Texans Chris & Xinran are MARRIED! As of a few days ago these Dallas, Texas residents were married here in South Bend this autumn at Holy Family & Riverside Terrace! As opposed to our couples who we work with for a year or two straight (Engagement Session, wedding meetings, etc) we actually only met these two a few months ago via a Zoom video chat! Due to the Pandemic, most folks after quite an insane year last year waited until late Spring/ early Summer 2021 to ensure folks could get vaccinated and be safe at their wedding in order to book/ finalize their wedding plan. In Xinran & Chris’ case Xinran is currently working long hours in her residency program (for her PhD) out in Dallas, Texas, so that also made planning their wedding a bit more complicated. Before reaching out to us these two had been engaged for around 4 months since Chris proposed back in March 2021 at a park in Dallas, Texas. They did some engagement photos after that at the Perot Museum at their lucky gemstone and apparently at some point during their 4 months of engagement we met Chris’ dad at an Estate Sale here in/ around South Bend!
Chris’ family lives here in the Michiana area, but Xinran’s family lives back in their home in China. Xinran went to an amazing undergrad in China and also has her Master’s and PhD… plus is finishing her residency program! She went to school out in California and met some of her friends there and relocated to Dallas, Texas where she met Chris (who post-degree had also relocated to Dallas, Texas)! Some of Xinran’s friends (including her best friend from her PhD program who gave a speech at the reception) even made it out to their wedding here in South Bend, Indiana over the weekend, though sadly Xinran’s parents couldn’t make it in from China, but did get to watch the ceremony on a Live Feed video live online (staying up very late to watch the wedding this weekend)-! Now… on to their wedding day!
Xinran & Chris got married this October 2021 here in South Bend at Holy Family. We met them at the Catholic church at captured a few photos of them getting ready right before their ceremony started-! This was our first time meeting them in person since they live in Texas, so we were very excited to be there with them in person and they were very sweet as was their entire bridal party, Chris’ family, & their friends.
We made sure that their Live Feed video was going so that Xinran’s parents could tune in and watch the wedding ceremony from China and then we captured some final photos of them getting ready for their wedding ceremony-!
And with that it was time for their wedding ceremony!
Chris walked his parents down the aisle then came back to the altar with the priest. The bridal party made their way down the aisle and then the flower girl & ring bearer preceeded Xinran!
Then it was time and Xinran walked herself down the aisle to Chris!
These two don’t love being the center of attention (being introverts), so being the focus of everyone was new for them. These two had a traditional Catholic wedding ceremony, though they forewent the eucharist and had a condensed half hour wedding ceremony mass (vs a full hour that many Catholic weddings have).
As happens in some Catholic churches, Xinran & Chris were seated in front of the 1st pew with their Maid of Honor and Best Man. ((We love that we were able to be nearby to photograph them because some venues don’t have enough space for us to be up close to the couple OR ban us from going up near the altar)).
You may remember this church from just a couple months ago from Stacey & Michael’s wedding which was also here! It’s a beautiful large church with gorgeous stained glass and a wonderful configuration for wedding photography (so we love, love, love that)! There are 30 Catholic Churches in South Bend (amidst many, many other religions’ churches, mosques, temples, etc), so we’re always surprised when we get to photograph a wedding at the same church that we just recently got to photograph a wedding at (though we do photograph weddings at Notre Dame’s Basilica of the Sacred Heart every single year).
Soon it was time for Xinran & Chris to say their vows! They exchanged their vows and…
…then it was time to exchange rings!
After exchanging rings the priest gave them a blessing and then they had their First Kiss and were officially MARRIED!
After their wedding ceremony we were able to capture all 20 of their family portraits there at the church.
We also captured a few portraits of the two of them in the church before it was time to head over to their Newlywed & Bridal Party Portrait spots at Notre Dame!
Everyone had to gather their things from getting ready at the church and then it was time to head over to Notre Dame! We printed out maps to show the bridal party folks where to drive to/ park on Notre Dame’s campus and we met everyone there!
