This past weekend we had the privilege of capturing Paige and Brandon Fishburn's wedding day. When you shoot as many weddings as we do a year it is always exciting to try somewhere new. While sometimes it makes for an incredibly long day it is well worth it.
Brandon and Paige chose to have their wedding day festivities in the Lincoln - Elkhart area. At first glance, it appeared to be any typical small rural Illinois area, complete with lots of farms and grain elevators. While this is nothing new for us, living in a town ourselves with a population of only 750 people, we were still in awe.
We started the morning off at Salon 416 in Lincoln, IL. Denise's salon is located in her home, which she welcomed everyone into and was extremely hospitable. There were so many places for us to photograph all of the special items that made us Paige's stunning wedding attire. After Denise finished creating a beautiful bridal look for Paige we all headed to St. Patrick's Catholic Church. The church is located in Elkhart, IL, only a quick 15-minute drive away. After speaking with the priest we learned that the church has been there since the 1850's. It had recently been renovated but still held its historical charm. Because of the design of the older church, we had to be careful how we moved Paige and Brandon around since they chose to wait until the ceremony to see each other. The rest of the morning was filled with formals and setting up the church for the ceremony. Paige and Brandon chose to exchange letters written to one another, which had them wearing huge smiles. The ceremony was short but sweet, ending in a first kiss.
It has become a common practice for us to discuss the wedding day schedule in depth with our couples. We have seen so many weddings at this point, knowing what works, what doesn't, and what will create an enjoyable day for the bride and groom and what will create chaos. During our conversations, Paige shared some ideas for photo locations with us. We live about 2 hours from the area and had not shot in this area before. After discussing what makes an ideal photo location Paige spent time scouting out the locations at the approximate time we would be there. It paid off. She chose such beautiful locations. We are envious we are not closer, and hope to shoot there again in the future. We also discussed the weather forecast in our calls. I mentioned to Paige it looked like it may be a little windy and to bring extra hair spray. Neither one of us imagined just how windy it would be. We even heard reports of the awning of a gas station falling over in the area due to high winds! But Brandon and Paige were troopers. We took lots of breaks to get relief from the wind and warm up. One of the photo locations Paige had chosen was a beautiful old property with a home we can only imagine dated back to the 1800's. We quickly realized how much history was tucked away in this little town. After a lot of fun with the bridal party and stopping at a few photo locations we headed back to Lincoln for the reception.
The KC Hall in Lincoln had been transformed into a beautiful glowing reception for Brandon and Paige. The bridal party created a memorable and fun entrance dancing into the reception to their own songs. We watched as Brandon and Paige cut their cake positioned at their own sweetheart table in the middle of the head table. From there we heard some funny and heartfelt toasts about our newlyweds bringing out alot of emotion throughout the entire room. Our couple chose to start the night off with their first dance followed by the father-daughter and mother-son dances. A newer trend that has been catching on has been the raffle dance in place of the traditional dollar dance. We love this fun idea. It allows the couple the extra time to visit with guests at their table and adds a little more fun to the evening. Soon after they began the anniversary dance which always end with the couple who has been married the longest giving incredible marital advice to the newly weds. We hope this tradition never ends. Paige and Brandon spent the rest of the evening dancing the night away and enjoying the company of all their loved ones.
Congratulations Mr. & Mrs. Fishburn!! We hope you are enjoying your honeymoon and we cannot wait to share more photos with you soon!
