In honor of our recent mid-MAY snowfall (gotta love Minnesota, right?), I figure I’d blog Ilona and Drew’s wedding from this last Valentines day up in Anoka. It was a small gathering of their closest friends on Drew’s parents estate … outside. Yep, Outside, Minnesota, Winter… My fingers just recently started to have feeling again… heh. No, seriously, it was cool — they got married in the exact same spot they got engaged. The short ceremony was followed by a very informal reception in the basement bar (sweet!) of their house, where Drew and his family treated 30-or-so of us to some good eats, fun speeches, and great company.
Category: Wedding
Lisa and Rick: Wedding Photographs
Nothing like starting off the new year by blogging about people married last year!
Lisa and Rick got married late last fall at Mt. Olivet in Minneapolis. Lisa was one of the happiest and giggliest brides I’ve ever had — she just couldn’t keep it in; and Rick seemed to have a “this is awesome” smirk on his face all day. Their enjoyment was infectious.
They finished of the night at the Metropolitan – complete with great speeches, live band, a happening dance, and custom Converse All Stars for the happy couple to boogie in. But you didn’t come here to see me type….
Kristine and Rob: Wedding Photographs, Duluth style
Kristine and Rob — who you may remember from their epic engagement photographs (and one on my main site too) or even a more recent post about how brave/trusting Kristine is — got married a few weeks back. The quick, personal, and to-the-point ceremony took place at a tranquil park in Duluth, Minnesota; the reception followed, and was considerably more raucous, at the historic Depot in downtown. Everyone really seemed to be enjoying themselves – and it certainly rubbed off on me; I love when people get ‘into it’ (whatever ‘it’ may be, really).
You’ll notice below there are three images of Rob getting his ring. ’twas pretty funny: when Kristine went to put on his wedding band, low-and-behold, Rob, being the stylin’ dude he is ;-), already had a ring on his ring finger! Combined with his facial expression, you can almost see a thought bubble above his head screaming “Gzeeeahhhh!!”. Hilarity ensued, his engagement ring was replaced with a wedding band, and life was good. A visual walk through of their wedding day…
Farmroom photo station
When we arrived at Willow Lake Farm in Windom, Minnesota for Anna and Mark’s wedding, the photo station was to be set up in a small ‘milking station’ in the barn. The room had a structural post right in the middle of the shooting area and a board running over a trough in the ground. I knew this would be crazy-different than the first photo station I ran in a near-brand-new reception hall – but of course, it was still going to be a blast.
I knew from working with Anna and Mark over the past 9 months how important the farm was to them. It came up numerous times in our conversations while planning, from their awesome custom wedding website, to their engagement session photographs, the ‘Willow Lake Farm’ was a constant topic of discussion.
Walking around a bit, it became clear to me that even the photo station pictures needed to have a sense of ‘place’; an anonymous backdrop just wouldn’t be right. So I moved a few tables and some tools, and decided to use this gnarly wall instead. Everyone dug that idea, and I agree that it worked out amazingly well.
I love how the photo station really gets everyone’s personality front and center. And man, Anna and Mark had some ‘personalities’ at their wedding, for sure. Great times. 🙂
Brave Bride
I gotta say, Kristine is pretty darn brave. Not only was she willing to climb a tree, hang upside down from monkey-bars, and jump off a picnic table (over me) during their engagement session last fall, but on the day of her wedding, after the makeup has been put on, after the hair, the jewelry, the dress… not long before she was going to be walking down the aisle… her Aunt decides the best method of emergency eyelash separation was “big pair of sharp pointy scissors to the eye”.
It was more comical than it sounds…. but there was no laughing. (at least, not until there was a little scissors-to-eye buffer) 😉
She managed to survive, beautiful eyes intact. 🙂 Got married to her best friend and is likely now gallivanting around Jamaica with him. Oh, and we got some photographs in there too, but more on that later….
Kristin and John’s Wedding
Kristin and John live in Virginia, but came out to Minnesota to have their wedding. I don’t know what it is about Como, but I always seem to blog when I go shoot there.
A little getting ready at the St. Paul Hotel, a touch of ‘waiting for the conservatory to open’, the ceremony, and that was the day (my part of it at least). Then they flew away to Belize… lucky ducks. :p
It was a small, short, yet moving ceremony; really seemed to fit their personalities to a ‘T’. I am really glad I got to be part of it; I think my favorite moment was watching Kristin tear up when she walked into the sunken garden because of “how beautiful it is”… though her grandparents (large backstory) grabbing one anothers hands in sync with Kristin and John as they exchanged rings still tugs at the heart strings like few things can. Getting moments like that on film (film?) for my clients is one of the reasons I love shooting weddings…
Carousel Bookends
A few months back, we did Kristin and John’s engagement photographs at Como Park in St. Paul Minnesota. The first shots we did were against the wall of the Carousel.
Well, they got married in touching ceremony in the sunken garden a week ago, after the ceremony we went outside and made a few more images – ending with this one; in the same spot we started a few months prior. Bookends.
Ellen and Paul’s Wedding
Paul and I studied Computer Science together at the greatest university in the world (As a member of the Rat Pak, I also rooted Paul on as he played on the National Champion Football team in 2003 — Go Johnnies!). Ellen went to the sister school of St. John’s, St. Bens – the same school my wife went to. I knew Ellen would make a fabulously beautiful bride (training for a marathon the week of her wedding – uhm, wow!), and, of course, Paul is cut from marble. 😉
So when I got the chance to photograph their wedding up in St. Joe, MN (home of CSB) and the plans included a jaunt to SJU for some photos – I was more than pumped. And you already know all about the photo station.
The day was cloudless and sunny, and there were quite a few setbacks (94, the main route from the Twin Cities, got shut down for a bit; the flowers showed up late; there was another wedding at SJU when we arrived for photographs; construction up the wazzoo, etc…) but the day ended up being a complete blast. “Out of Control” doesn’t even begin to describe some of what went on. And, man, we got some astounding images:
