Rose & Rick are MARRIED! These two were wed just a few days ago over the weekend on their wedding day spanning two states: both Indiana AND Michigan! You may remember these two from when we captured their Engagement Session in the beautiful fall leaves in South Bend this past autumn a whopping 7 months ago OR maybe you know Rick from Christ the King, St. Joe High School, or Rick’s 66 gas station (Auten/ 31) in South Bend-! Rick’s mom and Jenny’s mom were friends since they went to school together growing up and coincidentally their moms names are both “Rose,” Rick’s sister Jenny (now “Jen”) was in Jenny’s class, and his sister Sarah was in Jenny’s sister (Jill)’s class! Not only that, but Rick’s dad is named “Rick” as well, so Rick & Rose are second generation “Rick & Rose”es! What crazy coincidences, right?!
Anywho, we met with these two last summer to chat about their wedding plans and between that time and solidifying their wedding plans, one of Rick’s two sisters also got engaged! She planned her wedding for winter before Rick & Rose’s spring June wedding, so Rose & Rick decided to alter their wedding plans for Tennessee and instead move their wedding closer so that things would be easier (and so that many more of Rick’s friends could attend)! These two settled on The History Museum of South Bend (attached to the Oliver Mansion) for their outdoor wedding ceremony and Rick’s dad’s gorgeous lake house at Eagle Lake in Edwardsburgh, Michigan for their wedding reception! Without further adieu, Rose & Rick’s Indiana-Michigan wedding and we were to capture 12 hours of their big day!
At the start of the wedding morning Rose, her bridesmaids, and the moms headed right to The History Museum to get their hair & makeup done. The sun was shining, but like last weekend, the forecast ALL week called for pouring rain and thunderstorms for all of Saturday. There was a back-up indoor spot for their ceremony in the museum, but Rose was holding out for the outdoor garden ceremony and luckily the odds were in their favor! The forecast for the day kept calling for later and later rain, so we were thrilled to see that in the forecast. For the first hour of the morning we captured the ladies getting ready inside of the Museum and eventually captured the men getting ready as well when they got there (to a room on the floor below)!
After some lovely photos of everyone getting ready, Rick headed outside to have some family portraits taken to free up some post-ceremony time. While he was doing that, Rose got some last photos with her bridesmaids and prepared for the ceremony.
Before we knew it 2.5 hours of getting ready had flown by and it was time for the ceremony! Rick and the bridal party made their way down the archway in the beautiful gardens outside of the History Museum & Oliver Mansion! The weather held out with perfect cloud cover and no rain, so Rose made her way down the aisle to her groom Rick!
Rose’s Maid of Honor/ her sister Lizzie was the officiant for their wedding and things went off without a hitch! Rick and Rose said their handwritten vows and exchanged rings before their First Kiss and married stroll back down the aisle to the cheers of their family!
Post ceremony we captured about 30 or more formal family photos with Rick & Rose under the archway (since the sun had come back out)!
After those formal photos of the family (not all included here) we moved on to bridal party photos! Many of Rick’s groomsmen photos had been captured before the ceremony, so we captured photos of the bridesmaids together and the entire bridal party together before they headed onto the party bus!
Luckily we were still left with about 20 minutes for portraits of the newlyweds at their ceremony venue after all of their group photos! We took photos of these two at the Oliver Mansion mainly on its porch since the sun was shining down brightly and there was still a chance of rain as well!
After we finished up their quick newlywed portraits at the History Museum/ Oliver Mansion, we all headed up to their reception venue: The lake house at Eagle Lake in Southwest Michigan!
There seemed to be a few drops of rain when we got outside, but the cake had already arrived to the reception early, so it was immediately time for cake cutting! Once these two cut their cake, they were ready for some more mingling as well as portraits by the pier!
We started portraits on the pier, but the rain that it had called for came and we had to pause the photos and have them head into their reception tent for the quick half hour rain. We were SO happy that the rain held off for the first 5.5 hours of the day AND that the rain was a quick half hour! During that time we captured photos of guests eating, mingling, and enjoying themselves as well as detail shots around the reception!
