Ashley & Nathan are MARRIED! These two celebrated their big wedding day a few days ago over the weekend at Meadow Brook Barn on their original wedding date of August 22nd, 2020-! Due to the Pandemic, these two are the ONLY of our 2020 couples so far in this year’s Spring & Summer that didn’t reschedule their BIG wedding day and instead had it exactly as originally planned. Since many of our couples have rescheduled their massive 8 to 11 hour wedding days once or twice in the past crazy 5 months of the Covid-19 Pandemic, many hired us for an additional 3 or 4 hours so that they could still have us capture them getting legally wed from Notre Dame to hometown churches to backyard weddings with their small groups of 10 to 20 family members and essential wedding attendees (having the BIG day with all guests pushed back a year). Regardless, we’ve been busy photographing all of our awesome clients for their mini pre-weddings, Engagement Sessions, Portrait Sessions, and more this summer while ALWAYS fully masked up in our hospital N-95 Masks to keep everyone from event to event safe since folks we’ve captured this summer have come in from New York to Arizona to Florida to Ohio and more-! We're so happy that Ashley & Nathan were able to be wed on their original date over the weekend with all of their guests in attendance and hope that their first few days of marriage have been wonderful.
Back to the newlyweds! You may remember Ashley & Nathan from their Engagement Session with us in the fall last year at a barn (since Ashley rides horses competitively) and at the beach (seen here: https://www.jennyandjasonphoto.com/blog/ashley-nate-southwest-michigan-engagement-session-south-bend-engagement-session-horse ). We’d just gotten back from photographing a wedding in Italy a few weeks prior to their Engagement Session and had 2 weddings and 4 Engagement Sessions to capture in the those 3 weekends we were back, so Ashley & Nathan’s easy going and calm attitudes were a wonderful change from the rapid-paced weeks we’d had. In the past year and a couple months that we’ve gotten to know these two we got to know their love story (they met through work since she is a pharmacist & he’s a pharmacy tech!), have met their dog, have gotten to know Ashley’s mom, and more. All-in-all these two exude humility, great senses of humor, serenity, hard work, and loyalty.
Onto their wedding day-! These two started their wedding day off on August 22nd, 2020 getting ready separately at Meadow Brook Barn. Ashley and her ladies were in the downstairs bridal suite while Nathan and his men were in the outside shed near the other barn getting ready. Since we were to spend 11 hours with them and the ceremony wasn’t until 4:30 p.m., we started the day capturing detail photos of both the venue, invites, bouquets, wedding dress, and a few other requests we had from Ashley.
The venue Meadow Brook Barn is located out in Goshen about 40 minutes from our studio in South Bend. It’s known for the Amish that live around there (pictured above), great farm-fresh foods, and the city of Elkhart right next door that is the heart of much of the country’s RV industry. (An aside: The boots above with Ashley’s bouquet are HERS! We imagine she wears these often as she rides her 2 horses)!
Ashley & Nathan expected and probably had 200 guests on their wedding day, so a big shout out to the vendors Nelson’s Chicken (Catering), C’est la Vie Cakes, the servers, and Angela the planner for all wearing masks along with us to keep everyone safe as we all work many events with many people throughout this crazy Pandemic year-!
The two of us as always were split up for the day, so Jenny spent 4 hours with the ladies who were getting ready while Jason spent most of that time with the men.
Ashley and her bridesmaids had a pretty easy-going morning and mid-day. Because their hair & makeup people started so early, the ladies got to snack and relax in their suite for hours together. It was right in line with Ashley’s personality as it was probably the least stressful getting-ready time at any wedding we’ve ever done in over 10 years!
While the ladies were on top of things and ready ahead of time and relaxing in the AC, the men were outside having a few drinks, relaxing in the shade, and running a bit behind. Nathan gave his groomsmen their gifts while out there which we admit were pretty awesome ( a custom engraved box which held an engraved knife, custom cufflinks, and engraved flasks)!
While the men were running a bit behind, Ashley’s bridesmaids got dressed, they all relaxed for a half hour, then Ashley got her dress on early!
The men finally headed inside and they too started getting ready. Luckily this is always a quick process for the guys and Nathan was dressed before we knew it!
Ashley got all of her jewelry on and then her mom and Maid of Honor helped her with her veil and she was ready!
Meanwhile after getting ready Nathan opened his thoughtful wedding gift from Ashley!
Nathan then headed out for some photos of himself, his groomsmen, & immediate family and Ashley continued to wait patiently. Luckily the guys were done quick enough and as always Ashley, her bridesmaids, and family were so quick with their photos that even though they started later than expected, they were done 10 minutes earlier than planned! Ashley looked gorgeous with her beautiful bouquet and lace dress, but was also excited to get back into the AC to cool off before the outdoor ceremony since it was a humid whopping 96 degrees out!
Nathan finished up his final unmarried portraits in the other barn while waiting to head out to their outdoor wedding ceremony…
…. and soon it was time for their wedding!!
Even though folks often don’t all show up to weddings during the Pandemic, it seemed like all of their nearly 200 guests were awaiting their arrival when we headed out to the ceremony location down by the corn field!
The flowers looked beautiful adorning the wedding trellice, all along the aisle, and on the entrance barrels and everything looked perfect! Soon it was time for him to head in, so Nathan walked Ashley’s grandma and his parents down the aisle and then positioned himself at the end of the aisle to await Ashley.
Since Ashley’s dad is no longer with us, Ashley’s mom walked her down the aisle as Nathan welled up with emotion. Family and friends galore looked on as Ashley met Nathan at the end of the aisle to be wed!
