When you hire the bride before she hires you
The start of Kelly and Ryan’s wedding for me happened at Franklin Woods Nature Center Trail. It was the start of Covid in 2020 and I had just put an offer on my first house a week before the shutdown.
At the time I was living in a house that sat right next to this secluded little trail that only the locals used. It was March heading into April and like everyone else I would spend my days sitting at home watching the news and then going for longer and longer walks outdoors.
And, I was feeling very skittish about this new home purchase.
Because of that, I looked up Kelly who I had met when I photographed her brother’s wedding the year before. I knew she was a lawyer and had the thought that she could point me in the direction of talking with a real estate lawyer.
From her brother’s wedding I already had a lot of respect for her family, knowing them to be honest and down to earth so if Kelly recommended someone I would know I wouldn’t be steered in the wrong direction.
Right away, Kelly was super kind and complimented me on her brother’s photos saying they were the best wedding photos she ever saw.
“They were the best wedding photos I ever saw”
Kelly
This turned out super beneficial for me, because after her help with my house she would call me later that year with the news that she was engaged and she would want me to photograph her wedding!
The Carriage House and a first look
The first thing to know about Ryan and Kelly is that they’re both classy individuals that treat people well and do the right thing. And, their wedding day really showed off their personalities. Their reception was set at the Carriage House at Lac La Belle in Oconomowoc, which is a stylish all encompassing golf resort and two indoor ball rooms.
This is the type of place that is absolutely beautiful and has a baseline setup that will give you an elegant and classy weddings no matter how much you dress up the decor.
The two ballrooms were the carriage house which had a single bar, a bridal getting ready room and an outdoor patio.
The other ballroom was the 1896 Room, which had its own bar, but was connected to a restaurant and bar and had a classic golf locker room where Ryan got ready.
My day started off in the bridal room with Kelly. After spending a half hour there, I met Ryan in the locker room for pictures of him putting on his tie, coat and shoes. We then grabbed some photos of his brother and dad doing the same thing and took a few low-key portraits of Ryan with his family.
Our plan after that was to do a first look and then take all the portraits before the ceremony. This timeline isn’t for everyone, but the big benefit of this is that you can take most if not all official portraits early in the day.
Portraits involve a lot of standing and walking and freezing in place (at least for the family portraits), so it can be tiring after a half hour of that. I can make the wedding party portraits and the portraits of the bride and groom fun, but even that is nice to get out of the way early.
Brides will also appreciate this, because it moves the important pictures early in the day when your hair and makeup are the most fresh.
And, the guests will definitely appreciate this, because you won’t have a gap in the wedding day when they’re on their own waiting for the next planned activity to begin. On the other hand, if appetizers and drinks are being served, this isn’t the most tedious of time to wait for the bride and groom to take photos.
Indoor Portraits and Overviews of the Buildings
Two big photography sequences happened on this day that I’d really love to geek out on in this blog. I’ll try to not be too technical, and keep it as light, but if you’re a photographer you may enjoy some of this.
The first thing was that not solely because the Carriage House was beautiful, but I really had the time and forethought to grab some wide angle photos of the venue while Kelly and Ryan did something else.
I really wanted to create a cohesive storyline for their photography and taking an overview of the building themselves would set the scene for their day. I also did this with their ceremony at St. Catherine of Alexandria in Oconomowoc. It helped that this was a beautiful catholic building that looked impressive from the outside. But, when I arrived at the church I immediately jumped out of my car and ran deep into the parking lot to grab a quick photo of the site before I had to worry about missing out on things going inside.
Later at night, back at the reception, I also wanted to maximize the windows of the Carriage House. So, I had this idea to ask Kelly and Ryan to kiss directly in the center of the windows and glass door.
My assistant then held a flash behind them and it created a silhouette of them kissing with the overview of the reception from the outside. It was also raining and you can see a little bit of that in the photo as well.
The second sequence was normally a negative, but it rained all day long.
When it’s raining you have two choices. Find a spot you can be outside with umbrellas or some sort of overhang that blocks out the rain or stay inside the whole time.
We did a little bit of both, but stayed mostly inside.
My favorite thing we did was use the wide open and empty ballroom of the 1896 room. It also had enormous windows that covered the whole wall. So, in one set I framed them in the lower portion of the windows and used the entirety of it to frame them and create drama.
In another set I went outside and photographed through the window. I got a little bit lower to capture some of the ceiling lights behind them for an interesting background. And, the window gave everything a haze that really brought interest to the photos.
Venue: The Carriage House at Lac La Belle
Ceremony: St. Catherine’s of Alexandria
Cake: Cake & Bake
Makeup: Gina
DJ: Electro D-Js
Rings: Rogers and Hollands
Dress: Flutter Bridal Co.
Hair: Katie Rickun and Gina
Flowers: Deanna Jacobs
