Last month, Kay and I met with the wedding photographers—Daniel and Jeff—to get a little practice with them in advance of the big day. I wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about the whole thing from the moment Kay first mentioned it to me. Luckily, scheduling conflicts kept pushing things down the road, which made me so happy I almost forgot about it. But all of the sudden, a Sunday afternoon availed itself to everyone involved and the next thing I knew, Kay was driving me towards Old Town Alexandria (and away from a how-to-cook pad thai function, I might add) so that two guys I had never met could take pictures of us engaging in acts of gratuitous PDA as stunned bystanders watched helplessly.

After searching in vain for street parking and finally succumbing to the racket that is D.C.-area parking garages, we set forth on foot to meet with our photographers—Kay, bubbling with excitement and me, sluggish with pad thai and anxiety.

On our way to meet with Daniel and Jeff in front of Pizza Paradiso, I tried to negotiate my way out of the situation:

Doug: Listen, I have a bad feeling about this. Let’s bail.

Kay: What? No, don’t be silly.

Doug: No, seriously. I don’t feel good. I think I ate too much pad thai. I feel sick. Let’s just punch out and reschedule.

Kay: Doug, they are walking right now to meet with us. This won’t take as long or be as bad as you think. Just calm down.

Doug: Can we at least cross the street and get out of the sun? I’m sweating like Jerry Sandusky at a Jamboree.

Kay: That’s gross. Please don’t embarrass me.

Daniel and Jeff arrived a few minutes later, along with Jeff’s wife Jen. After shaking hands and bidding Jen farewell as she set off to do something assuredly more fun than having her picture taken by two dudes she just met, we started looking for a place to take pictures.

Daniel: You guys ready to take some awkward photos?

Doug: I guess. Listen, I apologize in advance for my poor behavior.

Jeff: Don’t worry. It’s weird for us, too.

For about hour Kay and I posed for what felt like thousands of pictures around Old Town. Let me be clear: Daniel and Jeff are great, and the fact that they recognized and catered to my discomfort was nice. They did everything they could to make an inevitably bizarre experience less bizarre. But here’s the thing: it was weird.

Weirdness aside, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. And Kay is beautiful and photogenic and Daniel and Jeff are great photographers, so the pictures turned out fine. I acted like a jackass and got a beer at the end, so I really owe them on October 19. Here is a sample of their handiwork.

– Doug