Our day started as a lot of wedding days do, with the ladies at a salon getting ready for the day. This day that salon was the Indigo Salon in Lexington. It was my first time shooting there and I see why Nicki selected it. The staff was so helpful and accommodating to everything we wanted to do, on top of providing perfect hair and makeup for our bride, bridesmaids, and the mothers.

This is where we also took the time to capture the details of the day. We shot the wedding dress, shoes (a pair of Keds!!!), and rings. I’m a big believer in getting these out of the way as early as possible so that we don’t have to worry about them moving forward.

Afterwards, it was a quick trip over to Griffin Gate Marriott where I met up with Ben and his groomsmen. They were ready to go…not always the case with groomsmen I’ve learned. 😉

Just as we were starting we had to put things on pause for a moment as one of this group’s best friend was able to FaceTime in from his current deployment. It’s tough to miss out or have someone you care about not be able to make it, so I was thrilled they could facilitate the call.

Following that we took care of all of their formals pretty quickly so they could escape to the air-conditioning, which had us ready for the arrival of the bride and her entourage. We made quick work of several locations jumping back and forth between elegant and fun…and sometimes both.

We had started the day a little bit behind between parking and travel between locations, but we were quickly getting that time back. That is why you always pad the timeline!

We scoped out a nice shaded area for the first look along a cart path just off the golf course. Even lighting, a gorgeous rock wall, and no need to force our couple all over the property in the heat. I knew as I was pushing the shutter down that we had gold in that first look. Ben’s reaction was priceless and we were able to get multiple angles of it.

I had predetermined a few portrait locations during the afternoon to make sure we could be as efficient as we could and this is where we were really making up time. Ben and Nicki were comfortable, at ease, and made things so easy. We ran through several locations and setups in record time, which let us capture the entire party…putting us about 20 minutes ahead of schedule.

That’s not something that happens every time I assure you.

Family portraits and then off to Manchester Music Hall where we did a quick walkthrough of the ceremony and started photographing all of ceremony and reception details. The cocktail hour was set in the same location as the reception, so it was important we got the details documented beforehand.

The ceremony went off just as planned with stunning window light filling in the room.

After the introduction of the bridal party to the reception, it was on to toasts immediately. Timing wise that’s very different than the norm, but I thought it really was well done. We were able to celebrate the happy couple and their relationships with their friends and family before opening up for the bbq buffet.

I took the time to set up our lighting gear for the first dance while my second shooter tested a few scenarios.

There was no cake to cut. That’s right, no cake…but there were donuts. Ben & Nicki shared his & hers donut, sipped champagne, and then a beautiful first dance. Their dance was followed by a shared mother/son and father/daughter dance which was the last of the formalities until their exit.

That meant a few things.

The first being that the dance floor was open and this crowd used every bit of it! The second that we had time to experiment and try things, which we did. Don’t get me wrong, we shot the normal shots too…but it’s fun to break out prisms, try new lighting, and have fun in the midst of all the time the dance floor is open.

Everyone closed the night with the sparkler sendoff and of course a kiss.

Congratulations Ben & Nicki!!! We were thrilled to be a part of your wedding day. A big thank you to your friends and family for being so easy to work with. Then of course we’d like to thank all the tremendous vendors as well!

Enjoy the photographs.

Vendors

Simply Love Studio