Iowa Historic Village Wedding

11/12/2018

The guests were hanging on every word. The bride’s dad held the microphone loosely as he shared story after story and detail after detail about the lovely couple before him – you would think that he was mostly sharing his pride for his beautiful daughter but at the end of his speech, he took a sudden turn and talked about the family the bride, Andrea, was marrying into. “They’re such a perfect match family-wise and we are so blessed,” he said and soon, the groom, Charles, was in tears, his mother was on tips of tears smiling in the direction of her son, and the bridesmaids were asking each other for tissues. We are always up for destination weddings and the chance to enjoy a road trip or travel so when Charles and Andrea reached out to us about being their wedding photographers, we were all in! Heading to photograph their beautiful wedding day at Usher's Ferry in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was amazing -- and what was even better is that it was about 20 degrees warmer there then in our hometown of Cottage Grove, Minnesota.

Mark’s favorite part of the wedding day was when they did the first look and as he says it, “You can tell he was very impressed by the way she looked for him.” My favorite part was similar in that it was Charles’ face during their Catholic ceremony when Andrea was putting the ring on his finger. He was beyond excited and his entire face lit up with joy (see the photo below). These two are all about their family and friends – you could see it in every aspect of their day. They did multiple first looks throughout their day – a first look of Andrea with her bridesmaids as well as Andrea with her parents and a “first look” of Charles with his family (they had seen him but still enjoyed a quiet moment where they shared advice).

A random other tidbit of their day was that there were no trees with leaves left in the entire vicinity except the three closest trees to the venue and they were conveniently the colors of their favorite football team, Iowa State – who also won on their wedding day. We said it was God’s little wedding gift to Charles and Andrea. We enjoyed them during the family portraits and snuck back out by them for their sunset photos.

Charles and Andrea, we are so excited for you two as you journey on this new adventure! Take time to adjust to it, reminding each other that you’re still learning, and encouraging each other. We pray you continue to grow in your relationship with one another and develop a firm foundation!