The pastor at their wedding was actually Nathan’s pastor that he went to since he was younger, so he had a lot of personal insight on Nathan which was funny. He also surprised them with a wooden yolk and related to Ashley by saying that much like if 2 horses were to be yolked together, they must work together to move forward and so too is this with marriage.
After the sermon these two did a sand ceremony uniting their colored sands symbolically & literally in layers on top of one another.
These two then exchanged vows and rings…
…. and they were officially MARRIED!!
Right after the ceremony we captured photos of their entire extended families, then some other photos with their parents and other family members.
Some of these we were able to capture separately earlier in the day since some only required Ashley or Nathan and their family members.
Afterward we captured photos of the entire bridal party together including their flower girl & the two junior bridesmaids-!
(**Again, some of these that didn’t have both Nathan & Ashley in them we were able to capture earlier in the day!)
Before we knew it we were 6 hours in to the day and it was finally time for Ashley & Nathan to have some Newlywed Portraits together-! We kept these to a minimum though since they’d been out in the 96 degree humid sun at the literal hottest time of the day for 2 hours for the ceremony & group portraits since we planned to take them out again for last portraits at sunset after all of the important reception moments.
We wrapped up with these two early so they could go cool off privately in the barn basement, so we were actually able to capture some of Cocktail Hour outside on the patio! Luckily guests got to enjoy the shade that happened to cover the patio at the perfect time!
Inside the reception was about to begin. We’d taken photos of the details and barn earlier in the day and it was beautiful!
These two uniquely had a whisky barrel lid as their Guest Book and throughout the night we watched as the signatures racked up on it. People filled the reception barn as the bridal party waited n the basement to be announced in.
Soon Ashley & Nathan were announced in! Crazily enough our favorite DJ in Michiana (that we’ve gotten to work beside for 5 years at many weddings from Notre Dame to all over) Ned with Pro Show (who has been doing this since the mid-70s) is the step dad to one of Ashley’s bridesmaids, so in between announcing these two in and guiding the night he got to hug his granddaughters
The pastor joined everyone in a pre-meal prayer and Nathan’s dad welcomed everyone in to the reception with a great almost toast to Nathan & Ashley! Dinner service started and soon after Nathan’s brother (the Best Man) gave his toast followed by Ashley’s best friend giving her toast!
After the speeches Ashley & Nathan cut their cake! These two were awesome and both smashed cake onto each others’ faces! We were so lucky to get to grab a piece of cake as we left later that night. C’est la Vie makes our favorite cakes & cupcakes in Michiana and due to the Pandemic we haven’t been in their shop to grab cupcakes in far too long-! (We die for the peach, champagne, raspberry fillings, and more! https://southbendweddingcakes.com/ )
After all of this these two went around to every single table to greet their guests-! Since we’d already photographed their wedding rings early in the day 7+ hours earlier, we were able to take this time to grab a meal and eat it outside on the patio!
After they’d finished up greeting tables these two immediately started in on their First Dance! The sun was finally going down and the glow of the orange golden hour filled the room.
Shortly after Nathan & his mom had their Mother-Son dance. These two have such wonderful moms and we can see where these two got their wonderful personalities from!
After the dances were over we quickly ran outside with these two for their final Newlywed Portraits! The sun was setting right over the corn fields outside, so the orange filled the sky as the temperatures finally cooled off!
These two seemed relieved and relaxed after having enjoyed almost all of the momentous things of their wedding day and they spent these last little intimate moments outside.
We found an old yellow truck, the silo, and cow seats and obviously nudged these two to enjoy these items a bit!
We wrapped up with these two outside and when we got inside during Open Dance, Ned suggested Ashley & Nathan do their bouquet toss & garter toss!
After finishing with the last of the events, Ashley, Nathan, and everyone hit the dance floor again!
Nathan & Ashley played the Shoe Game amidst Open Dance and we’ll just say that they “tied.”
Everyone enjoyed the reception with mega Connect Four, dance floor, and amazing Photobooth in from Detroit (one of the best in the world owned by Ashley’s cousin)!
As we approached 11 p.m., Ashley & Nathan had their final dance as folks headed out for a Sparkler Exit.
These two exited to a hundreds-of-persons Sparkler Exit! We got them some sparklers to play with….
…and then they were on their way!
Happy Day 4 of Marriage, Nathan & Ashley!!
We hope that you two had a great time on your wedding day and have been enjoying the glow of one another in your first few days of MARRIAGE-!! We hope that you two love these Teasers so far and we can’t wait to show you over 1,000 photos after a month of editing-!
Unrelated/ Semi related: Us after the 11 hours sweaty and excited to take our masks off & go look through the photos-!
We have our 6th Annual Portraits up in Kalamazoo tomorrow and then we have Jenny’s sister’s family visiting for a week & a half! Both of our dogs had a momentous past day with our puppy having her 1st Birthday and our other dog having her 4th Adoptaversary (6th Birthday…?) TODAY!! They get one more doggy CAKE each tomorrow, then it’s onto celebrating family-!!
Jenny and her sister have their birthdays coming up NEXT week 3 days apart-! When we finish celebrating with them & going on a nature hike after some authentic Mexican tacos, we’ll be heading out to camp with our pets for the FIRST time ALL year-! When we return we have Engagement Sessions and weddings to capture, but until then… it’s non-stop! Thanks for checking out these Wedding Teasers & e’ll catch you next Weekly Wednesday!