I had the honor of second shooting Kristina & Stephen’s wedding alongside Vanessa of Vanessa Smith Photography a couple of weekends ago! This was my second time second shooting with her & I’m so incredibly grateful for each opportunity. She just recently sent K&S their photos from the wedding (go see her favorites & blog post!) and I hope they enjoyed seeing all of their photos from their beautiful wedding day!
When I arrived at the groom’s house for the ceremony site I got capture all the gorgeous coral & turquoise themed details for their backyard wedding. It was a bright & sunny day, the kind of perfect summer day you wish for your wedding. They had set up a giant white tent on a gorgeous patch of their yard along with white chairs underneath an arch of beautiful trees that made for the perfect wedding aisle for Kristina to walk down. A lot of the details had been handcrafted by the bride’s mother and it was incredible to see the amount of thought & effort put into making the details. There were handcrafted mason jars with family members’ names, adorable chocolate party favors for each guest, an enormous seating chart, beautiful paddles fans, and bells for guests to wave as the couple walked back up the aisle together as newlywed.
The girls got ready at Kristina’s house & the boys got ready at Stephen’s home right next to the ceremony location. The boys had the time to relax and play pool in the basement and corn-hole out back before they started getting in their attire for the day. We took some groomsmen portraits right next to the ceremony location before the girls arrived via limo in time to get the wedding started.
Their ceremony was heart touching with words from Kristina’s godmother, a blessing from the Deacon, the guests’ prayers, and the lighting of a candle in memory of those passed on. These photos are my absolute favorites from the day!
I loved the relaxed atmosphere of Kristina & Stephen’s getting ready & ceremony portion of the day. The night went onto include family formals, cocktail hour, speeches & dances.
I have officially decided that first dances are my favorite part of wedding days! They’re always so emotional and let everyone sink into the moment and cherish it! Toasts are officially second on the list, I always laugh along with them and love getting to hear stories about the couple!
This father and daughter dance, man I’m tell you, these get me every time. And then you go and add a mother & son dance. I’ll be honest, I never cry but I DO get all up in my feels.
The couple got to sneak away from the reception for a little time taking sunset portraits together!
And then they got to eat, sing, drink and dance the night away!
Stephen & Kristina dated for many, many years before finally on the morning of Kristina’s 30th birthday, Stephen proposed by giving her a shirt that asked her to become his fiancé! So this day was such a long time coming and I’m so glad I had the opportunity to be part of it & capture it! Kristina, you were SUCH a joyous bride & I hope this day was everything you wished it would be and more!!
