The Most Amazing Wedding EVER for TriCoast

[Mike Fulton]

Truly one of the most inspirational, emotional, and beautiful experience I have had in all my years of wedding photography.

It started off several months ago when a photographer from Erie, PA contacts me and asks me if TriCoast would be interested in covering a wedding in Erie, PA since she felt she could not handle the event as good as she would like and that the bride desired. Well this interested me for sure since I have never had another photographer "give" me a job without any strings attached. Well one thing lead to another and TriCoast ended up agreeing to photograph the wedding.

A young lady who at 14 was told she was going to die before graduation of high school if she did not receive a new heart. About the same time a young lady out of my home town area, Houston Texas gets ran off the road and passes away 8 months after receiving her first driver license and told EVERYONE that she was an organ donor and thought everyone else should be as well. Our bride received this amazing young lady, Samantha's heart and years later the donor parents meet our bride on the Tyra Banks Show for the first time

The Video (must watch - have tissue handy for your tears)



So fast forward to this weekend and we (TriCoast) flies to Erie, PA from warm Gulf Coast Texas to cover the wedding.

The Dress and Shoes


The Rings


The Bride (Center) the Bride's Father (Left) the Donor Father (Samantha's Dad - Right)


From the other side


From Left to Right:
Sam's Mother, Bride's Mother, Sam's Father, Lindsey the Bride, Lindsey's Father, The Groom-Adam, Adam's Mother, Adam's Father
All watching an AMAZING slideshow of Samantha's life on the large screen to start the wedding


The Last slide of the slideshow
It says:
To Samantha,
Because of you, I Live on.
Because of choosing life,
YOU will live on
Forever...in me.
Thank you...ALWAYS!


The lighting of THREE unity candles
(one for the groom and his family, one for the bride and her side of the family and one from Samantha's side of the family - joining all three together)

Left to Right - The Groom's Mother, the Bride's Mother, Samantha's Mother (Donor Mother)




The Kiss


The Limo (yes the entire wedding party took this "limo" 3 miles to the reception in the Lake effect snow blizzard


The Daddy-Daughter Dance - the one thing that Mark the father NEVER thought would happen - Needless to say TEARS were flowing from EVERYONE!



Hope you enjoyed these, while nothing out of this world, I must admit I was just happy to get through this event without breaking down completely and not being able to photograph. Truly an amazing event and one I am so happy to be a part of.

Special thanks goes out to Heather Prather and Pete Quinn for helping us out ALL DAY LONG with this event, truly two amazing people and photographers with a HUGE heart and amazing talent!

[ocgirl]

Wow... that was truly an amazing opportunity for you. Just reading about what the slideshow said made me a little choked up. The pictures you took were fabulous! What a remarkable story!

By the way, the video link doesn't seem to work.

[Abel]

Very nice work indeed Mike... I know you've been talking about this wedding and looking forward to it for awhile now.

That snow is crazy!

[imported_Jay Henley]

Awesome stuff Mike............ great story.

[Juan L. Gonzalez]

Mike this is truly a special event and you are so blessed to have been a part of it, and we are also lucky you shared it with us.

Thanks for that!

We do have the best jobs in the world!

[Pattyhm73]

very touching story, and the pictures are beautiful
i had to stop the video, i forgot to get the tissues

[FerrisPhoto]

This is why I hate doing weddings. I look at your work, and realize just how much I suck at them...Nice shots.

[12stones]

An amazing story captured beautifully (as if I expect anything else from you). Thanks for sharing this.