Shelby and Matt | Wedding @ Tuscan Hills Winery, Effingham IL

I’m breaking my normal rules for blog posting but I’m doing it once, for a VERY special reason.

In addition to this couple being super awesome to work with we specifically want to share this blog early as a HUGE tribute to the amazing vendors that were involved in the event. Also, you can thank Mother Nature for this early blog post as my evening sessions got rained out this evening ;-). We just weren’t prepared for all the amazingness Shelby and Matt had in store for us at their wedding. We started off the morning at Branches Salon in Effingham IL where this full service shop created the bridal up-do as well as the bridesmaids hair styles. One of my favorite area makeup artists, Katrina Smith who is a beauty and facial veteran, created Shelby’s flawless bridal look (seriously if you haven’t seen Katrina’s work, you should). From there we headed to the family home of Shelby where I literally walked in and almost cried. Being from Effingham, I have literally driven past this home hundreds of times always looking at it in admiration and wanting to live there. I was not disappointed as the house offered hundreds, if not thousands, of photography opportunities. If only we had an entire week for this wedding celebration, then I could have used the entire house! Huge thanks to Kay and Clint for allowing us to move furniture, tromp through the house, and let us go wild. The house served as the backdrop for two first looks (one with the father of the bride and one with the groom) and also some of the bridal party formals after the ceremony. We had a beautiful ceremony at St. Anthony Church which included the musical talents of Kim Deters (who totally sang at our wedding) and Glen Lewis (on trumpet). Father did a beautiful job with the mass and ceremony and we were able to complete all family formals prior the wedding (yay for first looks). We also were able to get some evening shots at the site of the Reception: Tuscan Hills Winery. To say that I love this venue is an understatement. Every wedding we shoot here is literally world class. The staff is kind of like a group of ninjas: you know they are there keeping everything flawless and clean and beautiful yet you never see them. Erin and her team did an amazing job and we had the absolute perfect weather for an outdoor event. I shared MORE detail photos then normal of the reception because I think I took hundreds. The kicker on the reception is that it was completely decked out by Walnut Street Weddings (tables, linens, etc) who always does a killer job and there were literally THOUSANDS of flowers. No joke. Every table had a centerpiece on it that would make Martha Stewart cry. I literally have never seen more beautiful floral arrangements at a wedding and these arrangements of course were provided by Burklands Flower Shop in Effingham IL (who did my wedding flowers 7 years ago and did an amazing job). A HUGE kudos goes out to Kay and her Burklands Team, there wasn’t a single place in that entire reception that didn’t have flowers. I may also say that Shelby’s bouquet was about 30 lbs and was the largest, most beautiful bouquet I’ve ever seen (we even nicknamed it Bertha). We also had the pleasure of working with the talents of Gary Stanfield of Riviera Records in Effingham (who, you guessed it, did our wedding video 7 years ago) and it was fantastic to work with such a quality professional. Niemerg’s Catering provided the yummy meal that was served at the reception also. We know this blog is getting long but we had to give some special shout outs to some of our favorite vendors because this event was completely stunning.

Shelby and Matt were so great to work with. It is amazing what you can accomplish in wedding photography when the couple trusts your creative vision and literally goes right along with “will you please lay on the floor.” We love when couples trust us, even when fire is involved. We thought we’d do a little twist on the smoke bomb shot (since the Fourth is coming up and all) and they were always ready to try interesting photos with us. They had a great, fun bridal party to share the day with and we couldn’t have loved their families more. We know they will have many happy years together! Congrats to you both, enjoy the honeymoon!

-Kate and Doug