Small and Chic in Cville: From Weddingbee: Wedding Portraits

I've been dragging my feet when it comes to posting our wedding portraits because this part of our day was disappointing. Who am I kidding? This part sucked. When we planned a vineyard wedding, at a vineyard that was built overlooking land that had meaning to us, we imagined taking pictures among the vines with the Blue Ridge Mountains behind us. Because of the storm that came through the area in the hours leading up to our ceremony, I spent our portrait sessions pretty much standing in the same spot, holding my dress up so it didn't get soaked.

At one point while we were taking portraits, the rain started to fall again. Thank goodness Jeanne Cusick of Cville Makeup stuck around because my hair was looking terrible by the end of our pre-ceremony portrait session. Not that I cared. The rain had changed everything, but I just wasn't going to freak out about the details any more. I honestly just wanted to get married and was in a tunnel by this point.

Looking back, the two images below make me laugh because they show my bridesmaids holding their bouquets up high and then dropping the bouquets down. Oddly, holding a bouquet low is something that I was told to do when I had a modeling gig as a child and I've never forgotten it.

Bouquets high

Bouquets low

Did you notice that we're missing someone? Our third groomsman, who was carpooling with others, was a little late. Apparently, some people didn't think the timeline that our DOC Amanda Gray put together was really serious about taking pictures at 3:30 PM when the ceremony was at 5:30 PM. Luckily, everyone showed up soon after we took those pictures and Marc got to pose with the guys while I was back in the bridal loft getting my hair fixed.

DJ Best Man, Marc, GM Luke Groomswalker, and GM Blue

I think the pictures of us with our niece and nephews are my favorites from the whole day. I love these kids so much and I wish I could scoop them up in hugs right now.

The boys loved the flags and boutonnieres I made for them.

Mini Mink with her corsage

We knew there would be a game time decision about whether my youngest nephew would be walking down the aisle. He was a little overwhelmed by all the activity and stayed perched on my brother's arm for the afternoon.

By the way, my sister-in-law had my newest nephew this past September. I happened to be in Boston on a business trip when he was born and got to hold him when he was less than 24 hours old. I can't wait to show him that he was at our wedding.

My mom looked beautiful. Unfortunately, Pippin Hill has a drainage issue to work out and the little road at that led from the parking lot to the venue had a pool of water at the bottom. Marc ran to carry over over the pool when she arrived, but she decided to walk through the grass before he got to her. The bottom of her dress was soaked in our pictures. I still think her dress was stunning and it dried out by ceremony time.

And in the close up pictures of me with my parents, you'd never know they were a little water logged.

The pictures of us with Baxter are some of our favorites. Having a dog at a wedding isn't for everyone, but we loved having our golden retriever make a brief appearance during the ceremony.

So there you have our not-so-perfect portrait sessions. I often say that perfect is boring, but I was hoping our portraits would be a little closer to perfection. By the time we were done with post-ceremony pictures, Marc and I were more than ready to get the party started.

All images by Elisa B Photography