Joseph & Jessica

Joseph & Jessica

June 11, 2010

I actually got to know Joe & Jessica last year in August as I photographed Jessica's brother, James' wedding in which they were apart of. So in this wedding there were a lot of familiar faces and everyone was real easy to work & talk with.

The wedding ceremony took place at Pamperin Park at the gazebo. It had been raining earlier in the day and rather raining all week so with this said, there was some worry about the ceremony taking place outside/having to work around the rain. Though I believe I heard Joe say that they were going to have the ceremony outside regardless (rain or shine). At any rate, the rain had stopped before their ceremony with the sun peaking out at times and no worries were had. Overall, the ceremony went very well with a few added laughs. 

So after the ceremony we took the rest of the formals around the rest of the park. This is a park that I also tend to stop at many times with different wedding parties, so definitely a popular spot for pictures. I think, because I tend to come here often, I wanted to try to vary and be more creative with the pictures a bit rather than the same posed ones at the same spots (can get boring). A big attraction, rather an icon of Pamperin Park, is the bridge that crosses Duck Creek, and to not take pictures in, on & around the bridge is unavoidable, but still makes a great backdrop.

After formals we had a small break before heading to the Holiday Inn at Kelly Lake. 

I have not been here before and isn't a bad place for a reception. The only thing confusing for me as a photographer was the division in the bar area as far as half the people were for the wedding reception and the others were locals using the bar to wait to be seated in the restaurant area. And because I didn't want to be taking pictures of the locals who were not part of the wedding, I unfortunately tended to steer clear of the bar to avoid the confusion and to avoid having to ask every single person if they were in the wedding.

Other than that, the dinner was nice and meanwhile being entertained by stories & a sideshow of images of the wedding couple.  Then out of the kindness of Joe & Jessica's hearts, they decided in order for guests to get them to kiss (as opposed to clinking of their glasses), they had to donate money to a jar which would be donated to the National MS Society. 

I will say that there was definitely a lot of generous family & friends at this wedding reception and makes me wonder how much money was collected by the end of the night. No matter what, every little bit helps and I am very proud for what Joe & Jessica have done. 

And last but not least capturing the images of the first dances ended my night of photographing Joe & Jessica's wedding. Overall, it was a great time and great experience.