As I drove to O’Malley on the Green for Molly and Alex’s wedding, I started tallying up all of the weddings I’d shot in my head. I realized that they were about to be number 25, which seemed really significant to me. How amazing to have worked with 25 couples over the last 3 years, each of them so different, unique, and lovely.

It had seemed like such a long time ago that we’d all met in a cafe in the early days of wedding planning and talked about their wedding vision. I immediately loved them as a couple and how funny they were. Alex has that kind of sense of humor that sneaks up on you because it is so smart, and Molly makes the sweetest faces when he makes her laugh. They were so relaxed—both in that cafe and on their wedding day— and I loved that their only stipulation for their photography was “no jumping photos and try not to lose the images”, which had happened at another family wedding.

On their wedding day, the sun was bright and hot in an unreal way for Alaska, and the golf course was packed with people taking advantage of the day. The craziest moment from their day (and probably ever in all of those 25 weddings!) was when—about 30 seconds before the wedding party started walking down the aisle— a golf ball comes flying out of nowhere and hits the stairs with a huge “Kathunk!” I was so thankful we were running a little bit behind, because the bride could have so easily been taken down by an errant golf ball! I spent the rest of the ceremony and all of the outside shots totally on edge and worried that I was going to get a golf ball to the camera! Luckily, we all escaped unscathed, and as the venue wedding coordinator told me, he “hasn’t lost a bride yet.”

Their day was filled with perfect little details and moments that made their day completely Molly and Alex-esque. Gorgeous (and delicious!) Macaron towers from Sweet Caribou and a “Parks and Rec” reference with a sign saying “Treat Yo’self” replaced wedding cake. A family friend made the gorgeous all-peony bouquets, cousins took turns rocking the playlist, and the kids took over the dance floor early on. One of my favorite moments though was when all of the guests were given a glass of Serbian liquor in a nod to the Groom’s late-father and his Serbian heritage instead of champagne for toasts. I just love how something so simple can do so much to tell your story— and all of the reactions to the potent booze were pretty fun too.