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.

​I think we can all agree that this year has been quite a rollercoaster of emotions, changes, and all the unknowns. And yet, many of us have not had to add on the extra aspect of planning a wedding day while living in a pandemic. Josh and Michaela have done just that. They got engaged the day after Valentine’s Day this year and immediately set in on planning — picking the always amazing Historic Hope Glen Farms in Cottage Grove as their wedding venue. They just weren’t sure what their day would look like and, at points, even if they would be able to have it — let alone who would be able to come. They continued to press on and before they knew it, as Michaela said during the thank you toast, they were able to have their dream wedding.

One of the most precious things on a wedding day is watching friends and family come around a couple to celebrate them, and I think we all can say that the past few months have made that rather challenging with all of the COVID craziness we have experienced. That’s why Rebekah & Lucas decided back in June that even with everything going on, they were still going to get married – they didn’t want to wait any longer and were so aware that each and everyday brings a new set of challenges that they no longer wanted to tackle individually but together as a united team. This is why they chose to have an intimate ceremony -- or minimony or even microwedding depending on what you want to call it – the idea is the same for all three, celebrating two becoming one with your closest family & friends. This meant that the wedding celebration they had planned at Hope Glen Farms in Cottage Grove also got a bit delayed, but these two didn’t give up hope, which is what brings us to this beautiful wedding celebration here. (Ps – the treehouse is even cooler than it looks… and it has a secret room behind a book shelf!)

Boy meets girl. Boy and girl fall in love. Boy and girl run off to get married. Wait a second, not the “typical” love story? Jenavae and Misha have anything but that! While COVID has thrown everyone for a loop in their wedding day planning, these two decided that enough was enough and they were ready to get married no matter what. They settled in on a date and reached out to us for their wedding day photography. There is something beautifully simple about an elopement – you get to take in the full moment, not be rushed, and watch each person’s reaction throughout the minimony. You can chase the sunset, go get dinner in your wedding dress, and drive off without anyone knowing what has happened – a secret you choose when and where to share with the world.

One of the things this COVID pandemic has shown us is the sweet spot of people being surrounded by their closest friends and family. Don’t get us wrong, we absolutely still love full on wedding days, but there’s just something unique during this time. Having a backyard wedding at Vicki’s parent’s house in Hastings was always one of William and Vicki’s plans, they just had to adapt it a bit – as all plans are being done to these days.