Rachel Wissman and Alan Busenitz: The "Love" Story

[thoughtful]

First wedding for bride and/or groom

and/or? Where does "or" come into it?

Christopher, your silly rigid rules and your bad SOTDRT education are clashing with one another!

[SisiL78]

Okay, so let me get this straight. If the bride had been married before but her husband had been hit by a truck and she eventually picked up the pieces of her life and found a new love and they decided to get married she wouldn't be able to give Christopher Maxwell money to photograph it?

I know SUPER DUPER Orthodox people who attend immodest second weddings with mixed dancing as guests because that's what you do for family, friends and business acquaintances.

You'd think that this guy was good at his job and in such demand that he could put so many caveats down. I'll give him the Sunday wedding things. If Sunday is your Sabbath you shouldn't have to work if you believe that its not a working day. A devout Jewish photographer wouldn't be expected to work on a Saturday morning so that's fine. But, when you have a family to support to be so vain and demanding is un-friggin' believable.

I wonder if he'd leave a wedding (despite having a contract) if there were some immodestly dressed guests who were semi-dancing or appearing to have some level of fun. HE strikes me as that type of d-bag.

[Ex 2x2]

I think the groom is kinda hot. I do feel sorry for the bride b/c of how bad her skin looks in the "professional" photos. After reading this thread, I went back and looked at the family website, and as others have mentioned, she looks much better in the photos there.

Christopher Maxwell's criteria for weddings...what a hoot! Does he seriously distrust himself so much that he can't be at a wedding where there is drinking/dancing/immodest dress?

Honestly, I can see where those in this movement, especially younger girls, would find their courtship story romantic. I was annoyed by how many times in his part of the story he says, "travelling musician." He asks several different ways how in the world do you meet/court/get to know a travelling musician?! Planes, trains, and automobiles, dude!

I have been trying to connect the dots and I'm so confused. What is the brides relationship to the fundy husband who shot his wife? Or is there one? These people all run together in my mind after a while.

[darkplumaged]

I was annoyed by how many times in his part of the story he says, "travelling musician." He asks several different ways how in the world do you meet/court/get to know a travelling musician?! Planes, trains, and automobiles, dude!

It annoyed me, too! :lol: I think maybe he thought it was humorous or clever or something to keep repeating it.

I have been trying to connect the dots and I'm so confused. What is the brides relationship to the fundy husband who shot his wife? Or is there one? These people all run together in my mind after a while.

The bride's sister Bethany is married to Dan. Dan's brother Josh shot his wife.

[samithemage]

What weirded me out about Chris Maxwell's "general criteria" was the no dancing (except between bride and groom) rule. That just seems weird. You'd think it would be no dancing at all or dancing only for married couples or some such rule. Why are the bride and groom allowed to dance, but no one else is?

[Witsec7]

What weirded me out about Chris Maxwell's "general criteria" was the no dancing (except between bride and groom) rule. That just seems weird. You'd think it would be no dancing at all or dancing only for married couples or some such rule. Why are the bride and groom allowed to dance, but no one else is?

Don't these folks dance when they purity ball?

[quinoa mama]

From their courtship story:

Alan was pretty laid back and asked if I would like to eat first or head to the Christmas lights. Since we had a late lunch, I opted for the Christmas lights. It was a gorgeous display with hundreds of thousands of lights. We walked around and tried to keep warm as we enjoyed the atmosphere and live music together.

I wonder how they tried to keep warm. ;)

This story isn't the creepiest I've ever seen. It sounds like that had lots of private time to talk, including an unchaperoned car ride. It also sounds like they quickly felt very comfortable with each other. I've had people like that, where you feel like good friends who agree on all sorts of things and you can talk for hours even though you just met. The fact that he made it to almost 40 without having sex makes me wonder about him. Was he really shy? Is he weird? Does he have a lot of hangups? Even with strong religious beliefs, that had to be difficult.

I hope they can manage to have a good sex life despite the years of repression. The good news is, based on her age she probably won't have an outrageous number of children.

