Sara & Marshall: Wedding

OMG, this was one of my favorite weddings ever, and that is both as a photographer and as a guest. It was just a REALLY good time. And weddings are supposed to be joyful occasions, for sure, but this one was totally off the charts. I loved it. :)

Okay, so I tried really hard to limit myself to twelve pictures, but ... yeah right. But, life is short and why hold back, right? Right. So, here it comes, the wedding of the century in chronological order!

Okay, so yes, this is a pretty bridesmaid's dress and bow, but the thing about this picture that I wanted to point out is that as I started looking through the pictures, I noticed that Sara's mom's hands were in a lot of them ... she's helping here, pinning flowers there, tying dresses, putting out fires ... and I just loved it. I remember a girl I know talking about her best friend, and how she's always in the background of all the pictures, taking care of everything and making sure her day went as magically as possible, and I just loved that so much. So now, I have a really great appreciation for the background players in my pictures, because they're the ones who make it happen. :)

I loved this one of Katie the Bridesmaid getting her makeup done! Look at those gorgeous eyes!

So, needless to say, I am terrible at makeup and putting it on ... I manage with mascara and a little something for the eye circles and that's about it. But I LOOOOVE taking pictures of makeup because it's so colorful and so coordinated. (Because, hello, you want your makeup to match ... um, right?)

There she is! The gorgeous bride! Look at that adoring look. Couldn't you just DIE of romance?

Oh my gosh. These two were SUCH dolls, and so was the flower girl. We have gotten SO lucky with the kids in the weddings this year--everyone has been an amazing little mini-rockstar. I totally wanted to take these kiddos with me and put them in all the weddings. Thankfully, they got my crazy June off to an awesome start and everyone must have heard about the great jobs they did and wanted to follow in their shoes. :) So yeah, even though the boys got a LITTLE bored, they totally held it together and this was one of my favorite pictures of the ceremony. :)

My assistant for the day, Jessie Knuth, took this picture. Two things. First of all, Jessie was an INCREDIBLE fill-in for Billy. He had to go out of town, and she was a dream--helpful, attentive, creative ... everything you could want. I wish she had a site I could link to, but she doesn't yet, so just keep her name in mind because I am POSITIVE you'll hear more about her in the future. She rules.

Okay, secondly, I LOVED this blue ceremony. Basically, the church was pretty blue, but then they turned off most of the lights and sunlight was coming in through the blue stained glass windows, and I thought it was totally beautiful. I am now hoping to someday have another blue (or maybe another color!) ceremony.

AAAAAHHHH! This was one of my total favorites! And, just keeping it real, I did not move those shoes at all. The bridesmaids had just kicked them off that way while they were waiting for their next bridesmaid duties.

And also, I'm sure we'll discuss this again in the future, but being a bridesmaid is hard work. I think anyone who has ever done it will back me up on that. You are squeezing into dresses, taking pictures, calming nerves, looking for this, MacGuyvering that ... all while wearing uncomfortable shoes and looking gorgeous! I'm just saying ... it takes a REALLY good friend to want to do that for you, and these girls were awesome. :)

Wow, I don't think I've ever posted a "formal" picture on my blog, but this one was just too funny not to. They wanted silly pictures but I think the kids didn't know what to do, so I told them to make a face, demonstrated that one, and before I knew it, it was a great idea for EVERYONE to make that face! I really hope they enjoy this, because I know if that was me, that's totally the one I'd have sitting on the mantle.

First dance, and they were totally this happy all night ... and actually, they pretty much ALWAYS seem this happy. I think they're going to have a great life together.

Oh, and this one of her dad dance ... that is EMOTIONAL. Do not even try to tell me otherwise. You can see it all in one look how much he loves her and how proud of her he is.

HA! Alright, now I can't remember this girl's name (I'm sorry!) but she's another one in the background of a lot of pictures because she was SO key in the getting ready process, especially with the makeup.

BUT, what I want to say about this picture, is that you know how sometimes you just really appreciate what's happening to you AS it's happening? I had a few of those moments at Sara & Marshall's wedding, where I just thought, WOW, I am having a really great wedding here! The first one, of course, was when I heard a truly filthy joke. That is always the start of a great relationship for me. Just saying. The second one that comes to mind is this picture--Sara LOVES making faces. And I mean LOVES. There are plenty of her making totally insane faces, and they're all great. But on this one, she and her makeup friend decided on the monkey face, and I took a shot and said, "Whoa! Sara! Your eyes look CRAZY here!" So they wanted to see and I showed them, and that's when makeup friend decided that her eyes didn't look crazy ENOUGH, so we had to redo it and got this one! Awesome! Not everyone wants to have crazy eyes in pictures, but I really love the ones that do. :)

WHAT? So cute. Also, if these two ever have children, they're going to have some smokin' blue eyes. But no pressure, you two just got married! (In case you didn't know or forgot or something.)

More hotness (and speaking of, they totally beat the heat--it was sweltering out there and they look like cucumbers ... you know ... cool).

This is Marshall's brother, who, like him, was a DANCING MACHINE. Also, like Sara, he made some crazy faces, which was awesome.

With the girls! Don't you want to know what they're talking about? Or maybe I'm just nosy. :)

MARSHALL'S GRANDMA!!!!!!! She is the sweetest thing ever--very possibly one of the sweetest people I've ever met, and I adore her. He got so lucky with that one! And look at this picture ... there was so much love at this wedding, which, obviously, everyone says about every wedding, but I'm not even just talking about with Sara & Marshall (although obviously between them too), but just with everyone. There are so many people that really love these two and you can just feel how much by standing in the same room with them all.

I don't think there's anything I can say about them busting a move that is going to make it sound like I didn't just travel in a time machine from the year 1997, so I just won't, but I will say that the dancing at this wedding was so fun and enthusiastic that I briefly considered joining in ... but then I remembered that NO ONE needs to see that. :)

And finally, a great note to end on ... Marshall doing the chicken dance. I mean, you can't really tell by his face here, but I have truly never seen anyone more excited about the chicken dance IN MY LIFE. He kept talking about it and wanted to make absolutely sure he didn't miss it, and he was like ... GLEEFUL during the entire thing. I was so glad that we caught that before we headed out, because wow, someone enjoying the chicken dance that much is something that I hope you all get to see before you die. It's really something. :)

Thank you guys SO MUCH for letting me be a part of such a great wedding. I loved every minute of it! Congratulations on what I know is going to be such a bright future for you. :)

To see all of the wedding pictures, you can check out my Instaproofs site, http://sarahbrownphotography.instaproofs.com/. Online ordering is available!

Edit: By request, a link to Sara & Marshall's engagement pics!