Check out Part 1
Our First Look
Once Adam and I were ready to go for the day and had taken a couple of solo pictures, it was time for our first look. We decided to see each other before the ceremony because it made sense for us, our timeline, and our personalities. Honestly, Adam has a very calming influence on me – the idea of spending more time with him on our wedding day seemed like a perfect way to relax and enjoy the day (our ceremony wasn’t until 4:30). Another big factor: we love efficiency…and the efficiency of doing all the pictures ahead of time is pretty hard to beat. And another big thing – I cry. Like. A lot. We needed to do our nice pictures before I got all emotional and mush gush during the ceremony.
We did our first look outside in the courtyard across from the inn. This worked out perfectly as it allowed for family members to watch the first look from the windows. It allowed them to be involved, while giving us an intimate moment together. Adam went outside first (brave soul – it was about 25 degrees out). I made my way down with Allie, and my sisters. We crossed the street toward the courtyard with Adam and our paparazi. He had his eyes closed and back towards my direction. We started getting closer and I was just so excited to finally see him. It had been hard keeping all the secrets about my dress, I was excited to officially start our wedding day together.
My plan for the first look was to walk toward him, instead of the usual tap on the shoulder thing you often see. I wanted to emulate walking down the aisle, since he will already have seen me at that point. My sister called out 1….2….3… and Adam opened his eyes. I started laughing and walked toward him, my dress dragging in the snow. I remember thinking “man, I shouldn’t have stood so far away from him! This is a long way to walk.” Finally I reached him and we hugged and kissed. I think it was starting to sink in that we made it to our wedding day.
Despite the cold, we took several pictures at this point while waiting for the limo to show up. It was freeeeeezing, but everyone was really a trooper as we took a couple of different combinations of pictures. I ended up switching into my winter boots, and I must say… those were LIFE SAVERS. They made the day so comfortable and really helped me feel very toasty warm. I LOVED having them. I can’t recommend having warm feet enough if you’re going the winter wedding route.
Eventually we saw a small janky looking bus pull up to the Inn. “How funny, someone else must have an event!” Well… turns out that crazy looking old bus was for us. Dreams of our lovely limo vanished as we all piled into the bus (that also had a bathroom with no door). We were all laughing at the change of plans, and honestly it worked out kind of great having all that space. It wasn’t that nice, but it was spacious. And it gave us something to laugh hysterically about – for some reason that day we all thought it was really funny. Plus, it was a vehicle that was on time so we didn’t even think about fighting it. Not worth it.
We made our way to our one photo location. Initially in the planning stages we wanted to stop by a couple places around downtown Indy. But the more Adam and I discussed it, the more sense it made to stick to one location. It would cut down on wasted time and make for a more stress-free time. It turned out to be a brilliant decision as we had a lovely time, never felt rushed, and still got a variety of pictures.
We chose to have our photos at the downtown library for a few reasons. One, it has a ton of variety – it was renovated and has a really neat old-fashioned looking part and a stark modern area as well. Two, Adam and I are big dorks that love to read. Three, we went on one of our first “dates” at the library for Adam’s med school prom (yes, that is really a thing). Honestly if we had a big budget, we would’ve chosen the library as our venue – it’s just GORGEOUS.
Once we had our fill of the inside library… we realized it was SNOWING. So we just HAD to go outside and capture all that glorious snow. My dream was coming true. Snow on our wedding day. Pinch me!
After about 45 minutes at the library we piled back in our silly bus and made our way to the church. It had just started to snow, so it was a good thing we were making our way. Once we got to the church we did all of our family pictures. We had another 45 minutes or so to do all of the combinations of family members. It ran like clockwork as we spent a lot of time coming up with an order that would be extremely efficient.
Once all the photos were complete I made my way back into the children’s nursery to hide out. At this point I was starting to feel a bit of a headache/light headed. I pounded some water and advil, and ate about 4 cookies from our cookie bar. Hahah, it worked out perfectly :)
I was very surprised how nervous I was getting. It seemed like the morning and photos were all fun and games… and it finally was dawning on me what was happening. I started thinking about all of the people out there and got a little overwhelmed. Honestly these feelings caught me a bit off guard. I perform and am used to doing things in crowds… but for some reason I was just anxious. I sat down in one of the rocking chairs and just tried to calm down/zen out. I think all of the busy-ness of the day and emotions were catching up with me. I was happy that there were no photographers or videographers with me. It was very welcome to just have a bit of time alone. Everyone did a good job of giving me space without me even asking for it. I think having a bit of downtime on such a busy day made for a much more successful rest of the evening.
