Chelsey and Jake | Wedding @ St. Anthony and Keller Convention Center, Effingham IL

Happy October All! It’s that special time of year where wedding vendors and photographers breathe into paper bags and hope they survive the fall wedding season that is non stop until late November. We couldn’t have had a better couple to kick off our fall wedding season than Chelsey and Jake. If Chelsey looks familiar on our blog it is because we shot her sister’s wedding a few years ago and I absolutely love everything about their family. They live in this amazing “made for photography” home that makes me giddy like a little kid when I get to shoot there, they have awesome pets, they have some awesome genuine love, and they are all absolutely beautiful people inside and out- a dream to photograph. Jake is a lucky guy and after interacting with his family on Saturday I can tell you they are also wonderful, fun people and his parents raised a good guy. When you have this much family goodness in the day, do you even need to keep writing the blog?

Well of course, there is so much to talk about- we started the morning at Branches Salon where Carrie completed the perfect hairstyle for Chelsey matching her personality and dress to a “T” I’m going to go ahead and just say that Brianna created probably one of my all time favorite makeup looks for Chelsey and there are very few people on this planet that can pull off a look like that and Chelsey NAILED it. The bridesmaids and I kept joking all day that we would marry her because she looked AMAZING. I think Jake thought so too. Thanks to all the folks at Branches for their speedy and excellent work we were able to get over to the amazing house that I wish Kay (the mother of the bride) would just let me live in and take pictures all day to get the bride ready. We photographed the dress (with the help of the family adorable dog) and before we knew it we were off to the church to get married. We nailed some indoor and outdoor photos prior to the ceremony and we were ready to rock and roll. We got to work with our good friend Gary Stanfield of Riviera Records who did the videography for the couple. Gary is one of my favorite people, he is a true professional and he filmed our wedding ten years ago. We loved putting our trust in him and knowing we would get good results, he’s fantastic. Chelsey and Jake smiled through the wedding ceremony and their family and friends enjoyed seeing them exchange vows. St. Anthony as always is a beautiful church (it is where we got married also) and we love when couples completely trust their professionals to create their portraits and photograph those real, genuine moments. While I love to stage me some amazing outdoor portraits for family and bridal party, I also love the raw and candid moments we get in the in-between. Kay as you may know is one of the master wizards behind Burklands Flowers (our favorite flower place) and of course Chelsey’s bouquet and church decorations were absolutely amazing. Special thanks to the Burklands folks for all their hard work making our weddings come together with amazing flower arrangements, they always are easy to work with and do fantastic quality work. We headed to the family home for outdoor photos where the rain held off and we got some beautiful storm clouds to work with as we shot photos inside and outside of the house. We headed to celebrate at the Orchard prior to heading to the reception and the couple was blessed with a lucky rainbow on their big day.

We headed over to the Keller Convention Center for the reception where Kay and the folks at Burklands outdid themselves in flower decor with cascading tall centerpieces to unique small arrangements all over the room, it was a photographer’s dream. The couple enjoyed a joint speech by Clint the Father of the Bride and her sister Chelsey in addition to a speech by the brother of the groom/best man. The couple cut their cake, enjoyed a fantastic meal served and made by the fantastic convention center staff, and dove into their first dances with a lot of smiles and love all around. The dance floor was hopping all night and the couple had an amazing time with the packed house with all their family and friends. We couldn’t have asked for a better day working with one of our favorite families, this amazing couple, these incredible vendors, and the perfect weather. Congrats Chelsey and Jake, enjoy the honeymoon!

-The Keys