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She mustered a smile. “Let’s do this.”
Unfortunately, the wedding photographer, Ted, wasn’t from Montana, but a friend of the family’s from Southern California, and Amanda suspected he was far less experienced than Brooke knew, because even though he’d arrived with cameras and meters and a plethora of lenses, he wasn’t at all prepared for the cold, icy conditions at the lake, and Ted struggled to get going, spending most of his time frowning at his screen.
Amanda stood off to the side, chewing the inside of her lip, worrying that Brooke and the girls were slowly turning to ice sculptures while Ted changed lenses yet again.
“Ted, what’s wrong?” Brooke called, teeth chattering, her six bridesmaids huddling around her like forlorn sheep, while their elaborate hairstyles sagged beneath the accumulating snow.
Amanda dashed over to the girls to deal with hair while Ted struggled to give Brooke a satisfactory answer.
“I’m just…” Ted said, and then sighed. “It’s just… the cold. The camera is fogging. It’ll be okay.”
“Alright.”
But Ted’s confidence seemed to be struggling, and Amanda told jokes to make the girls smile and laugh, hating to see them shivering in a miserable clump in front of the lake which had never looked more atmospheric with wispy clouds rising up off the surface and steady lacy flakes falling from the sky.
“You don’t have to do this,” Amanda reminded Brooke.
Brooke glanced toward her groom, Scott, who was flinging snowballs with his groomsmen. “They’re having fun.”
“They’re boys. What do you expect? Next thing you know they’ll be making snow angels.”
Brooke laughed, just as Amanda had intended, but Amanda was concerned. Ted needed to figure it out soon. She had to bite her lip to keep from giving the photographer direction, and Ted wasn’t soothing anyone’s frayed nerves by muttering about oceans and sunsets and snow not being his thing. Just when Amanda didn’t think she could handle it a moment longer, she saw Tyler approach Ted.
The whole bridal party watched as Tyler spoke to the photographer, but Tyler’s voice was pitched low so Amanda couldn’t hear what was being said. After a moment Ted’s tense expression eased, and he handed his camera to Tyler. Tyler looked through the viewfinder and then said something to Ted. Ted nodded, and adjusted something on his camera, and then they talked a little more and then Ted called out to Brooke, “Brooke, lift your flowers to your nose. Yes, just like that. Smell them. Nice. And now, bridesmaids, put Brooke in the middle, three girls on each side, and can you all walk toward me? Don’t look at me. Look at Brooke and each other. Just be natural and smile and have a good time. Forget I’m here.”
The bride and bridesmaids all had bare shoulders and their cheeks were glowing pink, but they did as Ted asked, talking and walking and laughing around their chattering teeth even as their boots sank into the powdery snow.
“That’s great,” Ted called. “Love it. How about we get a shot of those cowboy boots? Girls, all flowers to the left hand, lift your skirts up with the right hand. Nice! Now put your right boot forward, point the toes, maybe a little can-can kick. Fantastic.”
Ted snapped away, and then glanced down at his camera to check the images. He showed them to Tyler, and Tyler smiled and clapped Ted on the shoulder before leaving the photographer to do his job.
“What did you say to him?” Amanda said to Tyler as he joined her beneath a cluster of trees that she was using for shelter.
“To overexpose. Photographing snow is notoriously tricky because you can’t get a mid-tone for your meter, so he needed to set it to +2 to keep his shots from being so blue-gray. And once he adjusted his settings and focused on the pops of color out there—the bride’s bouquet, the bridesmaids’ purple gowns—the photos stopped looking so monotone. All the flat gray was rattling him, but he’s sorted it out now.”
“How did you know what to tell him? About shooting in snow?”
“I grew up doing a lot of snowboarding, and during college I got into extreme sports photography. Helped pay for bills, and let me travel at the same time.”
“How did you get into ‘extreme sports photography’? That’s not something you just get into, is it?”
“I took a video camera and began filming, and then went home and learned how to edit. The early stuff was pretty raw, but I got better over time.”
She was impressed. “That’s cool,” she said, looking at him with fresh appreciation.
“Have I finally done something to impress you?” he teased, his green gaze locking with hers, his gaze so focused and intense that she grew warm and rather breathless.
He was not innocent. He knew exactly what he was doing with that look of his. Tyler was dangerous for her self-control.
“Amanda!” Brooke shouted, interrupting the moment. “Help! I think I’ve smudged my lipstick!”
Amanda flashed Tyler a wry smile. “That’s my cue.”
While Amanda touched up Brooke and the bridesmaids’ hair and makeup a second time, Ted photographed the groom and the groomsmen. Some of the braver guys were still throwing snowballs, and pelting each other fairly hard, too.
“This is nuts,” Brooke said, sniffling, watching them with a crooked smile.