[moreorlessnu]

What weirded me out about Chris Maxwell's "general criteria" was the no dancing (except between bride and groom) rule. That just seems weird. You'd think it would be no dancing at all or dancing only for married couples or some such rule. Why are the bride and groom allowed to dance, but no one else is?

Will Christopher loosen his criteria as each new blessing comes along, and he needs to bring in more money?

1st Blessing - bare arms acceptable

2nd Blessing - Bride's mother may wear peep toe shoes

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.

.

.

8th Blessing - Bridesmaids may show nipples

[Witsec7]

From their courtship story:

Alan was pretty laid back and asked if I would like to eat first or head to the Christmas lights. Since we had a late lunch, I opted for the Christmas lights. It was a gorgeous display with hundreds of thousands of lights. We walked around and tried to keep warm as we enjoyed the atmosphere and live music together.

I wonder how they tried to keep warm. ;)

This story isn't the creepiest I've ever seen. It sounds like that had lots of private time to talk, including an unchaperoned car ride. It also sounds like they quickly felt very comfortable with each other. I've had people like that, where you feel like good friends who agree on all sorts of things and you can talk for hours even though you just met. The fact that he made it to almost 40 without having sex makes me wonder about him. Was he really shy? Is he weird? Does he have a lot of hangups? Even with strong religious beliefs, that had to be difficult.

I hope they can manage to have a good sex life despite the years of repression. The good news is, based on her age she probably won't have an outrageous number of children.

I thing because of their desperation age, some courting restrictions were lifted.

[StarrieEyedKat]

Those wedding albums are a gold mine.

Is this Douggie?

http://www.christophermaxwell.com/weddi ... index.html

Mid page.

With the microphone headset? Yes.

Also - Peter Bradrick is a douche-canoe in the push-up picture. Well, he's always a douche-canoe, but especially in that picture.

[Witsec7]

Out of all the wedding food/refreshments he photographed I found the wedding of Viktor & Jubilena to have the best food. :D

[YPestis]

Out of all the wedding food/refreshments he photographed I found the wedding of Viktor & Jubilena to have the best food. :D

Well most of his photographed weddings didn't have much in the ways of food (based on his pics). I think Christopher, given his price range, "selection criteria" and lack of skill probably attracts "budget" weddings hence we see simpler receptions.

[Zoom]

Christopher Maxwell's pictures were beyond awful!

But I did like the bridesmaids' dresses

[Guest Anonymous]

:clap: Hahahaha yes!

[Viola]

Rachel's skin never looked worse. He could have spent a little more time trying to make them look more flattering.

I found the engagement photos, isn't this the same photographer who did Andrew and Kori's wedding? This is MUCH better photography.

If you expand each photo Rachel's skin looked great, and it doesn't even looked photoshopped.

michelemoremanphotography.wordpress.com/2012/03/16/alan-and-rachels-engagement-session/

[Viola]

Ok this looks creepy, but I had to do the zoom in. As a photographer it makes me mad to see Christopher taking such horrid photos of the bride on the one special day. it's the use of bounce flash lighting (as he actually details in his free ebook) that gives that grey hue to the skin in the wedding pictures. See how good Rachel's skin actually is? this one is from the engagement.

[attachment=0]fj.jpg[/attachment]

[gravelmonkey]

What weirded me out about Chris Maxwell's "general criteria" was the no dancing (except between bride and groom) rule. That just seems weird. You'd think it would be no dancing at all or dancing only for married couples or some such rule. Why are the bride and groom allowed to dance, but no one else is?

I was wondering about that too. Maybe what he really wants is dancing only for married couples, but he can't trust that the guests will follow that rule. Instead, he limits dancing to the couple that he knows beyond a doubt is married? That's the only justification I could think of.

[H1N2B3]

And the legacy continues...Rachel is expecting and her due date is January 2016. From the pictures, it looks like it's going to be a boy.

wissmanns.blogspot.com/2015/07/a-darling-equation.html