Ahhhhh where to start…. well I guess it goes about to about 5th or 6th grade when I first met the bride, Becca, in a gym playing volleyball. We spent a couple of year playing club volleyball together when we were young. I could tell you several stories involving road trips to New Orleans, spandex and SCIVA overnighters, but I’ll spare you the details and stick to the present day….. fast forward 13 or 14 years and I get a message from Becca telling me that she was engaged!!! I was so excited that she wanted me to be her photographer. It meant the world to me to see an old friend marry the man of her dreams. And I must say that she made a good pick 🙂

I first got the chance to meet Phil when we did engagement photos at Butler last November. They met while attending school there. You can see those photos here. He was a great sport during the session and I could tell immediately how happy Becca was with him.

I’ve been so excited about their wedding for months now – and it surpassed all my expectations. The whole day was picture perfect. If I didn’t know better I would have guessed that Becca recruited her bridesmaids from a modeling agency ! Everyone was gorgeous (with a little help from hair and makeup professionals)! And the guys were equally as “entertaining” – they kept me on my toes but were a blast to work with as well. They kept me laughing all day.  The ceremony was beautiful (not going to lie I shed a little tear) and then it was time to party. This was one of the most happening receptions I’ve been to in awhile. The dance floor was packed and everyone was having a great time.  So good to see some old friends and catch up with Becca’s family as well. Overall an amazing day. Congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Christner!

Ceremony Location: Brownstown Christian Church

Reception Location: Pewter Hall – Brownstown, IN

Wedding Gown, Bridesmaids Dresses and Tuxes : Sophias Bridal Tux and Prom – Indianapolis, IN

Makeup Artist: EyeMax Makeup by Kiralee

Hairstylists: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang Salon in Fishers, IN

DJ: Alan Thrisler with Audio Magic Entertainment

Meanwhile in the guys room…..

And the moment every bride waits for….. time to put on the dress! Love her expression – that my friends is pure excitement 🙂

Seriously…. how gorgeous is this bridal party?!

Details, details. If there is one thing I know for sure about Becca it’s that she isn’t afraid of a high heel… check out those shoes!

And then it was time to get married!!!

These are a little out of order because Becca and Phil actually decided to see each other before the ceremony (which I love!). Makes the transition into party mode much much faster after the ceremony 🙂 But here are a few formals we did beforehand…. the 3 black and white’s are my favs.

Then it was onto the ceremony via “The Love Bus” with a quick stop for a drink along the way….

The First Dance

Some reception details…. check out the size of that cake!

I told you it was a rocking reception!!

Me and The Christner’s!!! Congrats again!

This wedding will definitely go down in history as one of the most memorable for many reasons. For starters it was scorching hot – one of the hottest days of the year. I can’t even imagine being in a tux or wedding gown, but they were troopers during the entire day.

I’ve know Ashley and Tyler for awhile now. I used to work with Tyler back in the day at Yogi’s and I had the pleasure of doing their engagement photos last year (which you can see here and here).  I’ve been super excited to shoot their wedding out at Four Winds for awhile now. I know how gorgeous the venue is, right on Lake Monroe . And Tyler if you’re reading this, I’ll add this day to the list of memorable moments at the Lake… at least no chairs were broken this time!

I started the day off out at the resort with the girls getting ready doing hair and makeup. They decided to see each other before the ceremony (which I love!). So after our “first look” photos we loaded up and headed out to campus and to Bloomington South for some fun photos with the wedding party.  Things were smooth sailing until we got back and learned that all the power at the resort had gone out…. it was at this point when I truly realized how amazing Ashley and Tyler are…

Despite the power outage the show had to go on. After waiting a bit to see if we could get back up and running they proceeded with the ceremony minus the microphones. The setting was gorgeous 🙂 a beautiful day with blue skies looking out onto the lake…. couldn’t be better (well i guess it could have been better with power). From there it was on to the reception which proved to be interesting since the DJ couldn’t play any music and the kitchen had no way to cook dinner for all the guests.  After some mingling and cocktails we got the best news of the night – the power was back!  Dinner was worth the wait  and the rain held off long enough to get some dancing in… well barely.

Just when you thought nothing else could go wrong in came a giant thunderstorm complete with some of the craziest lighting I’ve ever seen. Everyone started to run for cover and glasses were blowing over….. like I said definitely a wedding I will not soon forget!

At the end of the day though the bottom line was that Ashley and Tyler were happily married 🙂

Congratulations to the both of you! Thanks again for letting me be a part of your day, even though I was sweaty mess for most of it 🙂

Ceremony and Reception Location: Four Winds Resort – Bloomington, IN (they also provided the DJ and the catering)

Brides and Bridesmaids Dresses: David’s Bridal

Tuxes: Men’s Wearhouse

Florist: Peppertree Floral – Bloomington, IN

Cake : Sugar Daddy’s – Bloomington, IN

Hair : Nancy from His and Her’s Salon

Officiant : Alan Phillips – Sherwood Oaks Christian Church

On to the photos!!!

“My favorite moment was sitting in the girls dressing room getting ready, with Becky and Allie taking pictures, and coming to the realization that it was all coming together. We had talked about our wedding for so long and here we were actually doing what we had planned” -Ashley

In the meantime in the boys room……

Then we sent him out to wait for his bride 🙂 He’s that tiny speck in black in the distance….

And some solo shots

And then it was off to campus… Here’s Ashley with her bridesmaids

and Tyler with his boys

One of my favorites on the left

Wedding Party at Sample Gates

Ashley really wanted this shot of them walking down Kirkwood….. we managed to stop traffic for couple of minutes to get it

And there’s my assistant Allie’s shot from the other side

Then it was off to Bloomington South for some pics on the football field

The whole wedding party back at Four Winds

Details, details, details!

And then it was ceremony time

Q. What is your funniest memory of the day?

A. Walking down the aisle with my dad!! When we first started we had Becky taking our pictures, but when we got closer to a tree that marked the turn in the sidewalk, there stood 3 of our friends and family members taking pictures with high tech cameras that my dad and I referred to as our paparazzi!!

What a gorgeous ceremony location

Off to the reception!

“My favorite detail was the place card fence. I painted it a year prior and left it outside to get weathered. Then Ty and I hand painted all of the clothes pins together and hand crafted the name tags. And finally, I spent the evening of the rehearsal with my Aunt Kim and Flowergril Kate putting each of the names on the fence. There were a lot of great memories that went into the process and it turned out WONDERFULLY!!!!”- Ashley

Reception details 🙂

And here comes the storm…..

Q. What advice would you give to couples planning their wedding?

A. Always remember to relax!!! Someone once told me that planning a wedding and building a house are very much alike. People are going to come to your home and tell you how wonderful it looks and the only person that will ever notice the imperfections is you. Things will happen that you didn’t plan on and half of the battle is realizing it ahead of time and being ok with. Oh – and nothing productive comes from getting upset. You may feel better, but you’ll feel best if you just roll with it!!

Congrats to Ashley and Tyler!!!

Here are some behind the scenes shots of me shooting… yah those are my feet sticking out on the left …

My famous stool… hey i’m short.. it prevents me from looking up everyone’s noses all the time

This last one was during the ceremony… I think it was around 98 degrees. I was so disgustingly sweaty …. seriously should not have been in public at this point…. yikes…