Sometimes you meet a couple who immediately transform from being your clients into your friends and that’s how I feel about Autumn and Kyle. Kyle in particular will always stand out, because as a surprise to no one many grooms can feel ambivalent about getting their picture taken and then they can be quite aloof toward me in general through the whole wedding photography process.
Kyle was the complete opposite. He is one of the friendliest guys I’ve ever met and from the moment we met at their engagement session in Lake Geneva to his wedding day he would go out of his way to not only make me, but all the vendors, feel like they were the guests of honor.
And as you can see from the photos, Kyle’s personality added a lot of fun to all the portraits, from getting ready before the ceremony, to the actual portraits all the way to the reception and the dancing.
Gatherings on the Ridge
Kyle and Autumn were married at Gatherings on the Ridge in Eastman, Wisconsin. This was one of the first weddings I’ve ever done in southwestern Wisconsin, a funny enough fact considering how much I travel around. Kyle and Autumn chose this tucked away barn wedding venue since it was the halfway point from where their families lived.
This location was remote and out in the country surroundings by woods and valleys. It has a main barn where they both got ready, Autumn downstairs and Kyle upstairs. You can get married inside, but Kyle and Autumn got married outside since it was an unseasonably warm October weekend.
Outside there were other another metal rustic barn you could use as a backdrop along with woods and a wooden swing set. I ended up using this wooden swing set for portraits right after we used the woods for absolutely lovely twilight portraits. With it being fall weather, the woods were all full of color and resulted in some of the most fall-laden colorful wedding portraits I’ve ever taken.
Creative Pictures
Since Kyle and Autumn were so friendly and loved the photo taking process I was able to take more creative shots and portraits than usual.
The first of these shots was with the wedding dress. Right away I saw a wide arched opening in the downstairs connecting the getting ready rooms to the larger ceremony/reception area. There was also a hook that holds wedding dresses. This is a side note for photographers and couples when they wonder where to take photos of the wedding dress. A lot of venues will purposely install a hook or nail into the woodwork or wall to hang a dress. That really takes a lot of questions out of where to take the classic wedding dress photos.
The other thing I noticed is that the upstairs was an open air space and when Kyle and the groomsmen walked to the railing you could see them from the first floor.
I thought this was a unique feature and so I asked Kyle to walk to the railing when I was taking photos of the dress. That way I could take a fun concept photo of the wedding dress and the groom in the same picture without the groom actually seeing the dress. Looking at the photo makes me think of the dress being a secret, unbeknownst to Kyle who was getting ready. They were together in the same picture, but separated by knowledge and framing.
Another creative photo that I liked was incorporating a painting on the wall with portraits of Autumn. In this case there was a portrait of a woman in a wedding dress walking away and it was located above a lovely vintage love seat. So, I took most of Autumn’s portraits here, a mixture of closeups and full body portraits.
In this same location there was a lovely set of double doors that led to the kitchen. When I looked at the doorway I saw an opportunity to make a photo that connected the getting ready portion of the day to the ceremony part of the day. Thinking of it as a sequence in a story, I decided to take photos of Autumn walking through the doorway, This would create this idea that she was moving from single life into marriage by dramatically walking through a doorway.
Kyle and Autumn’s own creativity led to another unique photo. The two actually had their vows printed out on small sheets of glass perched on wooden foundations. I’ve never seen vows made like this, but I absolutely loved it.
I took photos of the vows, but then knowing that you could see through the glass I thought it’d be a neat idea to take each of Kyle and Autumn’s shoes and place them behind each glass. So in one photo you can see the vows and then Kyle’s boots behind his vows and Autumn’s heels behind her vows.
Candid moments
There were a lot of fun candid moments at this wedding. The first of these moments came about with something very inconspicuous. Around the barn and property there were hosts of ladybugs. There were all over the place outside the building and on the walls and porch.
At one point when I was taking photos of the details and the rings one found its way onto the ring box and I immediately took a closeup of the situation.
However, my favorite moment came at the reception. After the portrait session all the wedding party, family members and guests were mingling around for the cocktail hour. At one point, Autumn and her dad walked over to the doorway leading to the outside. They then stood there looking outside with their arms around each other.
It was a sincere moment that I had to get photos of, and it was all the more special since it was organic and I didn’t have to engineer it with any prompts.
Nightime portraits
I absolutely love creative photography playing with lights and flashes. One of the best times to do this is night time and in the dark. It doesn’t always work out to do this at weddings, but Kyle and Autumn loved taking pictures and were excited to try out different portrait concepts at the end of the night.
For this I set Kyle and Autumn up under one of the doorway entrances which had a small light shining down on them. The doorway gave them a nice frame around the couple and the light above them gave the photo a little more interest.
I then asked my wife who was my assistant on this wedding to hold a flash behind the couple. Kyle then dipped Autumn and gave her a kiss. The flash behind them then created a dramatic silhouette.
It was a perfect ending photo to a wedding day.
Bible Verse of the day: Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.
Philippians 4:4
Venue: Gatherings on the Ridge
Dress: David’s Bridal Rockford, IL
Groom’s Attire: Men’s Wearhouse
DJ: Nicky Avalon Studios
Caterer: U2-BBQ
