We have been looking forward to AJ and Alysia’s wedding for a long time now! You may remember them from their St. Louis Engagement session at Bailey’s Range where we not only ate burgers and drank life-changing milk shakes we also shared our love for the St. Louis Cardinals. I don’t think they even thought for one second that their wedding day would fall on the second day of a Cardinal/Chicago Cubs Post Season Playoff and we may or may not have tried to talk them into just eloping on Friday so that we could go to the game on Saturday together. The wedding day finally came and it was incredibly awesome! AJ and Alysia are the perfect example of what results from complete trust in the photographers creative process and a fantastic schedule. We also really loved their bridal party as they were so cooperative and when you have a bridal party like that, you can get so much more accomplished in one day. We started the morning at Headquarterz Salon in Mattoon where we enjoyed hanging out with the bride and her girls before heading to Broadway Church in Mattoon. The couple had planned ample picture time before the ceremony and an intimate first look so we headed over to Friendship Park and were able to get in formals and fun outdoor shots. The ceremony went off without a hitch and following the wedding we had even more time to head to Douglas Hart Nature Center to capture more creative portraits. The couple included this amazing vintage truck into their day and we loved featuring it in their photos. We loved how relaxed and laid back the time line was for this wedding and how cooperative and awesome their bridal party was. We headed to the Lifespan Center for the reception where Jaz and Kayla from Fully N Volved (one of our favorite DJ vendors) kept the wedding festivities flowing. We snuck out for some evening shots and enjoyed the touching speeches given by the best man and maid of honor. The couples reception was complete with a delicious desert bar and a rocking dance floor thanks to the efforts of Fully N Volved. We also want to thank Fully N Volved for providing the couples backdrop up lighting, it brought a very intimate ambiance for their reception photos! Shout out to Tanya at Design Pro for designing the couples beautiful programs for the ceremony. We are so glad this couple chose us to document their wedding day, we had an absolute blast and we love the great variety of portraits we were able to take! Congrats to you both! Enjoy your honeymoon!
-Kate and Doug
* Once again a shout out to husband (Doug Key) for nailing some awesome shots included in this blog. I swear he’s a ninja, when I get home to edit them there are always some awesome surprises in there!
