Cj + Chris: Wedding Day
Last month Cj & Chris finally tied the knot and I’m so excited to be able to share the story of their wedding day with you! I first met with Cj & Chris to chat about all the details for their wedding at the beginning of 2019, and I am so excited that their day came together even more beautifully than any of us could have imagined! After dating for seven years, their outdoor ceremony at Lake Lyndsay Lodge brought Cj & Chris together as husband and wife. Even though we had a VERY dark & cloudy morning with scattered showers, everything cleared away and I couldn’t imagine a more beautiful wedding day.
I started my day off by meeting Cj & her bride tribe in the bridal suite at Lake Lyndsay. This is the cutest little space and the lighting in here is absolutely incredible. As the girls got ready, we chatted about the predicted storms for the day and hoped that all of the dark skies would fade away before the ceremony started.
While I was spending time with Cj, my incredible second shooter Sam spent her morning hanging out with Chris & his groomsmen. They rented a room at the AC Hotel by Marriott at Liberty Center and, from the looks of these photos, this space was absolutely incredible. After getting ready, Chris sat down to open the gifts that Cj gave him to celebrate the big day. Since the two are planning on filling up their future with traveling, she got him a customized map of the United States that they’ll be able to hang on their wall and fill with photos of their adventures together in the future. She also gave him a journal filled with different entries that she spent the past year leading up to their wedding day writing to him in. My love language is 100% words of affirmation so I know that this was a gift so full of love and admiration and I couldn’t imagine a better gift to open on the morning of a wedding! How sweet!
Since Cj and Chris decided to wait to see one another until they were standing at opposite ends of the aisle, we took portraits of both sides of the bridal party separately before the ceremony. This really built up anticipation before the big moment and was so much fun!
Once all of the separate bridal party portraits were taken, it was time for the ceremony! This ceremony was so incredibly sweet and I love that you can see how emotional Cj & Chris both were. I love being able to see the happiness and joy that my couples share throughout their ceremony and it's so sweet to see those emotions radiate through them as they walk back down the aisle together married. The weather we had during their ceremony was SO incredible and we were so thankful that the rain and cloudy skies had moved away!
After the ceremony, it was time for all of the bridal party & family photos before taking Cj & Chris out into the golden hour sunset for couples portraits. I’ll let Cj & Chris share their family photos when they’re ready, but I am SO excited to share a few of these bridal portraits with you. Even after having crazy dark clouds in the sky all morning, we had an absolutely incredible sunset to end our day with. These photos are SO much fun and I love how incredibly happy Cj & Chris look. I always say that couples portraits should be the perfect mix of happy smiles & intimate moments and these photos absolutely are! I love them!
After all of the formal photos were taken, it was time to party! I love it when absolutely everything that we can’t control comes together perfectly and this wedding day was a perfect example of exactly that happening. After about 30 minutes of being inside, the storms rolled in. I’m not talking little clouds that covered up the rest of the sun, but tornados. The winds picked up, the rain was intense, and the electric momentarily went out right after cake cutting. It was like the clouds were holding back until we were ready to be inside for the rest of the night and then things just went wild! It was a crazy ending to an incredible day and I’m honored to have been able to capture it! Since the electric only went out for a few seconds, dancing picked up and the rest of the night was history! I’m so thankful such to have been there for such a fun day and I’m over the moon excited for Cj & Chris to start this next chapter in life together. Congratulations, you two! Being married is the best!