Rachel & Ariel are married!

October 4 is already a special day to me because it was my parent's 33rd wedding anniversary! But this year, it was extra special because it was Rachel and Ariel's wedding! And what a festive Fall wedding it was with all the orange and seasonal leaves as part of their decor put together by Katrina of Made of Honor Weddings! They also had a gorgeous view of downtown Jacksonville during their ceremony on the rooftop of the Wyndham Hotel. But I think the funniest part of the day was when Rachel's make up artist lost one of Rachel's fake eyelashes, and literally the getting ready got put on hold while everyone, Rachel, the bridesmaids, the videographers and the make up artist, all searched the floor for the missing eye lash. After about half an hour, it never showed up, and the back up pair had to be pulled out!

On the guys side, there was a slight injury! My second shooter Leah was doing some fun shots with the guys where they run up behind Ariel, and one groomsmen fell and sliced his hand on the deck nails. Ouch! You can see the click by click collision in the slideshow!

Rachel and Ariel are so cutesy together and share an amazing laugh just in the way they look at each other and crack up! Many congrats to you both!!

Here are my favorites from the day and their slideshow at the end!




Searching for the missing eyelash! It was cute how the videographers of Deluxe Video Productions were providing their video light to help out.


The new eyelashes!








I loved the reflection of her laugh in this pic !




So beautiful! It was inspired by this pic of Mandy Moore!






















They crack me up!








I LOVE this shot! We were done with photos, but walking back to the reception, I noticed this chair had a spotlight of sun peeping through the window, so I told them to go sit in it real quick. Though we were using a lot of video light earlier for Rachel's bridals, I love when you find natural light like this!








This Father/Daughter dance choked me as much as it did Rachel.




Starting off the marriage right!


And the slideshow....

Rachel and Ariel are engaged!

One thing I love capturing on camera is the laugh a couple shares that tells them they want to laugh with that person for the rest of their lives. In editing the Engagement Session of Rachel and Ariel, it was rare to see a photo of them not smiling and laughing with each other. In the beginning of our shoot, they confessed to being shy at showing affection in public, but seeing their laughs together spoke more to me than any other PDA I could have captured for them. I love the challenge of discovering the unique love language each couple shares, and laughter is definitely what Rachel and Ariel speak to each other.

They also brought their other love and first child, Wendy, a cute beagle who was also shy in front of the camera. After a few shots with her, Rachel and Ariel brought out their old fashioned bikes (that they made themselves!) that they love riding up and down Jacksonville Beach together on lazy days. It was so much fun to document something they naturally love to do together.

Here are some of my faves and the slideshow below!  God blessed us with some amazing setting sunshine and I had fun playing around with all the juicy saturated rays backlighting their love! (Gorgeous setting sunshine is a photographer's favorite love language!)