Today I drive to New Mexico for a wedding on Saturday. As I'm sitting here, clearing off and formatting my hoard of memory cards, preparing for that wedding, I'm just reflecting on an experience that really solidified my decision to arrive at least a day early to weddings.
Two weeks ago, on a Thursday, we were in New Mexico visiting family for my husband's Spring break. We decided to leave at 6 am to drive the 5 hours and be back in plenty of time to do the senior shoot I had planned at 4 for that day. The next day I also was shooting a wedding!
The day before, our car needed a jump and we figured that we had just left a light on. We'd never had trouble before. Thursday morning came and the car started just fine. We drove to the gas station before we started our 5 hour journey and when we tried to turn the engine....nothing. Dead.
The funny thing was, we didn't have jumper cables. We've told each other a million times since buying our cars that we should probably get jumper cables. Lucky for us, the gas station had one last pair that we could buy. We waited about 20 minutes for someone to give us a jump. During that time, I was calling places to see if we could possibly get in ASAP to either get a new battery or figure out if it was the alternator! (All you car people are probably laughing at my terrible knowledge of cars and lack of preparation!) I was so glad we had decided to leave so early!! I still had my senior shoot in Phoenix that night!
We got into a place relatively quick and an hour in a half later we had a new battery. We were on the road!
Free sailing right?
Surprise number 2. We got pulled over. Add another 20 minutes on. I'd like to blame this on someone other than myself.....but it was really me... our car registration had expired a month earlier. Luckily my husband was driving so I could (1) tease him....and (2) so we could just get off with a warning. He never gets tickets! He got off with a warning for going 60 in a 25! (This makes him sound like a crazy driver, but there's a story behind that :)...but for another day). I am quite the opposite. Tickets every time. P.S. I learned my lesson guys. I drive the speed limit because I know I'm doomed if I see flashing lights.
Okay, ready for surprise number 3. We decided to take a little stop and let our little one stretch her legs. We played with her a little bit, walked around for 15 minutes and when we went to hop in the car, we noticed the front tire looked really low, almost flat! So....drive back into the nearby town to fix that!
Surprise number 4. Really guys, this was like the forever long car ride! We were about an hour in a half away from Phoenix and got stopped for an hour....(an hour!) for road construction.
Oh boy. I was so glad I wasn't rushing to a wedding the same day! And I was so glad we tried to leave so early! You know what the weird part was? I wasn't stressed. Even though it took 3 extra hours to get home, I had planned ahead so I knew we'd make it!
So, a lesson learned! You never know what will happen on the wedding day! I will always be early and if it's a wedding I have to travel to, I'll definitely be there at least a day early! The show would go on without a photographer, but you can never recreate those special moments that the photographer captures!
Wish me luck on my wedding this weekend! Can't wait to share the gorgeous images!
xoxo,
Trisha
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