Early on in wedding planning, a coworker advised that Ryan and I sit down and separately -- without discussing our lists out loud -- write down the top three priorities we had for the wedding. What was most important to us? What could we not give up? What were we willing to splurge on?

Although our reception was a key part of both our lists (food and merriment in particular), we also cared about our photographer...a lot. These are the photos that will become our only tangible memories of one of the most important days of our relationship.