Some weddings are grand, filled with hundreds of guests and lavish venues. Others are intimate, wrapped in warmth and family, where love is felt in every quiet moment. Jen and Michael’s wedding was the latter—a heartfelt, at-home celebration surrounded by their three daughters in their beautiful new home in Woodbury.
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From the very start, this day was about family. It was Jen’s sister who sweetly reached out, wanting to ensure that their special day was captured. The love and care behind that gesture reflected the entire atmosphere of the wedding—thoughtful, intentional, and deeply personal.

Derek and Krystal chose an intimate wedding in Ohio at a beautiful venue that looked like an awesome castle. They are two people who love to just hang and relax with those that they love; so while searching online, they came across Saint Paul Brewing and asked family members to go check to see if it would be a spot that would work for a reception. Their family members fell in love and they booked the space, a perfect intimate reception for their Minnesota friends and family to celebrate their wedding eight months ago. Friends, family, food, and lots of fun throughout the night left the impression how these two are truly excited for this stage of life and loving each moment of it.

How cute are the stories where the guy immediately knows the girl is someone he wants to be with, yet the girl needs a bit more coaxing to come around? This was the case for Isaiah and Kayley; he immediately thought she was dating material, and she was trying to decide if she wanted to friendzone him or not. As you can see, we’re writing their wedding photos blog post though, so something obviously changed. Kayley’s family said he’s a nice guy, so why not continue to be friends and see where things lead. Well, you see where they led: their very own ranch backyard intimate wedding in Farmington.

Challenging would be an understatement when you’re planning a wedding during a pandemic and you’re halfway across the country, and yet, Elizabeth and Robert did it! These native Minnesotans moved to Portland for Elizabeth’s dental school and so once they got engaged, they knew they had their work cut out for them in planning a wedding day back in Minnesota. Then came the mandates and impending unknowns, so they chose to switch things up and enjoy an intimate wedding at Robert’s family home in Finlayson. As they said in their own words, it wasn’t about being black tie, but having fun and showing it.

I watched a message this past week where the pastor talked about life is how we frame it, and we have to be intentional about what we frame. He had a beautiful picture of a sunset taken from an airplane window. In the bottom right corner were dark thunderous clouds, and the rest of the photo was beautiful oranges, yellows, and pinks of the sunsetting below. The idea is that, while we can’t change the scene of life, we can choose what we focus on. We can take our small frame and frame the dark thunderous clouds, making everything seem dark and discouraging, or we can move the frame within the same scene and focus on the breathtaking beauty of sunset. This is exactly what couples like Luke and Anna are doing. While COVID has made life in general challenging , especially when planning a wedding, they chose to focus on what is beautiful instead of the dark and gloomy corner.