Marisa & Erik are MARRIED-! Well…. actually if you followed along last year they’ve been married for 13.5 months since we captured their mini wedding day last June (2020) on their original date. They had to quickly put together a mini wedding for just 10 of their family members (who pre-quarantined for them) at St. Jude- a smaller Catholic church near their home with a little get-together “reception” afterward at their home just a couple minutes away. You can check out their original wedding from over a year ago (back in June 2020) here: https://www.jennyandjasonphoto.com/blog/marisa-erik-st-jude-south-bend-legal-wedding-ceremony-pandemic (And we’ll drop some of the 2020 wedding portraits we captured of that here:)
Last spring (2020) during the Pandemic when things got dicey these two went through 3 wedding dates first rescheduling their big Notre Dame Basilica/ Armory wedding day to December 2020, then with Wave 3 of Covid hitting its highest numbers in winter they pushed back to August 2021. Through it all they handled everything with wisdom and grace, so we tried to make each situation (in an pretty difficult year) as easy for them as possible.
We’ve gotten to know these two for the past two years (since Aug 2019) through life changes, job changes, and more and feel so happy that these two finally got their well-deserved BIG wedding day to celebrate with all of their loved ones-! It feels like a lifetime ago that we returned from photographing a wedding at a Siena villa in Italy, then photographed another wedding, Engagement Session, and then their beautiful Engagement Session ALL within that first week of getting back to the USA/ Indiana in October 2019-! Here’s a flashback to their Engagement Session (which we pulled a photo from to create their formal wedding invitations with in late Winter 2020- of course right before the Pandemic changed everything) https://www.jennyandjasonphoto.com/blog/marisa-erik-south-bend-engagement-session-notre-dame-sunset
As you can see, it’s been a long time coming, but it’s now finally time to share the long awaited Marisa & Erik’s BIG wedding celebration with friends & family-!
Their wedding celebration day this year started off with Marisa & Erik getting ready separately with Marisa first at the salon, then at an airbnb in town with her ladies getting prepped-! When Jenny got there Marisa was getting her dress on with the help of her mom, mother-in-law, and bridesmaids (and other family members), but soon enough it was time to head to the Basilica!
Jason met Erik (who was already dressed & ready) and the groomsmen at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on Notre Dame’s campus.
Marisa and her ladies caravanned over to the Basilica and they let Marisa out right by the front doors of the Basilica. Within the vestibule the ladies hung out and helped Marisa with final details as the guys stayed within the Basilica just inside the “God, Country, Notre Dame” doors.
The ladies helped Marisa with her veil, she touched up her makeup, and they were ready for the ceremony!
Once the ceremony started Erik headed down the aisle arm-in-arm with his parents. The groomsmen came in all together from the side of the church while the bridesmaids came down the aisle one-by-one. The flower girl & ring bearer (their niece & nephew) did a great job preceding Marisa down the aisle as well!
It was beautiful that after 2 years we were finally seeing Marisa & Erik join together by the altar in the Basilica in front of all of their friends and family-!
Since they were already wed last year (by their same priest friend), these two received a Marriage Blessing instead, They also opted to hand out communion to their loved ones which was also beautiful to witness-!
Closer to the end of the ceremony these two headed back to the Mary chapel at the back of the Basilica for a Mary adoration. This is something almost all of our Catholic couples take a moment to do during their wedding ceremonies and it’s a beautiful intimate moment of prayer and reflection for them amidst the wedding.
After returning to the front of the church the two shared their vows with one another once more as a married couple before the priest said a prayer over them to bless their union. Once all of the formalities were taken care of they finished the ceremony off with a Notre Dame anthem!
These two their way down the aisle as loved ones cheered them and afterward were greeted by the whole bridal party who shared many long awaited hugs and congratulation for both Marisa and Erik.
After a few moments of celebration is was time for several formal group and family photos in the limited time we had available to us to use the Basilica (always about 10 to 30 minutes max since the Basilica has back-to-back wedding ceremonies and masses).
With just one minute to go inside we captured some photos of just Marisa & Eric finally-!
Once the formal photos had concluded it was on the more fun group photos with the extended family and friends outside at Notre Dame (Marisa’s alma mater). As they made their way out of the famous “God, Country, Notre Dame” door of the Basilica the full bridal party and happy parents lined up for another round of congratulations.
Everyone in attendance stuck around for a few minutes in order to capture these images of the whole group on the steps of the Golden Domed Administrative Building of Notre Dame. (We especially appreciated the guest with crutches showing his enthusiasm all the way at the top of the steps).
We moved quickly to make sure we had the most time for photos around several location on campus before an imposing thunderstorm made its way into town. We began with some bridal party images on the “God Quad” before heading over to the library reflecting pool for some images with “Touchdown Jesus”.