“This is Montana,” Amanda answered, giving Brooke’s wayward curl a little tug, drawing it back so that it wouldn’t fall in her eyes, but off to the side to frame her face.
“You’re a native, aren’t you?”
“How can you tell?”
“You seem to relish the cold and snow.”
“I wouldn’t say I relish it, but I’ve just grown up in it. It wouldn’t be March without snow and ice. Or April. Or possibly May.”
“Stop it!”
Amanda brushed tiny flakes off the tip of Brooke’s pink nose and then another smattering of flakes from her cheeks. “We had snow Memorial Day weekend a few years back.”
“Scott didn’t tell me any of this.” Brooke stomped her feet to keep warm. “What about your boyfriend? Is he a native, too?”
“My boyfriend?”
“Over there. Tyler. Isn’t that his name?”
“Yes. But, no, he’s not my boyfriend. He’s just in town visiting, and we’re just friends.”
Brooke arched a dark brown eyebrow. “I don’t think so. He really likes you.”
“No.”
“Have you ever seen the way he looks at you?”
“Nope, and Brooke, I think you’re good to go!”
But Brook didn’t budge. “He looks at you the way I look at meringues. Delicious.”
Amanda rolled her eyes. “Hardly, and Ted’s calling you. Time for pictures with your man before you all turn to icicles.”
“But Tyler is staying for the wedding today, right? You’re both staying for the ceremony and reception. There’s a place for you at dinner, at the reception.”
“I’m staying. Tyler is just dropping me off.”
“You have a plus one.”
“I didn’t RSVP for one.”
“I gave you one. You have to have a plus one, and he’s yours.” Brooke gave her a little squeeze. “And you can’t say no because it’s my special day.” She flashed Amanda a triumphant grin before lifting her full white skirts to march back through the snow to Ted and her groom.
Pictures over, Tyler picked up Amanda’s oversized makeup kit and carried it back to his car while she spoke to Ted about the pictures at Emerson Barn. The bridal party returned to their cars lining the road, they were shivering, and teeth chattering, but also laughing and teasing each other. He was glad to see that they were all in good spirits. The photo shoot had been frigid but fun and it had most definitely “broken the ice.”
Inside his SUV, he turned on the car and cranked up the heat so that it’d be warm for Amanda when she arrived. She opened the door a few minutes later and climbed inside, and sighed with pleasure at the warmth. “This feels so good!” She rubbed her hands and held them in front of the heater vents. r />
She was wearing black leggings and snow boots and a fitted black parka with a beige knit cap on top of her long blonde hair. The cap had a huge pom-pom at the end and with her pink cheeks, pink nose, and bright eyes, she looked ridiculously cute.
“I think I was picturing something much bigger.”
“Your parents never brought you when you visited your grandparents?”
“We didn’t ever visit.”
“At all?”
“Dad didn’t have good memories of Montana.”
“That’s a shame. It’s such a beautiful state. I honestly can’t imagine living anywhere else.”
For Brooke’s California family and friends, the wedding in Paradise Valley, was a destination wedding, and while she’d worried about them traveling so far for the ceremony and reception, she obviously hadn’t needed to have been stressed, not by the distance or the weather, because while it snowed off and on during the photos, her guests tramped happily through the powdery stuff from the venue’s parking lot to reach the big Emerson Barn. The guests’ excited chatter only stopped once the musicians played the first note, and then all fell silent, turning to watch as the mother of the bride was escorted down the aisle.
Amanda remained with Brooke until it was time for the bride to walk down the aisle.
“I’m so nervous,” Brooke confessed, taking her father’s arm.
Her father just patted her hand, every bit as nervous as his daughter. Amanda gave her a smile as she straightened the train on Brooke’s gown, and then fluffed the long veil. “You look magnificent,” she whispered in Brooke’s ear. “Now go enjoy yourself.”
Amanda waited for Brooke to reach her groom before slipping into the seat Tyler had saved for her. He’d taken a seat in the last row which meant she wasn’t disturbing anyone else.
Tyler smiled at her as she sat down. “Everything go okay?”
“She was nervous, but I think she’s okay now,” she whispered.
“Have you ever met a bride that wasn’t nervous?”
“No.”
It wasn’t a long service because Scott didn’t want an overly formal service, but when the sun peeked through clouds during the ceremony, illuminating the bride and groom as they said their vows, Amanda got goose bumps. It was an absolutely beautiful moment, sacred and sweet, and the golden light shone through the big barn window, gilding Brooke and Scott, until the end of the ceremony when the minister proclaimed Brooke and Scott, man and wife.
“You can’t get much more picture-perfect than that,” Tyler said as the couple processioned out.
“No, you can’t,” she softly agreed.
