Kristen and Andrew | Wedding @ St. Thomas Church Newton, IL

Man has the wedding season creeped up on us! While we officially started “Wedding Season 2017” back in January, we haven’t really had a full long run of back to back weddings for the first three months of the year. With a few scattered here and there and some travel mixed in between, we have had several weekends wedding (but not activity) free weekends. We lightened our load this year on purpose because between work travel, personal travel, and a growing desire to be more available to do those normal activities we usually don’t get to do (like landscape, home improvements, etc) we just wanted to make sure our load wasn’t more than we could handle. This year is shaping up to be awesome and kicking off our first large back to back wedding run for the spring/summer is Kristen and Andrew.

You guys for real, these guys are so chill and so fun. It was the perfect day. We started the morning at Revive Salon in downtown Newton for some up-dos and makeup. Kristen has like the most amazing hair you’ve ever seen and she has a LOT of it and it made for a spectacular up-do. Flawless bridal makeup was provided by Kayla Westrich. We headed to the church where we had bridal prep and before ceremony photos. Thankfully Kristen provided us enough time to run outside for a few quick shots in front of this fabulous pink tree and we were able to get in as many portraits as possible before the ceremony started. Andrew had such a sweet reaction to seeing Kristen for the first time and we loved the large group of family and friends that had gathered to wish them well. They exited the church as a married couple through a tunnel of bubbles and well wishes. We headed to the most perfect outdoor photo spot and even though it was a tad chilly outside the sunshine and clouds made it spectacular for photography. The light was beautiful and the couple’s bridal party were so fun to work with we made the most of the chilly weather and took advantage of the rare and perfect light. Kristen had this long amazing veil that made for some awesome shots and I was giddy taking photos with it.

We ended photos with a bang and headed to the reception hall in Bishop where the couple had beautiful décor and an awesome cake ball cake ready to be consumed by lots of hungry kiddos. I can say that this is the first wedding where a small, unintentional fire was started by a member of the bridal party (looking at you groomsmen….). Thankfully it was contained. The meal by Niemergs was delicious as always and Kristen had made all of the cake pops for the wedding herself and we can say with confidence that they were very tasty! We snuck outside for a few low light portraits just to round out the day and then the couple and their very packed dance floor danced the night away to music by Josh at Complete Music. We haven’t seen a dance floor that packed in a long time and the guests were having a blast. Overall it was just a perfect wedding to kick off our long spring/summer run and we are looking forward to the rest of the year. Congrats Kristen and Andrew, we wish you many years of joy.

-The Keys