First up was Julie and Brandon. What a great couple they were to work with. I have known Julie for a while before her wedding as she helped treat my daughter for a while. Julie and Brandon got married in a historic Catholic Church here in Knoxville that posed a great challenge for me. I could not be up on the altar during the ceremony, according to the rules of the church, so the only way I could get a shot of the bride coming down the aisle was to be down on my knees.. It ended up being a really great shot of her and her dad walking down the aisle. The reception was at the Foundry, which is a very nice place to have a reception. The whole day was great. Here is a photo of Brandon and Julie:
The next wedding was a very wonderful young lady, Keeli and her groom Mark. They are both from Georgia, so everything I did with them was through email and my wedding planner Brenda. They had their wedding at a simply beautiful location on her Aunt and Uncle's property. They spent months and months to get the grounds just right. They had a huge (and I do mean HUGE) pond put in, new grass, several flower gardens just for this wedding. In fact, I found out that the whole project was finished 3 weeks before the wedding. Talk about timing. Mark is a state trooper in GA (I hope he gives me a break one day... LOL).
Other than the fact it was an outdoor wedding, the biggest difference between Keeli's wedding and Julie's, is that Keeli saw Mark before the wedding. This is becoming a common thing with brides today. That goes with the whole tradition thing being gone. It was a very sweet and special moment when they saw each other. Most brides see the groom when walking down the aisle. There are lots of people around and loud music playing so you don't get a lot of the emotion you would get when two people who love each other see one another for the first time and it is just them (with two photographers and two videographer around).
This reception went well into the night since it was a private property out in the country. I got this really great shot of the full moon that night. Here is Keeli and Mark:
Kristi was next up in May with a small wedding in Morristown. Her new hubby, Craig, is the youth minster at the church they got married in. This was a church that reminded me of the church I grew up in. A small Baptist church out in the country where everyone knows everyone else. A friend did the catering at the house behind the church. The great thing about this wedding was the entire church community turned out to see this one. There was standing room only for the ceremony and I thought that was simply beautiful. Here is this small church out in the country that had the entire membership and then some come out to support this couple. The reception here was very small, only about 2 hours long. I was home before it got dark, that was really a strange feeling for me on a Saturday night.
My next and longest wedding for the month of May was Abbey and Stephen. They picked the Maple Grove Inn and I have to tell you, they could not have picked a better day for it. It was a little warm and a small storm came close to the ceremony, but the rain held off the entire time. I have not had much of a chance to look over everything, but most of the footage looks wonderful. Abbey is a kindergarden teacher and did her student teaching with my daughters 1st grade teacher the year before Katie went into the 1st grade.
They had a great band playing at the reception and it was so much fun to watch everyone have a great time. I had a little problem come up on this wedding. You see, most times at the end of a reception, the bride and groom leave by a car or limo. But Abbey and Stephen were staying at the Inn that night, so I was going crazy trying to figure out how to get the a departure shot to end the wedding. Then it hit me (man, I am good)! I had the bride and groom enter the front of the Inn, walk up to their room and kiss each other as the door closes on them. I watched it, and it is great. I am so thrilled with that shot and can't wait for them to see it.
The last wedding I had was this past weekend was with Laura and James down in Ethowa (50 miles from here) with the reception in Athens (another 13 miles from the church). This was just a fun wedding to do. The mother had set up a 30 minute music prelude that she wanted to be sure we got, and we did. It was also at a baptist church, but a bit bigger, but again a large number of guests came out to support this couple. The bride and groom were great to work with, they were very receptive to every thing I wanted them to do and had smiles on their faces the whole day.
The reception was held at a city park in a wonderful pavilion and was catered by the minsters wife. Now, since this was a baptist wedding not many people danced, but the wedding party really did kick up their heels for most of the night.
I can't pick one wedding as a favorite, they each have something special that makes them stand out from the other. Some were indoors, some outdoors. Some brides saw the groom before the wedding, some didn't. Some had a small budget, others had a huge budget. But the thing that brought them all together was a love that knew no bounds. Each wedding reflected the couple, each reflected their style and taste. Traditionalist may look at some of these weddings and scratch their heads and wonder what each couple was thinking, but I think it each one was great because it was what that couple wanted to show their love for each other.
Seventeen years ago this December my wife and I got married in a small church here in Knoxville. We had a very small budget, but it was a very special night for us. My grandmother was there that night (the last time I would see her alive) and I was told later by my cousin that she left the church convinced that we were not married. My cousin asked her why she thought that and my grandmother, being an old fashioned baptist woman that she was, said: "Well, they had a female minster and a male vocalist. That was just completely backwards." Memaw, it may have been backwards, but it meant the world to us.
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