In the early hours of Saturday, Jim Marshall was ready for work.
But that wasn’t all.
The former editor of the Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail and the former executive director of the National Museum of Women in the Arts was there to document the ceremony in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
“It was the best day of my life,” he said in an interview with CBC News.
Marshall said he was not expecting to be in a white dress and tie.
He was there because he wanted to capture the moment in which a couple who had known each other for a decade were married in their own home.
“I had a lot of questions, and I wanted to find out what this wedding was really about and what was really happening behind the scenes,” he told CBC News at the wedding reception in a red and white floral bouquet and white veil.
“And I thought, this is going to be one of the most important moments in the history of my career,” he continued.
“That was just what I needed.”
Marshall, who has been married five times, said he wanted a bride that was comfortable in her own skin and ready for the ceremony to unfold.
“So I wanted a girl that was not going to go in there and say, ‘Oh, I’m going to get married in a dress,'” he said.
Marshill said he had been expecting to see an older woman.
“They were very happy,” he explained.
“We talked for a long time and I just thought, well, I can’t be that old.
So I said, well what do you think?
You know, I don’t know, what are you going to wear?
But she said, ‘Well, you know, it’s going to take time.’
And that was it.
It was a really, really beautiful wedding.”
After the ceremony, the bride, Emma Lue, was welcomed by a small group of people, including her parents, grandfather and brother, who had gathered at the reception in the evening to take photos.
“Emma Lue is a beautiful woman and she is a great person, and she has a great family, so I’m really proud of her,” Marshall said.
The couple’s story, he added, has touched so many people and people in the community.
“This is the kind of story that I think everyone wants to hear,” he added.
“The people that are there, they just want to be there, but they can’t because of what happened, and they want to know what happened to the rest of us.”