Once the rain passed we finished up portraits in what turned into bright sunlight and pure humidity in almost 90 degree weather! The forecast changed a lot throughout the rest of the 6 hours we were capturing the reception, but we were just happy that the rain was quick!
After the final portraits, we captured more of the reception, cake, live cooking areas, live band, and more! There were mostly family at their ceremony, but for the reception they had 3 waves of guests arriving: Some at 3, some at 4:30, and then their younger friends at 6 pm, so we had plenty of new folks to photograph as they filtered in and out!
At some point they decided to move their First Dance up (due to another threat of rain), so Rose and Rick enjoyed their First Dance out by the waterfront with the live band playing!
After their First Dance, Rick enjoyed his Mother-Son dance with his mom. Like a large amount of our couples’ parents, Rose’s father is no longer with us, so instead she kept him by her side in a locked on her bridal bouquet and danced for fun with her nephew once the formal dances were over!
After more mingling throughout the reception, it was time for speeches from the Best Man and Maid of Honor! Most of the bridal party had changed into more cocktail hour-esque clothing appropriate for the lake reception, so things felt more comfortable. Both Rick’s best friend and Lizzie gave speeches to the newlyweds and did a terrific job at making everyone laugh! With those speeches given, it was the last of the formal reception traditions and it was time to party more!
Once Rose’s friends arrived and got to see her in her wedding gown she also went off to change into her more comfortable wedding cocktail dress and Open Dance with the live band started up! There was a bit more rain, but luckily it didn’t start until the band had pretty much finished waterside and were morphing into a DJ setup inside of the tent.
With the next half hour rain the weather dramatically changed with a huge temperature drop and all of the older adults dispersed as did the catering! The DJ continued to pump out good jams as everyone danced both under the tent and then outside!
Getting closer to 10 pm we handed out sparklers and had the bridal party spell out LOVE around Rose & Rick since Rose was really looking forward to it even though it was sprinkling a bit. Everyone played with sparklers, danced to music, and enjoyed the huge amount of late night pizza they had delivered for their guests!
It’s a huge testament to their awesome guests as to how many stuck around through 2 small cycles of rain dancing through sunset with sparklers, pizza, and good times! They all really love these two and nothing could phase them or keep them from enjoying Rose & Rick’s big day!
Congratulations again, Rose & Rick! We hope that you two have safe travels to your island honeymoon coming up in just a couple days!! We hope that you have an amazing time relaxing and enjoying your honeymoon AND rest of your first week of Marriage!
—————— Coming up in just a few days is May & Jimmy’s FULL University of Notre Dame wedding!! We’ll be capturing them getting ready at 2 homes in South Bend, then capture their wedding ceremony in the Basilica at their alma mater Notre Dame (with their portraits in the Basilica and on campus afterward)! Their reception is also on the University of Notre Dame’s campus closer to lunchtime (since their ceremony is a morning one) and afterward we get to capture final portraits around campus of these two! We canNOT wait! Though May lives in town (working on her Master’s degree AND working in town as well), Jimmy is coming in from New York, so we haven’t seen him since their Engagement Session about 4 months ago this WINTER!
We finished editing Sessions & Weddings for 3 clients JUST this week and we have one more wedding to finish up before the next week is up, so we’re excited to see what people choose for their included physical photo products!! (We currently have 7 clients whose choices we’re still waiting on so we can print for them, so we foresee reaching out to them the 2nd week of July in order to print everything in July and August before 7 more back-to-back weddings & before more Engagement Sessions!) NEXT week we have Cassie & Jimmy’s Engagement Session locally (yes, 2 Jimmy weekends in a row!), so we’re really looking forward to that too (before one more Notre Dame wedding to close June out)! We’ll catch you next week with another gorgeous wedding (YAY May & Jimmy!), so stay tuned each Weekly Wednesday!!