Wednesday, December 26, 2018

Laura & Jonny - Festive Winter Wedding at White Oak Farms in Tennessee

Weekend before last, I had the privilege of shooting Laura & Jonny's gorgeous wedding out at White Oak Farms in Medina. This is the second wedding I've had there, and I must say, I love it! Since I was almost 37 weeks pregnant at the time, I had my good friend Cari Griffith with me as a second shooter who could take over if I happened to go into labor or something crazy. You can never be too prepared! Plus she captured some amazing shots for them, and I loved having her there.

The wedding day was flawless! It was a warmer day for December, I believe in the upper 40s, making the time while guests were outside during "the flip" more bearable. White Oak has one big room for events, so if the ceremony and reception are both taking place indoors, they have guests go outside while they flip the space. They were remarkably quick with this process! Plus the guests had fire pits and s'mores, so it was a win-win.

I have to say, I was nervous about how I'd feel at this wedding being this far along in my pregnancy, but Laura & Jonny were so easy going and fun that it was not an issue! I had plenty of chances to take a quick break and prop my feet up, plus Cari was always there to cover me if I needed to run to the restroom (like every 10 minutes...this baby is right on my bladder all the time!).

Anyway enough boring pregnancy talk, let's get to the photos!

I arrived while the girls were getting ready and got a few shots. Laura was mostly done, but I got some fun ones of them just hanging out in the bridal suite.








Cari arrived around the same time as the guys, so she got some shots of them getting ready and glamour shots of Jonny. If you know Jonny, you know we had to get some suave photos of him!


We also got some detail shots around the venue during some down time. 









When Laura got dressed, we did a little reveal with her girls before heading out to do the first look with Jonny. 








Pretty sure I heard the phrase "holy smokes!" Loved his reaction! Next we did all the portraits for the day. Everything went pretty smoothly!







Even though I kind of wish the grass wasn't brown, you can't beat the mild weather and winter light we had!




Almost forgot about this! While I was photographing Laura, Cari was photographing Jonny, and he had his best man toss him a LaCroix from the groom's room. The man loves his LaCroix!




Hello sun! So glad it came out for a minute. These are some of my favorite portraits.







 
After family photos and some down time, it was time to get married!


The girls had a prayer time pre-ceremony.








Cannot believe I caught the wink! So sweet. I saw it, but wasn't sure I got it, so it was a nice surprise while editing. 






They took communion together during the ceremony, which I always love. They also had my favorite hymn in the ceremony, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. 




Yay marriage!!

Immediately following the ceremony, everyone headed outside so the room could be flipped. We came back in and got some details before they let everyone come back in. 











DO Dah's donuts with the cakes. Yum!




They had a biscuit bar and some other breakfast items for the meal. It was all so good!



After everyone ate, they cut the cake and did the first dances.







Dancing to "Touching Heaven" by Johnnyswim. These are my kind of people!


Love these shots from the balcony that Cari got.






The rest of the reception was lots of fun dancing and drinking coffee from Modero, the coffee shop at Union. 









After a while, it was time for their sparkler exit!




It was the perfect end to the perfect day! It was such a pleasure to be a part of this wonderful wedding. 

Laura & Jonny I wish you both the best! Seriously, thank you so much for including me in this incredibly special celebration.

DJ: DJ Connections Cake: Mona Coleman Caterer: Donna Pope