Whew! Welcome back to Not-Weekly-Not-Wednesday’s wedding of Keirstin & Kaelan! These two were wed over the weekend this past week in April on a balmy 80 degree hot, humid spring day (very odd for the area- normally 65 degrees as it was last year) that thankfully didn’t rain as forecasted!
Nearly a year ago back in 2023 Keirstin’s mom reached out to us in the summer and we met with she & Keirstin to chat about K&K’s upcoming Spring 2024 wedding. Keirstin & Kaelan live in Texas together (having moved in together 6 months ago) and with Kaelan being active duty military couldn’t make it up for our in-person consultation, but we got to know Keirstin & her mom a bit, then set some plans for their big April wedding. Let’s get into it!
K&K’s wedding day started out with old tradition of the two separated prior to their ceremony as Kaelan’s family is Catholic. Keirstin started off her morning getting ready at a family home with her bridesmaids and family members in Granger (a nice suburb of South Bend) and Kaelan started off the day at their reception venue of Morris Park Country Club. ((Morris Park underwent massive renovations around the Pandemic, so you may not recognize the space at all, but suffice to say it looks just as beautiful as some of our favorite Chicago suburb country clubs)).
Kaelan started his day off having lunch with his groomsmen in one of the restaurants/ bars of the country club before then getting dressed for the day.
Keirstin’s mom helped her get her wedding dress and veil on as the guys were finishing up their prep as well.
Though Keirstin & Kaelan didn’t have a First Look prior to their wedding ceremony, Keirstin did have a First Look with her dad prior to the ceremony.
She then read her pre-wedding letter from Kaelan (and cried a little from his heartfelt words).
Kaelan read his letter from his soon-to-be wife pre-ceremony at the country club as well.
Both had shuttle buses for their halves of the bridal party, so once ready each side headed to Mishawaka for their wedding ceremony! Kaelan and the guys did some pre-ceremony portraiture outside, while Keirstin & the ladies had already had theirs at the house and waited patiently in their shuttle bus on the side of the church.
Once in the venue the ladies waited in the vestibule and the guys waited near the front of the church (some walking immediate family to their seats).
The priest for their wedding ceremony mass was a relative of Kaelan’s, so once the wedding ceremony started he lead the way as Keirstin headed down the aisle with her dad to her fiance.
Some backstory on your photography & video crew here in the background: Just as with one of our 11 hour couples’ weddings back in late September, Jenny again referred her favorite videographer couple from a couple cities over and they were with us throughout the day creating video! Lisa, Jenny, and the gang were relegated to only certain areas of the church (a pretty uncommon thing in our 14+ years of wedding photography nationally and internationally- usually unique only to the Basilica of the Sacred Heart at The University of Notre Dame). Mary (pictured in the bottom right) helped tell Jenny & Lisa of their relegated locations within the church pre-ceremony. When scouting those locations pre-ceremony, Jenny & Jonathon chatted about how they were raised Catholic by their families as well as the culture surrounding Catholicism.
Back to the big day-! Since Kaelan is Catholic and Keirstin is not (as her family attends the large Granger Community Church), these two opted for a Catholic ceremony, but not a full mass (and no Mary Adoration).
Soon it was time for the exchanging of rings & vows and before we knew it these two were married & coming back down the aisle-!
One of the moms gave us a few photographs to re-create, so we created this sweet image of the two of them heading out for their flower petal exit!
Attendees were given cones of white rose petals to throw and all guests cheered and threw their petals upon Keirstin & Kaelan’s exit!
Within the church we had their list of 40-something formal family group portraits to capture, so we went as quickly as possible to fit within the half hour window (an abnormally short window for formal portraits beaten only by the University of Notre Dame and St. Mary’s College- both in town).
Speaking of Notre Dame, soon enough it was time to head over to Notre Dame for some Newlywed & Bridal Party Portraits-!
We had captured each side of the bridal party pre-ceremony earlier in the day in Granger & South Bend…
…so at Notre Dame we were able to focus on the newlyweds and large group bridal party portraits in the Spring foliage!
