Tom + Kate - The Wedding

I started the day off VERY frustrated, here is why....I was texting Kate Friday night after my other wedding here in La Crosse, to get the address to the church for an early leave Saturday morning considering I had a 3 hour plus drive ahead of me bright and early so I could get there on time.

When I typed in the address to my GPS early saturday morning the GPS didn't have the exact address in it, so I clicked on the one that would be the closest........I pulled into St. Croix Falls and had to stop at a gas station to see if someone knew where the church was since the GPS took me to a rest area which wasn't even close to the address I had typed in. I asked the lady at the gas station and she pointed me in one direction, and then drove to the other side of town to where she said it was, wasn't there....Stopped at another gas station to ask someone, they pointed me in the direction I came from, so I said in my head," Ohhhh boy!!" Starting the day off stressed out thinking I was going to be late wasn't good. But I found the church after driving across town and back literally about 4 times.

I got to the church, set up my lights for posed portraits and went downstairs to get a few of Kate and her bridesmaids getting ready.

Tom and Kate had seen each other before I got there and were planning on doing all the posed pictures with everyone before the ceremony because their reception hall was a 45 minute drive from the church and they didn't want to be late for that. So since they had seen each other his first reaction seeing her come down the isle wouldn't be the same so we had a first moment in the church with just the two of them for Tom's first time seeing her in her dress. We got a great smile from Tom.

After we got done with posed portraits in the church we went on our "private session" with Tom and Kate before the ceremony. It was toasty hot outside, Tom was sweating bullets, and Kate wasn't too far from that either. We did the best we could with mid day sunlight and the heat, but we got some great images.

Before the ceremony I had a few minutes so I grabbed their rings for a couple shots. I also asked Tom if I was going to get any tears from family members I could maybe watch for a great photo op, and he said his mom would be for sure, we'll get one of her crying later. I kept my eyes open as they opened the door for Kate and her dad to walk down and got a quick shot of Tom as he was taking a deep breath and I think holding back a tear or two, I don't think he'd admit it though, would you Tom?

They had a really cool idea for their ceremony which I've only seen one other time and that was to face the congregation and the Father would stand in the middle facing them.

After the ceremony I packed up my gear for the 45 minute drive to the reception hall in New Richmond, which we were also going to stop at a park on the way to do some wedding party shots, however there was a slight problem.....

Since we had that problem we made the best of it and tried to do some wedding party shots next to the church. It was 85' or hotter, all the guys in their tuxes sweating pretty bad and the girls were starting to get a little uncomfortable. Everyone kind of felt bad for the limo driver considering it wasn't his fault the car wouldn't start, it was the companies fault for sending him with a bad car. I guess the A/C didn't work so when we did show up at the reception hall everyone was sweating and was so uncomfortable.

When we got to the reception hall we had a bit before anything really got started, they had everyone sit down for the grand entrance, and shortly after salads were served and dinner shortly there after. I wanted to do a couple more shots of just Tom and Kate so we talked with the DJ and had about 15 minutes or so before the first dance.

Saturday night was probably one of the coolest DJ's I've worked with. He's a young business man like I am, owns and runs his business himself called Midwest Entertainment. "Personal.Professional.Perfect" is his slogan. J.D. Fisher out of Eau Claire. (www.mymidwestdj.com - 715.563.4748) J.D. was on top of things and I've never seen a DJ so alert to his crowd, he was paying attention to everything. Keep up the good work J.D.

Again, one of my favorite things to photograph is emotion, that's why I do weddings. Seeing Tom and Kate in love, the smiles and laughs are so much fun to photograph capturing that moment in time they can look at forever.

As I mentioned earlier in the post, I was saving a shot of Mom crying for later....It's later :) So much emotion from Mom as she dances with Tom.

After the Father-Daughter/Mother-Son dances, Tom and Kate requested to do a Mother-Father dance a long side of them. It's always nice to see parents dancing and to be able to capture the love in their eyes after being married for so many years reflecting back on their memories from their wedding day.

Congrats to Tom and Kate and Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your day. All of Tom and Kate's images will be posted on my website within a few weeks to view and for purchase. www.JaredLeeLLC.com - Order Images.