It reached 4:30 and I knew we were getting close. Due to the snow I knew we’d delay start until 4:35, but no later (we told them to only delay 5 minutes in case of snow). The clock seemed to be counting down incredibly slowly, but quickly at the same time. Eventually I heard the music of our singers start. This was it. Time to go become Adam’s wife.
KELLY! oh my gosh. i love your dress, your hair, and veil! so pretty. also how awesome that adam’s gma sewed the gloves. love the library pics and snow pics. snow on wedding day is so perfect omg. i can’t wait for next part!
Aww thank you so much!! We had such a fun, fun day! So glad you’re enjoying reading about it :)
Lovely photos Kelly, and I too can’t believe it snowed (& major kudos to you both and your bridal party and embracing it, you brave souls!), amazing :) I also think the library is a fabulous choice of venue, that said I am a fellow geek… haha! Can’t wait for the next instalment!
I know, right!?! SNOW! We were so happy, and people were surprisingly brave :) Glad you agree about the library choice… I’m so pumped with how it turned out.
I love your pictures, Kelly, especially with the swirling snow and cute boots!! They are all so elegant and timeless, and both of you look so happy! I had to laugh at the janky bus part, but I’m sure the company made it all worth it. Gorgeous shots!
Yay! I’m so glad you enjoyed it – we had a lot of fun..and really got lucky with the weather! And the bus part turned out to be great with all the snow – and gave us something to laugh about :)
Ahh, I love this so much! The firsts look photos are so sweet, and the ones in the library are amazing! What a great idea! The bus thing is hilarious; I feel like everyone has one thing that goes not-quite-right on their wedding day, and that’s the perfect thing to go wrong because it’s not a huge deal in the grand scheme of things, and very funny :-D
I’m so glad you enjoyed!! It’s so fun sort of re-living the day through these posts. And you’re right.. the bus thing was perfect. It was just hilarious and kept us laughing and stress free :)
oh, such a special post with such wonderful photos! x
thanks so much!! :)
I can’t take this..it’s so cute..overload!! I HATE the snow, but OH MY GOSH it was gorgeous for these photos!! Way to tough it out because the photos are phenomenal. I love the boots!!
Haha and agreed… it’s amazing how beautiful snow looks in pictures and what a pain it can be in real life! Hahah. But yes… super happy with how it turned out in the pictures :)
Ahhh I am getting chills reading your wedding posts!! I LOVE how you’re taking us through the entire day. Thanks for sharing!
Aww I’m so glad you’re enjoying!! It’s definitely fun getting to relive the day :) Can’t wait to hear about YOUR day soon!! ;)
Your pictures are gorgeous! Way to rock the snow! Looks like such a special day!
Thank you so much!! :) It turned out so great!
Goodness gracious, you are just exquisite my dear! You both are radiating such joy and love and I’m a total stranger! So if I sense it, I can’t imagine how wonderful you both felt on this very special day. Thank you so much for putting pictures so I can gawk at how stunning you are. I’ll say it again (don’t hate me) but you are the most classically beautiful person I have ever seen! <3 As in, that natural, famous looking kind of beauty. :) Congratulations again on tying the knot, you gorgeous couple you!
PS I'll be in Nashville running the rock n roll in April, we should meet up! :)
Aww thank you lady! :) So glad you enjoyed them!! And you are just crazy kind, too sweet. And know that I have this strange thing that I actually look better in pictures – so don’t be shocked when you see me in Nashville hahah!! You won’t recognize me! When is that race?
Love all the pictures … you looked GORGEOUS!! :-)
Thank you so much! :)
Such amazing photos full of love and beauty! And I love that your family could watch the first look from a distance!
The library location is utterly romantic, as is the beautiful snow!
It sounds like such a dream day so far- can’t wait to read and see more!!
Glad you’re loving it! I’m having fun writing it!! And it was so great that our families could be so involved – it really made it lovely.
Oh my… I just LOVE the picture of you both under the veil….. i have seen that done before and sometimes it just doesn’t work — but it works for you! your photographer is super talented.
I love the first look…. we are not doing the first look, so our first look will be when those church doors open up… undoubedly tears will happen.
I also love that you hid out in the children’s nursery prior to walking down the aisle. !