Paralyzed bride walks down the aisle

On Saturday I shot an assignment for the Detroit Free Press.  They had been following Jennifer Darmon, a young woman who was paralyzed after a car accident in 2008.  Darmon and Mike Belawetz were in the accident together, and after she was paralyzed she told him many times to move on but he would not.  Instead he proposed.  She vowed she would walk for their wedding, and spent hours and hours in intense physical therapy, even training in a wedding dress.  Saturday was their wedding in Windsor, and Darmon, supported by her father and brother, and wearing leg braces under her wedding dress, made the long, somewhat shaky walk down the aisle.  It was an inspiring story - the tenacity of this woman, and the complete support of her husband.  It was amazing they decided to share their story with everyone.  It made for a very interesting wedding.  Besides myself, there was another photographer there from the Windsor paper, a film crew from Inside Edition, a couple local tv film crews, 2 of her own videographers, and 3 of her own photographers.  Everything was completely controlled as far as access.  Normally in a situation like this I would hope to be able to spend some time with the bride, getting ready, etc., to kind of share what her life is like.  We didn't have any access like that, and in fact, all of the tv crews were cordoned off in a corner at the back of the hall.  The hall was tiny and packed with seats from wall to wall.  The other still photographer and I squeezed into a sound booth on the second floor overlooking the ceremony.  I knew when the crowd stood up to watch her walk down the aisle our view would be pretty much shot, but it was better than being stuck on the ground and getting lots of shots of everyone's backs.  We were allowed to shoot the ceremony, then the bride and groom answered questions from the press for about 2 minutes, then that was it.  We all left them to enjoy the rest of their wedding day sans press.  I went into the assignment hoping to get a great, wide shot showing her walking down the aisle, but we were not allowed anywhere near it.  I am happy with what I was able to get though.  The shot the Detroit Free Press used on the cover of the Sunday paper is actually from the interview.  I shot tight so you wouldn't see all of the cameras and microphones shoved in their faces, and waited for a moment between them.  Here's the cover of the Sunday paper: 

Here's that same scene wider:

Here are a few of my favorite shots from the day:

After the ceremony she used a walker to get around.

Her actual walk down the aisle, supported by dad and brother.

And here is the slideshow the Free Press ran online.  Her personal videographer made the video from the wedding available to the news outlets, so if you're interested, there's a video here of her walk down the aisle.  Then there's a video here showing the interview and media circus afterward.  

All in all it was a pretty interesting day.  It was amazing to see this woman who went ahead and did what doctors said she couldn't, and I was grateful to be allowed to witness such a private and triumphant moment in her and her new husband's lives.