Holy moly is there a lot of crazy awesome components to Jake & Carly’s wedding!  I might be biased, but some of the most fun I ever had shooting a wedding!  Jake & Carly are Lake Lotawana Lake Rats, a term referred to the local lake lotawananians (I made that word up I think!) who have lived around this lake for a good part of their lives and enjoy it daily!  So that is just one aspect of the awesome to this wedding  One of the best parts of the day was watching how dang happy they were together.  The moment they saw each other the first time on their wedding day was the moment the smiles never stopped for the rest of the night.  Another awesome (and a bit worrisome) part of the day was that a crazy storm was brewing!  It was kind of exciting, made for awesome cloud photos, with just a bit of “I hope a tornado doesn’t head toward this barn” aspect, lol!  I loved that I got to see so many peeps from the lake there having fun including my hubby-I included a few dance shots!  Madi Sanders did an amazing job coordinating the day, Mike Tsai did an amazing job 2nd shooting with me, the flowers were so awesome, the FOOD!  OHHHH THE FOOD! The dress!  The dancing!!!  So much awesome! I  better start telling the rest of the story with the photos  I will start with the cute little B&B in Weston, MO where the girls were getting ready. And the DRESS!!!  O.M.G!! Carly & Jake’s gifts to each other were super awesome!  Carly’s Chanel bag is so fun because it is sporting her new initials While I was in Weston with the girls getting ready, Mike was photographing the boys getting ready at the National Golf Course! I just have to say HOLY CALF MUSCLES CARLY!  Dancing legs 😉 When editing the photos of the girls toasting champagne in Weston, I realized from the time of the photos that the boys were toasting beers at The National only one minute apart!  Kind of a cool coincident This is the first time I teared up for the day.  When Carly’s dad first saw his baby girl in her wedding dress and then gave her a card with a photo of her aunt who has passed so she could be with her on her wedding day I loved this part of the dress so much and it could come off later for dancing Miss Madi getting Jake ready for his girl Mike caught this photo of me chatting with Jake and checking white balance right before the first look.  I was smiling all day How awesome is Carly’s expression when seeing Jake? Since we weren’t AT the lake, we had to get a boat pic when we saw this Here is when you know that you don’t have to stress about your bride’s shoes the rest of the day-when she sees a compost garden and walks right through it.  Yep!  That happened!  #tomboy #lakerat #shoesstilllookedawesome Beautiful ladies!  And I loved the colors! LOVE! Downtown Weston was having a vw bus convention while we were there.  And if that wasn’t awesome enough, Cate & John DePrisco were there with The Photo Bus and let us jump in for some photos!!!  I felt like it was our lucky day  Thanks Cate & John if you are reading this Another awesome part of the day!  Stopping for a beer at RJ’s!  Maybe my first wedding photo with a giant deer head and Clint Eastwood in the background, oh yeah!!!!! The day was still looking beautiful with blue skies at this point! Ha!  A little shout out to Mallory & Harold (former bride & groom of mine) that we spied in Weston!  I also saw another former groom, Aaron Dennis, in Weston!  So crazy! I have been dying to photograph a bride with a birdcage veil!!!!  Soooooooo pretty!!!! Don’t they look so happy?!A little Irish flair!  They were led out with bagpipes playing! My jaw dropped when I walked into the reception!  I have never seen Red Barn Farm look so elegant! They had food trucks for dinner and everyone raved about the food!  The ahi tuna sliders were so good I still think about them all the time! After having fun shooting downtown Weston before the ceremony, I was super excited to shoot in the vineyard and orchard at the farm!!!!! The storm was a brewing Mike caught this awesome bridesmaid moment  A few shots of folks I adore!  Either former bride & groom or mostly peeps that were also at my own wedding  One of me & hubby courtesy of Mike And after the grand entrance the wind kicked up and the downpour started!  Mike & Madi helping move the booze inside-very important The skies before and during the storm! Speeches were so good   Sweet moments Let the dancing begin!!!!!  I knew it would be a good dance party but I don’t think I knew just how awesome!  Wedding dresses are not necessarily made for some serious dance moves, and nothing was going to stop this bride from breaking it down.  So, yes, she did tie her dress up into knots.  And man did they dance!!!!! First time I got to dance with my hubby while I was working  Thanks for shooting this Mike Tsai, I love them! Another favorite moment.  Right in the middle of all the fun they just stop in the middle of the dance floor to kiss. I was laughing so hard when I saw Carli on the floor and then was surprised when one of the groomsmen were leaping over her! Ha!  Aaron doing thriller moves and pretty sure Zach was doing the zombi !   Congratulations Jake & Carly!!!!!!!  See you on the lake!!!!!!!