September 8, 2016
So let’s talk about the rings. When I first started wedding photography I knew I wanted to capture rings in their beautiful brilliance. I didn’t have the gear I have now to capture them the way I really wanted but I wanted to capture them non the less. The wedding band represents something so important like, you are taken, he is yours and you are his. But let’s look at the history of the wedding band.
Some say that the history of the wedding ring started from paganism representing the ownership of a woman to a man, and that the left hand was normally the women’s weaker hand therefore showing her submission to her man. More romantics like myself like to believe that it has to do with the vein that runs from the left ring finger to the heart, I think it sounds a little better then being someones property, I’m just sayin! I choose to look at a wedding ring a little more like how God adorned Israel where he used jewelry to represent his love which leads me to my thinking today.
Our wonderful grooms went to the jewelry store to pick out the biggest most beautiful ring he could afford to adorn his love with. Saving his money month to month to please his bride-to-be, if she says yes of course!
His heart is beating as he whips out the payment and is palms are sweating as he puts your hand in his, knowing you will say yes, but there is that little piece of him fearful he might have gotten your signals all wrong. Or your groom might have been like mine and let me pick out my own ring, all in hopes to please me and adorn me with just what I wanted.
I love how God just makes things come together. A circle to place on our fingers because a circle is the only thing that would make sense. A universal symbol of eternity, totality, infinity, and timelessness. So when you start a new commitment with a symbol that represents those things, it is meant for a lifetime, literally util death do you part. Of course sometimes life happens and things happen, but when two lives become one they are only thinking abut what the rings signifies for them in that moment when they are standing hand in hand saying their vows to one another.
This is why I adore ring shots, it is because of what the ring represents, a lifetime together, forever. So when I knew I wanted to capture rings in a special way because I felt it was such a huge part of the couples day I invested in a beautiful macro lens. It took some time to practice but once I got the hang of it, I knew I was on my way to highlighting the beauty of wedding rings in a special way.
Although rings can be lost or even in some cases thrown in a heated argument, it is what they represent. They are a gift we give to our love to signify we are in this for a lifetime.