Noelle and Thomas’s relaxed, happy wedding
Today I get to share a wedding with you that was super special for me to photograph because the bride is a dear friend of mine!! I was friends with Noelle throughout college, and we were even roommates senior year. She is so lovely, sweet, thoughtful, and creative (and Thomas is a wonderful person as well)!
Noelle and Thomas met back in college and reconnected after graduation. There was a spark, and they began to date! For a while, Noelle and Thomas were dating long-distance as they lived in different states. They were able to spend more time together during the pandemic when Thomas was able to work remotely. Noelle and Thomas have a really fun and kind relationship -- there’s a lot of delightful quirkiness, drinking tea, and playing mystery board games together.
When they were planning to get married, it felt really natural to them to come back to southern Minnesota where they met (and where Noelle is from originally!). Valley Grove Preservation Society in Nerstrand, MN consists of two historic churches that are just steps away from each other surrounded by a beautifully restored oak savanna. Noelle and Thomas immediately fell in love with the historic setting and the magical landscape when they first saw it and knew it would make a unique venue for their wedding day.
From the beginning of my time working with them, Thomas and Noelle talked about how much they wanted their day to feel comfortable and relaxed. They were happy to skip traditions that didn’t feel authentic to them in lieu of more spontaneous, lighthearted moments. They couldn’t wait to gather their loved ones, eat incredible food, and have a really easygoing, fun day together.
Noelle and Thomas’s wedding day
Tyler (my second shooter and partner) and I arrived at the venue a few minutes before Noelle and Thomas to scope out the space and settle in, and then we arranged a first look for them. Noelle and Thomas enjoyed a sweet, simple first look in some beautiful fields, and then we adventured around their venue to take portraits of them together. They hadn’t done an engagement session so we wanted to make sure to take some really amazing portraits that they could cherish in the years to come, and this was a perfect setting for it!
There was so much beautiful nature to feature in the background of Noelle and Thomas’s portraits! There happens to be a small cemetery on the Valley Grove premise as well, and Noelle and Thomas thought it’d be unique to get a few pictures in front of it (appealing to their slightly wry senses of humor)! There were amazing flowers blooming throughout the fields -- purple asters, bright red sumac -- and they added really vibrant, autumnal vibes to the portraits.
We moved into some wedding party pictures next. Noelle and Thomas had a small wedding party consisting of two people on each side and a flower girl (who was SO cute -- whenever I asked her to step aside so that I could take pictures of other people, she’d come stand next to me and make funny faces at the people I was photographing!). We took some of these pictures by the stone church and others in the fields. I also took a few pictures of Noelle and Thomas with their families. The whole pre-ceremony portion of their wedding day felt really laid-back, happy, and relaxed.
Noelle and Thomas took a quick pause before the ceremony, while I took pictures of the guests arriving and of the ceremony space, which was filled with flowers that Noelle and Thomas had arranged themselves! I also had a sweet chat with Noelle’s grandfather, who’d been a professional photographer for decades. When everyone was seated, we flowed into the wedding ceremony in the white church.
One of Noelle’s close friends from college (and another roommate of mine!), Rachel, officiated the wedding. It was so special to hear Rachel share stories about Noelle and Thomas as a couple. At the end of their ceremony, Noelle and Thomas ran up to the bell tower to ring the bell, which is a special tradition that the church has!
Noelle and Thomas had a receiving line to greet everyone as they receded out of the church. Everyone milled around outside enjoying the beautiful setting until it was time to begin the reception in the stone church.
Noelle and Thomas had decorated the stone church with flowers and little jars of tea that served as both place cards and favors. It was so fun to see their family and friends from different parts of their lives getting to know each other! They had a long, relaxing dinner, and some people chose to picnic outside for extra covid safety. People wove in and out of the stone church and the beautiful grounds outside throughout the evening, and it felt really fun and relaxed.
Noelle, Thomas, and I snuck out to get some dusk pictures; it’d been cloudy all day, and there was the perfect amount of ambient light to illuminate the fall colors and the fields behind them. I got some romantic, special-feeling portraits of them as they took a moment to soak in their wedding day together.
A couple of Noelle’s sisters and Thomas’s close friends gave really sweet toasts toward the end of the night. Everyone listened and laughed together, enjoying the rest of this special day.
Noelle and Thomas, it was such an honor to get to photograph your wedding after knowing you since college! You have such a loving, fun, and kind relationship, and it was so special to document your wedding day. Thank you so much for trusting me -- I am so grateful that we got the chance to work together!