Matthew Nigel Photography

So Pinterest has gotten really popular these days, especially with brides it seems like. Lots of the time they say to themselves, “I want to try to make this for my wedding!”, and they do. They try a few things, and usually they turn out just fine.

I think Helen tried every single wedding related idea on Pinterest.

Ok not really, but wow did she work hard on this wedding. 9 months of planning and Pinteresting (is that a word?) details for this special day. She told me that all of the burnt and cut fingers from crafting so much were worth it, and I couldn’t agree with her more. It seemed that every time you turned around at this venue there was another detail that you didn’t see before. Each of them so well thought out and executed amazingly. I’ve never been so excited to shoot details at a wedding before, but seeing her posts on FaceBook and Instagram, (I couldn’t look at her Pinterest, it was too overwhelming for me, she has thousands of pins) I knew it was going to be a beautiful wedding. And beautiful it was. The venue is called Pageo Lavender Farms, which in itself is a nice location. They have some old cars, nice buildings, a silo, plenty of trees, all things that would make a lovely wedding. Add in all of Helen’s hard work and wow, it could be my favorite venue so far.

Matt and Helen are great couple. They’re both athletic, strong Christians, have wonderful families, and I swear they both have perfect smiles (which makes my job very pleasant). Some of the most special moments of the day, I thought, were during the toasts by Helen and Matt’s dads, and the best man/maid of honor. Each of these toasts was very special and touching. One in particular was the toast by Matt’s dad, Dane. Dane is a pastor at a church that I used to go to, and I’ve known him for years.

Dane is a man’s man.

He is tough and very smart. He runs a bible study for men at the crack of dawn, and he is always there to give a helping hand to someone in need. I loved hearing Dane preach over the years. He’s a very gifted public speaker, and you can tell that he loves Jesus and the people at his church a whole lot. Well during his toast at Matt and Helen’s wedding, I saw a different side of Dane, one that I will never forget. I could see his hands shaking a bit, he seemed nervous, and he gave one of the most touching toasts I’ve heard. Matt fought as hard as he could to keep the tears out of his eyes, but no one else did, including myself.

Overall this wedding was without a doubt one of my favorites. From all the details, to the amazing families (which included a flyover by Helen’s brother and uncle), there was such a sense of love and friendship in the air, and even though most of us had to drive 5 hours or more, and it was very very hot during the day, no one cared. Weddings are supposed to be happy events, where people who love each other come together to celebrate the unity of two people. Sometimes weddings are spoiled by families fighting, people drinking too much, and all kinds of negative things. Well none of those were found on this day. The only thing I could find was love, and it was all over the place.