that were enough to throw most couples off their game on their wedding day. They seemed unshaken by each disaster that came their way, dealing with each one as it came along, rolling with the punches, and leaning on each other to make it through. Because each tragedy wasn’t a disaster at all to them on their wedding day - it was just another moment to deal with, move on, and get back to celebrating with their closest friends. As long as they had each other, nothing could ruin their wedding day.