The ladies and guys then split up so that we could cover the most ground. Marisa wanted to include the iconic arch of the Lyons Hall building with the photos with her bridesmaids having lived here there (with a couple of her bridesmaids) in her time attending Notre Dame. This is a regular stop for a lot of photo sessions on campus, but always makes a for a beautiful location (and we’re shocked that so many of our brides actually did live in Lyons)!
As for the guys, they stuck around the Notre Dame Stadium for some impromptu football inspired photos, as well as a few more images around the library’s reflecting pool. Before the ladies had left them there we made sure to capture Marisa doing the classic pushups that Notre Dame students do (hoisted up in the air by their fellow students) within the football stadium whenever the team gets a touchdown-!
(When Marisa lowered for her pushups she made sure to give Erik a kiss!)
Once photos with the full bridal party were finished up, we dismissed them to have some time with just Marisa and Erik. They had a few places around campus in mind that they wanted to include in their photos so off we went.
A brief bit of rain nearly stopped the show for a minute (luckily when Marisa was under the awning of LaFortune), but passed soon enough.
We stopped at a few of locations to help showcase the diverse locations around the heart of the campus such as The God Quad, The Grotto, and one of the two lakes.
We were lucky enough to avoid the rain and finish our outdoor photos before the real downpour of rain came. Everyone was happy to head to the reception location and into a nice air conditioned building.
We made our way to The Armory in time for cocktail hour since Marisa and Erik had scheduled ample time for both portraits and for them to enjoy some of the hour themselves. At their reception Marisa and Erik included a framed copy of the original invitations that we designed & printed for the wedding and well as several other photos that we’ve made for them over the past couple of years that we have all been working together and it was nice to see these photos around to remember these beautiful times with them in 2019 & 2020!
As cocktail hour ensued, we made our way around the venue photographing everyone having a good time enjoying some drinks and hors d'oeuvres.
Once cocktail hour had come to a close it was on to the main events of the night. Marisa and Erik were announced into the venue formally following their bridal party members. There emerged out on the balcony overlooking the venue before descending the staircase down into the venue.
Once Marisa and Erik were seated at their head table both sets of the couple’s parents welcomed the guests and gave speeches.
After these welcomes the priest gave a blessing and dinner began to be served (first with salads). During salads the Best Man (Erik’s brother) and Maid of Honor (Marisa’s sister-in-law) gave their heartfelt speeches/ toasts praising Marisa & Erik for being kindhearted, caring role models and inspirations.
After these beautiful toasts Marisa & Erik went up and welcomed their guests thanking them for sticking with them through the ups & downs (especially those of the Pandemic with needing to change their wedding date a few times) and also thanking their parents and loved ones for their support through everything.
Folks continued to enjoy their dinners, Erik & Marisa went around to greet their guests at their tables, we photographed their wedding rings, and we enjoyed dinner as well!
Delicious desserts went out at the end of dinner as well (right before their cake cutting)-!
And with that it was time for their cake cutting! Marisa’s brother actually laser cut their wedding cake topper as the silhouette of the two of them from a photo we took on their wedding day last year which was very cool to see-!
These two cut their cake together and kindly fed it to each other with a sweet kiss at the end after they enjoyed some of their wedding cake! Then it was time for their First Dance.
Erik (known for gifting Marisa supersized items like a giant hand-sized wedding ring) came to their First Dance with a giant rose the side of a person! These two then had a beautiful first dance. After their first dance they announced that since Marisa’s brother got married in an intimate ceremony last summer and finally opted out of their big wedding plans, that they wanted Marisa’s brother & sister-in-law to enjoy a First Dance as well since they missed out on theirs-! Marisa’s sister-in-law is due next month in September with their first baby, so it was even more beautiful seeing these two this belated First Dance together surrounded by loved ones-!
Next up were the father-daughter and mother-son dances-! These two were especially sweet because we’d gotten to know their parents last summer a bit at their mini wedding, so we knew how special it was to them to finally get to dance with their kids at the big wedding celebration!
After all of the formal dances were over it was time for Open Dance! Everyone headed out to join these two on the dance floor to cut a rug!
At the very end of our time with them at their reception we took them into another room and captured some photos of these two at sunset-!
Since it was pouring rain outside during the reception (starting after Cocktail Hour) we had to capture these last sunset wedding photos inside, but were excited that we were still able to capture some last wedding portraits of the two of them on their big wedding celebration night!
Congratulations again Marisa & Erik on your beautiful wedding celebration-!! We can’t believe that it’s been two years since we first got to know you two and we couldn’t be happier that you two finally got the big celebration of your dreams with all of your loved ones surrounding you! Thank you so much for having us along on this journey over the past years, we hope that you’ve had a great 5 days since the big wedding celebration, and we’re so proud of you two in all ways-! We’ll be sending along your full wedding gallery in a few weeks so you can pick out your hundreds of printed photos for your wedding box and more, but until then we hope that you two enjoy these Teasers, are able to relax a bit finally, and really bask in all of the love & happiness! CONGRATULATIONS!!