I have many fond memories of Denise and Mike throughout the planning process.  It all started when her parents came to meet with us (Denise is going to school out of town), and her dad, Kipp, mentioned that he saw we liked beer on our website so we offered him something we had from a microbrew in Jacksonville.  Turns out, he brews beer himself – needless to say I think we quickly won him over.  Then I finally got to meet Mike the day of their engagement session after he had been away for many months on a mission trip to Rwanda.  The love between them was palpable…I almost felt like I needed to give them some “alone time”.  😉  No but really…you could tell they had just been reunited after a long time, and it made for perfect engagement pictures.

Come wedding day, the weather was not cooperating and threatened Denise’s vision of an outdoor ceremony at Goodwood.  When she finally agreed to have it inside, Mike went in to console her a bit, and came back out to help move chairs around.   I asked how she was holding up and he said, “She had her moment, had a shot, and she’s moving on.  That’s why I love her so much.”    There you go.

We still had lots of non-rainy time for outdoor portraits, and there are so many other sweet moments, so this is a rather large blog post (especially since they were extra patient and it took me almost a month).

 

Ceremony and Reception Venue:  Goodwood Museum and Gardens

Wedding Coordinator: Molly McFarland of Molly Elizabeth Design

Floral Design:  Vince and Suzanne at Flowers by Vince

Cake Artist:  Topper from The Cake Shop, various cupcakes made by family

Catering: LaGran Saunders and Crew

Disc Jockey: Harry Halley

Bluegrass Band: Eddie MacFarland, Ken Kanline, and Crew

Bridal Hair: Meghan at Synergy Salon

many DIY yourself touches – cupcake stand by bride and her father, Rwanda basket favors brought home by the groom, home brewed beer made by bride’s father, signature drink was an “MGT” made with Malawian Gin from Malawi where groom worked for several months…the list goes on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Love these moment between Mike and his dad:

 

Another sweet First Look:

We took a few shots by the wedding arch in case they didn’t get to do their ceremony outside.  Glad we did that…

 

Opening up a gift from Mike:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not bad for Plan B, huh?

 

Love this one!  We photographed Brittany’s wedding back in July where Denise was the maid of honor, and now Brittany is crying at Denise’s wedding:

 

Denise’s parents looking on while her uncle gave a heartfelt talk during their ceremony:

 

 

 

These two shots of Ryan’s are some of my favorites.  Just a different angle…and I liked one in black and white and the other in color:

 

 

 

A unique alternative to the traditional Guestbook – a fingerprint tree!  I love how they made the wipe cute by wrapping them up:

 

I am always blown away when working a wedding with LaGran Saunders and his crew…no detail goes overlooked:

 

The homemade cupcake “forest” created by Denise and her dad:

 

The home brew…coolest thing ever!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for an awesome day you guys, it was all perfect!