Hannah is a Washington native, and Tripp is from Georgia! They both live in Arizona, and wanted to bring their their families together under the Arizona sun. Arizona totally has my heart, and to have the ability to go home and document these moments I will cherish forever!
To say I connected with Tripp and Hannah would be an absolute understatement! As a wedding photographer, I get to be there witnessing, and documenting these magical moments. Sometimes though you get to feel like apart of the family, and this is true for Hannah and Tripp. Their families were so warm, loving and the whole day was just pure magic. They put so much thought and effort into every tiny detail, and it really showed. I hope you enjoy!
How did you two meet?
We like to sum up our story as a guy who hit on a girl at the bar.
We had a mutual friend who was singing with Tripp in a gig at a local spot, Sip Coffee & Beer House, and I went out to support her. I remember walking through the door and locking eyes with Tripp. He gave me this huge smile, like I was an old friend he was so excited to see, though we had never met. He will tell you that from that moment he could not keep his eyes off me. On a break between sets, my friend came up to say “hi” and that is when Tripp saw and took his opportunity for an introduction. He put on all of his southern charm, drank my glass of wine, and had me hooked. He sent me a Facebook message that night and we haven’t stopped talking since.
How did he propose?
I had been following a local photographer on Instagram for a while and after we started dating, Tripp and I made the connection that he had gone to college with her. I love her work and would always try to win some of her photo shoot giveaways. In July, I finally won a giveaway for a discounted shoot and I was so excited! Little did I know, Tripp had told her, “I will have a ring in 10 days. Can you help me out?”. So, at sunset, with a beautiful mountain backdrop, in the middle of a romantic photo shoot, I turned around to see Tripp on one knee. He asked simply, “Hannah Danyel Miller, will you marry me?” and I blubbered through my many tears, “of course”.
When we met together for your consult, you told me about some amazing details for your wedding that had incredible sentimental value. Can you tell me about them?
We incorporated so many sentimental details into our wedding!
To start, my wedding band belonged to my great grandmother. That was my “something old”. My Grandpa Wrobel wanted me to have it, but never got the chance to give it to me himself before he passed. I didn’t know my great grandmother that well, but it means so much to carry a bit of my grandpa with me. I also had the same six pence in my shoe that my great grandmother had in her shoe on her wedding day.
I added Scottish Thistle to my bouquet to in remembrance of my Grandpa Wrobel, who was from Scotland.
The watch Tripp wore was his Dad’s from college, a 1985 Seiko Quartz Dress Watch
My Grandma Mcewen lent me the pearl necklace my grandpa gave her on their wedding day. The pearl earrings I wore were a high school graduation present from the same grandparents.
My veil was hand made by my mom. She made my veil for my First Communion, so it was special for me to have her make my wedding veil.
The handkerchief that I held during our ceremony is the same handkerchief used to dry Tripp’s head when he was dedicated to Christ as a baby. His mom embroidered his initials onto it.
Also, our wedding day was my Grandpa Miller’s birthday. It was so special to be able to celebrate with him at our wedding.
The box that held our rings is not necessarily sentimental, but it is a piece that is special to me. It is a fair trade product that was hand carved from India. The company where I purchased it from, Amma’s Umma, raises money for families trying to adopt orphans from India. I have a passion for fair trade businesses and giving back to help others. My dream is to open a fair trade shop of my own one day. I also have spent time in India on a mission trip where we stayed at an orphanage and the children completely captured my heart. This beautiful piece combined my two ministry passions and was the perfect addition to our wedding day.
Tripp’s ring was so unique, and I LOVED the story behind it! Can you explain it too?
Tripp’s ring is three layers. The first is a layer of Oak from his parents front yard in Georgia, where he is from. The third layer is antler from an elk in Washington from my best friend’s back yard in my home town. And the middle layer connecting the two is turquoise from Arizona, the place we met and have made our home. We love the symbolism of it representing us individually and us together, the two becoming one.
If you could give one bride any advice about wedding planning, what would it be?
I definitely have a few pieces of advice for other brides.
One, pick your non negotiable’s and be willing to flex on the rest. Curve balls are going to be thrown at you and won’t be able to get everything you initially wanted. Be aware of that and put your energy into those non negotiable’s instead of wasting your stress and energy into trying to make everything perfect.
Also, get a wedding coordinator. If you are able to spend the money on a professional, AWESOME! If not, take your friends up on their offer when they ask if they can do anything to help. I had two of my friends who were so excited to help plan another wedding after their own, and they were truly life savers. With them coordinating and other friends and family wanting to come help day of, we were able to have the perfect day.
I cannot stress this one enough; communicate your vision and ideas, in detail, to your spouse-to-be, family, coordinators, and anyone who is involved and helping with the day of. There was so much I had pictured in my mind that I had not really expressed until the day before. I thought there were things that I was going to be able to set up myself but had to delegate to others. It caused a lot of stress in trusting my vision would still become reality.
And one thing I would have done differently would be taking a moment, before anyone arrived, to see the space set up, especially the ceremony space. The ceremony space was one of my visions I had thought would not become reality, but we had an incredible team of friends who set up all the floral work and made it perfect. The only problem was I was walking down the aisle seeing it for the first time and I had to keep telling myself to focus on Tripp and not look around at the space. I remember thinking “Don’t get distracted, you can see it when you get your pictures back from Ashley” and that in itself was a little distracting and took away from the moment of walking to my groom.
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