Sam and Emily were married today!
How to describe Sam and Emily? Loving, generous, all smiles, welcoming, hillarious, bright, caring. Yeah, that's right, I'm officially a mushball. This is what happens when I blog the night of a wedding! And how could I not be after hearing heartfelt speeches from family and friends, watching a mother wipe away her son's tears as they dance, and witness a couple so in love they can't stop smiling at each other?
Sam and Emily wanted a crisp "non-weddingy" look to their day. Ashley Fox Designs hit a home run with her mod floral creations. I love how she took the clean green and white color palette and created sculptural arrangements full of texture. As a little extra element, while the wedding party wore green, the groom wore a blue tie and the bride had on sparkly blue shoes!
The ceremony took place at the Indigo Room in Red Wing. It was full of personal touches, from their dear friend who officiated the ceremony to "a poem about physics and passion, about love and mathematics". Did I mention that both Sam and Emily have their doctoral degrees? Yeah, they're smart, too =)
After the ceremony, the guests enjoyed rooftop cocktails and hors d'oeuvres while the family and wedding party piled into a Red Wing Trolley to drive around and take pictures. The "must have" picture of the day? A shot of them kissing by the Big Red Wing Boot.
Catering by Dani provided a delicious dinner, and then the guests journied over to the St. James Hotel for dancing, cake and cocktails. The green and white theme carried over to the new location with green wheat centerpieces, small trees placed around the room, lime twists in the champagne flutes, and green stickers on the favors, which were bottles of hand mixed herbs.
The Summit Room at the St. James has a breathtaking view of the river, and we arrived just in time to watch a gorgeous sunset. And to top that off, Sam's dad surprised us all with a fireworks display! Bellagala then started the dance and all craziness broke out when the 80's music began. We were also treated to a pretty accurate performance of "Single Ladies" and a few Lady Gaga songs, and all of the boys snuck away to draw mustaches on themselves (it is an inside joke that even made it into Sam and Emily's homily that day!). It was very hard to leave this reception, John and I were having such a grand time capturing the moments!
Sam and Emily, we can't thank you enough for choosing us to be your photographers. Here are our favorite images, enjoy!