Though there weren’t any fun red, yellow, or orange autumn leaves out yet at the end of the first week of October, we were still able to capture their Bridal Party & Newlywed portraits out in nature!
Since they live in Texas and neither of them went to Notre Dame for college, these two weren’t wanting the traditional photos by the stadium, basilica, grotto, touchdown Jesus, or any of that, so we started by capturing them all out in some shaded nature on the beautiful 80 degree day and then some up by the Golden Dome (to kind of show that we were around Chris’ hometown)!
We were so happy that though it rained much of the week, there was no rain on their wedding day! It made for a much easier time capturing bridal party portraits at Notre Dame since there were about 6 other photographers photographing wedding parties there outside on campus.
Since we didn’t have to capture photos of these two at all of the Notre Dame-specific spots we got to use some of our favorite locations for their Newlywed Portraits!
We made sure to fit in some photos at the lake just before heading off to their reception in Mishawaka, Indiana!
Once at their reception with their guests enjoying the end of Cocktail Hour we made sure to capture some details around the reception hall while there was still light left in the final hour of sun!
As you may remember from us mentioning this 5 years ago on another wedding blog from a wedding here, this large reception hall actually used to be a gym that Jenny went to for volleyball practices with her Junior Olympics travel team! It’s hard to imagine this giant room as a large gym, but driving there always gives Jenny memories of her driving 25 minutes to volleyball practice as a teen!
We loved their reception details that were hand drawn! Getting to look out of the massive windows of the reception halls out toward sunset on the river was also gorgeous as always!
Soon enough the bridal party and the newlyweds were announced in to the reception and the priest lead prayer for everyone!
Once wrapped up with prayer, it was time for dinner!
During dinner the Best Man and Xinran’s best friend gave speeches/ toasts to the newlyweds which were beautiful & heartfelt.
Chris’ dad also gave a speech to the newlyweds just before it was time for the First Dance!
Chris & Xinran had a beautiful First Dance that was only a minute long (per their request to not have to be the center of attention for too long).
Chris also got to enjoy his Mother-Son dance with his mom after that!
After the formal dances Xinran & Chris headed over and cut their cake! These two had a small cake with fresh berries for themselves and had beautiful raspberry & chocolate buttercream cupcakes (as well as a candy bar) for their guests-!
With that it was time for Open Dance! These two hopped on the dance floor and at one point enjoyed the Anniversary Dance contest with everyone (and Chris’ grandparents won)!
Guests continued to dance throughout the night and also headed over to sign the guest book & take photos with the polaroid camera!
At one point in the night Xinran even headed a conga line around the dance floor!
We took a few more group portraits of Xinran with her Master’s and PhD classmates that she’d had over the years (as well as others) and then it was winding down to the end of the night.
Xinran did a bouquet toss with a special guest bouquet!
And then it was time for their Sparkler Exit!
During Open Dance we had captured some beautiful detail photos of their rings styled artistically.
And over the past few days we even managed to create this requested beautiful masterpiece i.e. Xinran & Chris in a Star Wars-esque world!
Congratulations again Xinran & Chris on your beautiful wedding day and the start to your marriage!! We hope that you two had a great rest of the night before your flight home the next day and thank you so much for including us in your big day! We hope that your little Honeymoon near home in Dallas, Texas is fun & that you two get a little time to relax post-wedding (as much as is possible while being in a residency program)-! Keep an eye out for more photos coming your way in a month, but for now we hope you enjoy these Wedding Teasers-!
Thanks so much to everyone else for checking out this recent wedding-! We’ve been photographing foster children in the Indiana Adoption Program for DCS Indiana every week for the past few weeks (and throughout the past 2.5 months), but cannot legally share these photos anywhere, so we can’t share any of those Portrait Sessions that we’ve been doing in Plymouth, Michigan City, LaPorte, Mishawaka, and other cities in Indiana, but we will share some words about it (and maybe outtakes of us or nature of some spots we’ve gotten to photograph these foster children at) soon! Be sure to check back other Weekly Wednesdays-!