Wedding Photography

This post is about the wedding.

Saying it was an amazing day would be such an understatement.

First of all I'd like to give a huge shout out to Mother Nature.  It was 71 degrees, FOR A HIGH, at the end of July.  Pretty much unheard of.  People wanted coats and sweaters.  It was the perfect weather for the perfect day.

The ceremony was held at the University of Illinois Arboretum.  Such a gorgeous place filled with flowers and trees and all things nature (including a pond and Japanese garden).  We avoided the Japan House but managed to take pictures just about in every other location possible!

Which leads me to my wonderful and lovely photographer Kara Kamienski.  If you have a wedding coming up in the next year, 2 years, 5 years, I highly highly highly recommend you book her right now.  She's just so easy to work with and her bubbly personality makes you feel comfortable and at ease when her and her assistant are snapping hundreds of pictures of you and your spouse.

Next topic... still relating to pictures... Because we booked pictures through Kara we just happened to be lucky enough to get Blake Ransom to video our wedding and compose a short video for... drum roll... free!  Blake is new to the photography and videography wedding scene and was looking for experience this summer.  But let me tell you this... he is no amateur.  The short little clip he made of our day was absolutely perfect.  I cried... a lot... and have watched it almost a million times now.  Here it is incase you haven't seen it or want to relive the day.

And one last thing about pictures... As you can probably tell from the video above Arren and I did a first reveal.  I'm so so so glad we did this.  For one Arren was a nervous wreck while he was getting ready.  As soon as he saw me and got over the shock of seeing me all prettied up (it was pretty shocking!) he calmed right down and was ready for the wedding.  Also, it allowed us to take 95% of the pictures before the ceremony.  We had about 3 hours of pictures with us, our bridal party and our close family before the whole shindig even began.  Our guests weren't left waiting after the ceremony to get their party on and we were much less stressed since we had most of the afternoon to snap up pics.

In case you are wondering here is the general order we took pictures...

• Everyone getting ready/rings/dresses/other little details
• First Reveal
• Bridal Party
• Arren and I
• Our close family
• After the ceremony we took pictures with extended family

These few pics I have posted are ones Kara edited and posted to her Facebook right after the wedding.  I'm still anxiously waiting on the rest, but the wait will so be worth it to see all the amazing pictures and details Kara and her crew captured.