Zach Gilford and Kiele Sanchez's Wedding: Intimate Photos and Details
Aug. 8, 2013— -- When Zach Gilford emailed photographer Jonas Peterson to shoot his Dec. 29 wedding, the "Friday Night Lights" star first wanted to explain how he fell in love with his bride-to-be, "Lost" actress Kiele Sanchez.
"It's a very long email. I can't think of any specific thing, but the whole email is amazing," Peterson told ABC News. "[He said], 'I want to tell you the story of how I met the love of my life.'"
Gilford said that when he met Sanchez, they were both involved with other people, "but [he said], 'We knew we had to spend our lives together,'" said Peterson. "It's just a long story about him and her and personal loss -- and by the end I said, 'I'm doing this.'"
"I want to tell you the story of how I met the love of my life."
And shoot it he did. After getting to know the grounded couple, Peterson, who did not realize that they were celebrities until he met them, photographed the groom and his "stunning movie star" bride at their low-key wedding in Napa, Calif. (How low-key? At one point, the bride was curled up in flannel by a fire and smiling at her groom, who held a mason jar of moonshine.)
"It's amazing to meet people who treat me like family," he said. "I was honored and amazed. There's such a facade of actors and there was no facade with them at all. This was them being themselves, crying and all of that. This was them."The pictures capture a range emotions, from the couple's tearful vow exchange ("It was pretty special," Peterson said) to their joyful celebration afterward. However, some of the most smile-inducing shots are not of the newlyweds at all, but rather, of the couple's famous pals, Michelle Hurd, who acted with Sanchez on "The Glades" and her husband, "Raising Hope" star Garret Dillahunt, and Gilford's "Friday Night Lights" co-star Jesse Plemons (who played Landry Clarke).
"Oh man, that guy [Plemons] can play guitar!" Peterson added with a laugh. "He's in a band called Cowboy and Indian and they were good -- very good! [Gilford and Sanchez] are the most normal people in the world. It's so nice to see that celebrities can be completely normal and down-to-earth because, trust me, that never happens."
"They are the most in-love couple you'll ever see," he added. "It's really amazing. Zach said, 'This is the love of my life and I want you to come capture that.' And that's how it was, and that's how they act. To see them doing this thing was spectacular."
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