Though the tulips were already at the end of their cycle given the abnormally warm 80 degree April day, the trees were full of leaves and flowers as we took these two and their party over to The Grotto.
Large amounts of tourists and those in prayer moved in to The Grotto right when we got there, so we adapted and moved everyone to try to hide all of those in prayer behind them! (We think we did an ok job)!
While creating the portraiture at Notre Dame an older man came up to Kaelan asking if he was wearing a World War 2 uniform. Kaelan tried to get back to the photos and told us that he had ordered the green traditional army wedding uniform for the wedding day before we dismissed the bridal party to head back to their buses and took the newlyweds over to the lake for some final portraits.
We couldn’t be happier that these two had such a beautiful weather day for their wedding! We had Jenny’s 13 umbrellas all ready to go for the predicted day of thunderstorms, but these newlyweds lucked out with completely clear skies and some protective clouds (*with some pretty warm wind thrown in).
Once wrapped up at Notre Dame everyone hopped back into the buses and onto the reception at Morris Park Country Club for Cocktail Hour!
Guests enjoyed hors d’ourves in the newer beautiful side rooms (now similar in style to The Armory) and the new balcony of Morris Park!
Gifts overflowed at the gift table and guests signed little notes to the couple near the framed portraits of the couples’ elders.
Once wrapped up with Cocktail Hour, folks were ushered into the reception hall for dinner and more!
The bridal party was announced in to the hall & their parents greeted & thanked their guests for making it from all over for K&K’s big day!
The two started things off East Coast Style with their First Dance immediately and shortly after did their cake cutting!
We love that Keirstin’s blue bouquet was incorporated into the icing flowers on their wedding cake (and that these two after feeding each other the cake stuck around and ate their cake leisurely pre-dinner).
Because the space had had huge renovations, folks enjoyed much natural light during dinner!
After folks ate their salads and started in on their dinners, it was time for the Toasts. The bridal party gave their toasts as the newlyweds teared up and laughed through some of their best friends’ well wishes & stories.
After toasts it was time for the traditional father-daughter and mother-son dances. Their parents were proud of these two as they enjoyed the heartfelt moments.
With that Open Dance started and everyone relaxed/ got to dancing and hanging out on the porch in the perfectly summer-y spring weather!
Jenny created the wedding photography schedule as usual, so since there were hours of Open Dance, we were able to stick to the fun of heading out for some final sunset Newlywed Portraits! We all got to whip down the steep hills of the golf course paved trails out to one of our favorite trees/ areas.
When we got to the spot Jenny had scouted out that evening we were excited to see the sunset in a perfect spot that had these two glowing in love.
These two danced and joked around as the 4 of us created beautiful photography and video of their love.
Once wrapped up with some final shots, we all headed back to the ceremony where folks were still dancing, drinking, and enjoying the weather outside.
The dancefloor was all-time (-!) and everyone was dancing hard- especially when the fun foam light sticks were passed out!
For the first time in a LONG time (maybe a decade) some of the guests literally got down and did “the worm” dance move in the middle of the dance floor-!
Everyone had well-deserved laughs, fun crazed dance moves, & foam light stick fights- including K&K!
The delicious raspberry-filled cake was passed out, cupcakes were enjoyed, and late night snacked of every delicious form of fried potatoes (literally- maybe 10 forms!) and sauces were devoured down to the pans!
At the very end of the reception these two headed out after their guests lined the path and they were cheered out with swinging light glow sticks by all of their guests! It was the most excited, loudest cheers we’ve ever heard (and most people left!) (*in nearly 15 years of wedding photography) for a wedding exit!
Congratulations, Keirstin & Kaelan on your beautiful wedding day! We think that you two are such a perfect match for each other (organized goofballs with a great sense of adventure) and we hope that you two have safe travels & a beautiful, long life together as continued best friends-! Thank you so much for having us as a part of your big day-!