Grant and I went to high school with Jena and Michael, where both we and they met and fell in love. Theirs is a classic American love story: Jena was a varsity cheerleader, Michael one of the best players on the varsity basketball team. She cheered him on during Friday night games (and, actually, so did we!… me in the stands and Grant in the pep band), and he stole her heart as they spent time together after school, on the weekends, with friends. As many high school sweethearts know, staying together beyond graduation is a true test of your relationship. Jena and Michael made it past that point, dated all through college, and finally sealed their promise a few weeks ago to stay by each other’s side no matter what. Grant and I were so happy to photograph their beautiful wedding day, and had endless trouble narrowing down our choices for the blog. Enjoy!

Jena had her makeup done at Sephora, and the makeup artists did a wonderful job of bringing out all of her natural beauty.

The wedding was held at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, on the campus of Notre Dame.

Jena, you are so gorgeous!

The Basilica is such a beautiful, dramatic church. It was exciting for us to finally have the opportunity of photographing a wedding there.

The picture on the right is the ringbearer during the ceremony.

Michael’s dad.

After the ceremony, Michael and his groomsmen celebrated in a huddle.

Cocktail hour was held in the lobby of the Morris Performing Arts Center in downtown South Bend. The reception followed next door, at the Palais Royale, a gorgeous ballroom and one of our favorite venues to date.

Jena and Michael waiting to be announced.

Jena is a dance coach and choreographer at Indiana Ultimate (they had two hip hop teams place in the top 20 at Dance Worlds this year!). She choreographed a tongue-in-cheek hip hop routine for the father-daughter dance that was so much fun it had people laughing and cheering along!

Jena’s sister Kaley and a friend sang a duet for Jena and Michael during the dessert hour of the reception. I thought it was such a sweet gesture, and a really good example of how tightly knit Jena and Michael are with their family. Everyone was so happy for them all day, and showed their love by really celebrating along with the couple.

In the summer months, Grant and I really enjoy taking our brides and grooms aside for 20 minutse or so during the reception. We are able to get such relaxed pictures of the couple, since they don’t have to worry about the guests waiting for dinner to start. We were able to spend some time with Jena and Michael for pictures just outside the reception, and we were so happy with what we got. These two images are my favorites of Jena from the wedding day.

Jena and Michael interact so happily with each other. It was so fun to see them relaxing and laughing with each other during portraits!

Have a mentioned what a dance party this reception was? People were gettin’ down!

Michael and his grandma.

The first image is of Jena and her brother slowdancing together.

Jena and Michael’s last dance of the evening.

As we left, we grabbed a picture similar to one we took during their engagement session.

Jena and Michael, thank you so, so much for asking us to photograph your wedding. We loved every minute of it and felt honored to be a part of the day. We hope you enjoyed all of that Jamaica sunshine and that settling back into normal life is going well!

Adam and I grew up together and were best friends through grade school. We would have been there anyway, but we really enjoyed having the chance to photograph his and Jenny’s wedding. For now, two favorites:

Jena + Michael’s full post is up next!

A few weeks ago we had the pleasure of photographing Summer and Jon’s wedding in Lake Odessaa, a little town to the east of Grand Rapids. The church sat on a little corner of earth, next to a long dirt road. They warned us that it was small, and rather in-the-middle-of-nowhere, but it is where Summer and Jon have attended for years, as well as where they met and built a friendship that turned into deep love.

One of my favorite parts of being a wedding photographer is seeing the transformation into a bride. There is something so beautiful, so timeless about every bride once she is all ready in her dress. Some of my photos that I am most proud of are portraits of the bride that aren’t done during “portrait time”. They are the quiet moments of beauty that take place amidst the busy preparations of the morning. I have never left a wedding without seeing this beauty, without remembering a few (or several) instants of photographing the bride and thinking she looked absolutely beautiful. This wedding, of course, was no exception. Summer, you were absolutely stunning.

Summer and Jon decided to see one another before the ceremony. They were both so completely and contentedly happy. Photographing them was so easy!

Grant’s favorite set.

All day people asked Summer if she was nervous. I don’t know about Jon, but she said she was just too excited to be nervous!

My favorite.

Summer and Jon, we have really enjoyed getting to know both of you in the last few months. We loved how wonderfully simple you kept your wedding day, focusing in on celebrating your new life together. Thanks for letting us be a part of it!

Jena and Michael promised to continue growing the love that began some years ago in high school two weekends ago in South Bend. We were so happy to photograph the celebration.  We’ll be working through the rest of them this week, but here are a few favorites until then!