Haley and Dathan | Wedding @ Vandalia, IL

We may have not gotten an unusually warm day for this wedding as we have with our past two but what we did get was another AWESOME couple, some amazing wind, and a killer sunset. Some days, when you can’t win it all- I’ll take an epic sunset over it all anyway, right? Haley and Dathan are high school sweethearts who you can tell have a beautiful connection and a really loving family behind them. We loved documenting this momentous day in their journey together and we hope they love the highlights as much as we did taking them. We started the morning at the salon with the bride, her bridesmaids, and her family. We got to know her parents really well and listened to the family joke and laugh all morning. The whole bridal party was extremely fun the entire day and we felt very welcomed in the group. Haley had absolutely beautiful makeup done for her wedding day which was very unique and matched her wedding colors perfectly. We headed to the beautiful church in Vandalia for the ceremony and first look and I was instantly in love with some of the options for photos inside of the church. We made good use of the stained glass and beautiful natural light that seemed to fall everywhere inside of the church. Haley chose a beautiful bridal gown and we loved the groomsmen’s bow tie’s. The couples’ first look was full of sweet loving exchanges and even though it was a chilly day the couple and their bridal party toughed it out between the wind and the cool weather to take some outdoor pictures before the ceremony. Since we knew we would only be working with sunset light we knew the time after the wedding would be really tight. The couple exchanged vows and walked down the aisle to Love Shack and happily left the church while their guests greeted them with some fake snow. It made for a very memorable picture. We headed quickly to Vandalia Lake Just in time to capture the sunset. We turned out a large handful of pictures in just a few minutes before we had to return to the reception for grand introductions. I usually make it a point to NEVER make a couple late arriving to their reception but sometimes great sunsets are worth being 5 minutes late 😉 We had an amazing meal (with mac and cheese) by Capital View and the reception was decked out with beautiful décor. Everyone had a fantastic time at the reception and the dance floor was hopping. This couple was so loving and so laid back they were a dream to work with and it was just overall a really good day. Congrats Haley and Dathan!

-The Keys