There are so many things I could tell you about this destination wedding at Indian Bear Lodge.

I could tell you that this was one of the neatest destination weddings that I have ever seen – right in our own backyard!

I could tell you that this couple is from Alaska by way of Michigan and family and friends came from ALL over the country to stay here and celebrate their marriage.

I could tell you how touching it is to see a couple so in love make the vows to hold them fast to one another for the rest of their lives.

I could tell you how I teared up during the ceremony when readers read love notes that the couple had wrote to one another over the years of their relationship.

I could tell you how much love was in the reception tent for this couple, so much so that you could physically FEEL the love for this couple.

I could tell you how huge my grin was when leaving the job knowing that it was a job well done.

I could tell you about the insane rain the day of the wedding. The rain that let up just as the ceremony began to come pouring down by the end… and the ceremony was outside.

I could tell you about the mud that was inside the reception tent making the reception soggy and wet and leaving people ditching stilettos for rain boots.

I could tell you about the candlelit reception that was due to the rain shorting out the lights in the tent making taking pictures in the dark a challenge.

I could tell you about how my husband whom was my second shooter for this wedding saved the reception because he is all kinds of awesome.

I could tell you that this wedding is the reason you need to hire a professional photographer because if I didn’t know my gear inside and out, I wouldn’t have many images from this wedding.

Instead, I am going to let the groom tell you what he thought when he saw the pictures, because hearing from clients is always better than hearing from me.

There is more that I want to say than I’ll have time to right now. We made an entire event of looking at the pictures last night, cracked a couple of trappist beers, and we didn’t even get through all of them. All I kept wanting to say was “THIS is why we hired Corey.” Bethany is thrilled and showering me with credit for finding you. There were countless great ones, and a number of them that totally blew us away. That’s why we couldn’t get through them. We just had to stop and stare for a while. We could spend weeks, and probably will.

So many things “went wrong” that night. The rain, mud, power shorting out… we almost didn’t have a way to even play the music for the weekend, but someone problem-shot that one on Friday for us too. There were a lot of coincidences and collaborative efforts that saved us from ever getting too stressed out. And anyway, it wouldn’t be our style if things went flawlessly. Every dramatic or climactic moment in our relationship’s history has had some awkward or funny thing happen to mess it all up. The fates never let us take ourselves too seriously. That was why, on Sept. 26 2008, I decided to propose while we were getting dumped on in the middle of a 20-mile day on the Appalachian Trial. It was not a scenic spot or at a break in the weather. We were exhausted and soaked. But we had a bounce to our step for the rest of the day after that.

All the crazy details aside, we had as much fun as I can ever remember having, and you captured that. Thank you for giving us the ability to relive it with these beautiful pictures.

Vendors
Ceremony/Reception/Catering: Indian Bear Lodge

Bethany about to get her hair done.

While they were putting the finishing touches on Bethany’s hair, I ran down to see how the guys were doing just in time for the pre-ceremony scotch toasts.

The girls doing their pre-ceremony toasts with mudslides.

Bethany’s Sister in Law reads one of the letters that Bethany and Lee had wrote to each other while the rain starts to fall more heavily.

I love their expressions here!

Since there is no 26 ball we went with Bethany’s favorite number… 13!

The Best Man’s toast was both amusing and heartwrenching.

However it was the Maid of Honor’s speech that blew me away. Wow.

The first dance is always one of my favorite times to shoot.

Cutting in on Grandma “Gettin’ Jiggy With It” with her son.

This picture makes me smile EVERY time I see it!

Bethany and Lee did SMORES instead of cake! How awesome is this? Even MORE awesome was the Maid of Honor making me one too!! 🙂 More couples should do this…. hint hint!

YUM!

At the end of the night the rain let up just enough to get a fire started so we ran down to get a few shots just before the skies opened up again.

Thanks to both of you for choosing me to be with you the day of your wedding!