Katie and Bret | Wedding @ Charleston, IL

Last weekend was CRAZY! Not only did Katie and Bret have picture perfect clouds and sunshine for their big day but they also faced a monsoon of rain leading up to their big day that thankfully only threatened their beautiful outdoor ceremony and reception. We were pretty nervous leaving for the day, so much so we left our Apple watches behind because we just assumed we’d be outside, drenched all day. Boy were we wrong! It ended up being a beautiful amazing day for a wedding and Katie and Bret were absolutely beaming with happiness. The entire day from start to finish was shot at the home of the brides parents and after being there all day long, I’m kind of hoping they just adopt me and let me move in. Their house is picture perfect and full of color and warmth and it was the perfect location for Katie’s hair and makeup. We got to know the bridesmaids and felt right at home with the family as we shot the morning preparations and watched the weather nervously as the near 100 percent chance of rain slowly dropped to 50 percent, than 20, than cloudy. We were overjoyed looking out the window to know that their outdoor wedding now had a chance. While Katie was busy getting dressed and ready, her dad and brothers were hauling wood chips to lay down to create a dry aisle for the bridal party because the large amount of rain had flooded the ceremony site. There was so much rain, that in some areas, it was over my foot. Sometimes you just have to roll with it and shoot a wedding barefoot and just deal with the mud and that’s what Kayla, Doug, and I did. We shot as many photos as possible before the wedding just in case the rain popped back up to cause problems but as luck would have it, we were able to shoot through the entire day with no more rain. Katie and Bret exchanged vows in front of a beautiful field of flowers under near perfect evening light. Their evening ceremony was simple and perfect and we loved watching the happy couple walk back down the aisle as a married couple. The family has the most AMAZING property you’ve ever seen we could have spent days taking photos in the beautiful areas they had to offer. We had shot the couples engagement photos there and so we knew some of the great spots they had available (more on that below). The couple greeted their guests and had a wonderful meal catered by Martins and I can’t say enough about how kind and amazing both families were. The reception was beautifully decorated and everyone felt so relaxed and happy. The bridal party did an amazing job on the speeches and were so awesome during pictures, we just had a really great day with the entire crew. Katie was so kind and sweet she was constantly making sure everyone else was having a good time and doing ok, we can understand why Bret loves her. Bret’s a quiet guy but you can tell in the way he looks at Katie he cherishes her and will take good care of her in their married life together.

And now, a thank you to them. We posted briefly about this on our Facebook page but we want to thank this couple for truly trusting us. We feel a tremendous personal responsibility to capture quality images for each and every wedding, we feel so strongly about this that we try to treat our approach to weddings as if they were our own. We know that photos are one of the only things from the wedding day you get to keep and we also know that taking them can require some time investment on your big day. As you can see, we got a LARGE variety of portraits (and many that we didn’t even post) from this day and we thank our couples for investing in time for photography. We honestly feel it pays off. Now, we know that at some point couples are “done” taking photos and just want to hang out and enjoy the day. Trust us, that’s literally our entire goal. We also know when we see light that is just so magical it can’t be passed up or an idea comes to light and we know we can execute it without fail. Some couples say “nah” we have enough pictures but others trust our gut. The series of photos that you see interrupting the reception were taken in less than 6 minutes (4 of the poses we didn’t post). We knew this spot existed and we also knew the light would be amazing around sunset. A quick side by side ride out there and a quick shoot that we felt was well worth 6-10 minutes away from the reception. We hope Katie and Bret will cherish them as much as we did taking them. Thanks for trusting us, we hope it provides you with images you treasure forever. We were also assisted this wedding by the lovely and talented Kayla York (Kayla Elizabeth Photography) and we can’t thank her enough for putting up with Kate’s bossy pants. She scored some beautiful images and we treasure her as our second shooter.

Much love Katie and Bret!

-The Keys