Ron & Karla: Wedding

I’m going to start this morning with a slight disclaimer: I normally post a “sneak peek” on my blog the first business day after I shoot a wedding. I don’t really think there’s anything “sneaky” or “peeky” about this post. We’ll just call this a look. I got a little carried away this week picking out photos for the blog. I guess that means I had a reeeeeally good time at this wedding. Anyway, sorry if this gets a little long. You may need to stop and stretch your scrolling wrist half way through this post. Now, on to the main event:

Ron and Karla were brought together by basketball. They met because they both had children who played basketball for Warsaw High School. They were friends and fans of the tigers for a long time, and then eight years ago they started to date. It became serious pretty quickly. In fact, Ron’s friends kept asking him when he was going to pop the question and his reply was always, “When I win the lotto!” I don’t know if Ron ever really did win the lotto literally, but Karla is a pretty great prize and he should be proud that he is the man that won her. Both Ron and Karla are kind, gracious, sweet people with big hearts, big laughs, and big families. It was such an honor to be part of their wedding.

There were a lot of unique elements to Ron and Karla’s wedding, so many in fact, that I don’t think I could tell you about all of them, but I thought I’d mention a few. Ron and Karla hired the services of the Whalen Creative Group. Grace and her team coordinated this wedding so well and helped with fantastic decorations and a very cohesive theme. I love working with Grace, because I know that I can trust her to make sure everything is running extra smoothly and I know that both Ron and Karla felt like she took very good care of them. There were a couple other vendors who did an amazing job taking care of the couple as well. Karla also had her hair done by DC Haircrafters and was very pleased with the results, especially since she had a few lack luster trials with other salons. The reception was held at Stonehenge Golf & Country Club where Tammy and her crew fed and watered the guests until they were all ready to burst.

There’s so much more to tell you about, but instead of writing a novel up here, I’ll let you keep scrolling…

I loved the subtle floral detail on Karla’s simple and elegant dress.

Here’s beautiful Karla. She looked so elegant and sweet on her wedding day. Absolutely gorgeous!!

Ron didn’t look to shabby either! I loved that the guys wore chocolate brown suits instead of black tuxedos. It was a very classy personal touch.

It rained on the day of the wedding and spoiled my plans to shoot all of the photos outside. The couple and the entire party were all very flexible with me about using indoor locations. Sometimes plan B looks pretty darn great.

Um… flower girl or devastatingly gorgeous little heartbreaker? I’ll let you decide. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful!!!

I always wonder what fathers and daughters whisper to each other before they walk down the aisle. Karla and her father had a very serious discussion in the hall before walking through the doors to the auditorium. It was really cute.

And then the big moment happened! Karla walked down the aisle to a patiently waiting Ron.

Time for a somewhat embarrassing personal story: My faithful readers know that I’m a musician and former vocal coach. I gave up a lot of my musical pursuits when I started doing photography full-time. I used to LOOOOOOOVE American Idol. I would watch it every. single. week. with my BFF Danica. We were obsessed! But after Katherine McFee lost to Taylor Hicks, I got so mad I quit watching. No joke. I was done. Sooooooo… when Ron’s cousin Syesha sang at the wedding I was completely ignorant to the fact that she was the season 7 third place (and should have been first place) finalist of American Idol. It wasn’t until I got home and saw Grace Whalen tweet about it that I found out who she was. I guess it’s better that way, otherwise I would have pestered poor Syesha to death with Simon Cowell questions.

Syesha did a great job singing “If I ain’t got you” by Alicia Keys. Karla grinned broadly through the whole song and obviously loved every second of it.

Then Syesha’s mother Zelda, a former motown backup singer, sang a song during the lighting of the unity candle. Ron brags all the time to his friends about how talented his cousins are, but I think he was pretty proud to be able to back up his bragging with a little proof.

As Ron and Karla walked down the aisle as husband and wife, his cousins sang “Oh Happy Day”. Sang… blew the roof off the building… potato, potahto.

Right after the ceremony, we took a little time for family photos. Ron and Karla both have ridiculously good looking families.

Then while the guests got settled at Stonehenge and enjoyed cocktail hour and appetizers, we shot a few photos with the party and then the couple.

Aren’t they just an adorable couple? So cute!

Ron comes from Florida and is a pretty big Gator fan. Karla wanted fall colors for her wedding… So between the two of them, they came up with a really fun punchy color scheme. Grace and her crew did a great job bringing this vibrant color scheme to life in the reception decor.

And Stonehenge is a pretty great location with huge windows and beautiful views.

After Ron and Karla were announced they did something I’ve NEVER seen any other couple do. They decided to forego eating in favor of personally greeting each guest. I’m sure they did eat later, but it was SO important to them to thank each guest for coming to their wedding that they spent their time during dinner circulating to the guests. I think that says a lot about how important their friends and family are to them.

The photo below in the top right is Grace Whalen. Karla thought she was just getting a hug, but at the last minute Grace spotted me and hammed it up for the camera. She’s not only awesome at her job, but she’s pretty fun too. (Not so subliminal message: Hire Grace. She’s awesome.)

This group came all the way from Florida to celebrate with Ron and Karla. (And to show Indiana how to dance.)

The speeches were fantastic! Ron’s best man left everyone in stitches, while Karla’s maid of honor made everyone cry.

Grace teased Ron and Karla after the cutting of the cake for cutting the smallest piece of cake in wedding history. Thanks to Betty’s Cake Shop for this beautiful piece of sugary goodness.

The guests at the wedding all begged, so Ron coerced Syesha into singing again at the reception. This time she did it acapella. She’s so humble and sweet, but obviously has nerves of steal. I mean… she had just eaten dinner. Any singer knows that’s not an ideal time to sing… especially unrehearsed… and especailly without accompaniment. Very impressive!

And then the guests danced, and danced, and danced, and danced!!!

The dance floor was packed for hours with happy and very enthusiastic guests.

Congratulations Ron and Karla on an absolutely perfect wedding day! I wish you many happy anniversaries! Thanks so much for asking me to be part of such a fun and vibrant day. Not even a little rain could hold you down.