The Saint Paul Hotel Wedding of Nick & Brooke
Some the pretty little touches!
Their beautiful wedding day began with Brooke and the girls getting ready at The Saint Paul Hotel and it also concluded there too; with a truly stunning wedding reception, dinner and dance. In between, their actual wedding ceremony was held at Unity Church-Unitarian also in St. Paul.
As I mentioned, the girls got ready that morning at The Saint Paul Hotel in L’toile, the cute, new bridal preparation space there. Mary Jo Maloney and her staff at The Saint Paul Hotel were wonderful all day and all night long, as they always are. Mary Jo is one of the reasons that The Saint Paul Hotel is one of my absolute favorite wedding venues in the Twin Cities! She’s the best!
We also got to work with Sarah Trotter of Lasting Impression Weddings for the first time and she was “on it” all day long. Thank you, Sarah, it was a pleasure to work with you and Joannie & I hope we can do it again real soon!
Nick & Brooke enjoy the pretty gardens at The Saint Paul Hotel.
Once Brooke was ready, she had her first look with her dad. Then moments later with Nick right there in the beautiful gardens in front of The Saint Paul Hotel. Before departing for Unity Church, we spend some quality time with our future newlyweds, just the two of them. It gave us a chance to create some nice, relaxed wedding images before the hustle and bustle of their wedding day set in.
Unity Church Wedding Ceremony
That hustle and bustle part was up next! We arrived at Unity Church with lots of formal wedding photographs to create and a somewhat limited amount of time to create them. As husband & wife wedding photographers for nearly 30 years now, Joannie & I have certainly experienced this many times before, so it was no biggie. But you never know what can happen at a wedding! Fortunately, everything was smooth sailing as everyone we needed was there and on time too.
Nick & Brooke at Unity Church
Now it was almost time for Nick & Brooke to get married! Just before their wedding ceremony, they each exchanged notes with each other. A really cute moment to witness as I actually got to hand deliver their notes!
Their wedding ceremony was presided over by Rev. Susan Lee-Wright of Perfect Day Ceremonies, and she did a marvelous job! She delivered a very personal message, with some humor tossed in there too. Nice!
Upon the announcement that we now had St. Paul’s newest newlyweds, Nick & Brooke headed outside through a storm of bubbles to their limo!
Pretty Wedding Photos In Rice Park
A stop at Rice Park (the Pokemon Capitol of the world) was our next stop. It wasn’t the usual Rice Park, as it was inundated with people playing Pokemon! To the point of “over the top!” So as wedding photographers, it was on to Plan “B.”
Last fall, I created many of Nick & Brooke’s engagement portraits in and around Rice Park and Nick told me that the images we created in front of the James J. Hill Library were some of his favorites, so that’s where we spent most of our pre-reception time. I personally like the library too. It’s a really classy looking building that offers itself as a great posing “prop” with all of the staircases and pillars there.
A little fun at the library!
The Grand Ballroom
Nick & Brooke headed back to for their The Saint Paul Hotel wedding reception to join in on their social hour with all of their friends and family. Meanwhile, Joannie & I set out to photograph the beautiful Grand Ballroom. It was absolutely stunning! Just before the doors opened, we captured this pretty wedding photo of Nick and Brooke right in the middle of it all!
Nick & Brook in the beautiful Grand Ballroom.
Dinner was what we’ve come to expect at a The Saint Paul Hotel wedding. Very beautifully plated and delicious. A really tasty wedding cake from Dorothy Ann’s Bakery topped it all off! Yummy!
Funny toasts, sweet first dances, and a packed dance floor was the ticket for the rest of the evening as everyone celebrated with Nick & Brooke!
Joannie & I always want to produce great wedding photos for our couples, from simple portraits to fun group shots, we always want to use the best posing & lighting that we possibly can. My personal goal at each wedding we photograph is to create at least one “Signature Image” for our brides & grooms. I usually never know what it might be until the wedding day gets going. For Nick & Brooke, I decided early on that Rice Park wasn’t going to be the ticket because of all of the Pokemon players running all over the place.
The World’s Only Light Painting Wedding Photographers
Knowing how much they love The Saint Paul Hotel (me too), I thought that a light painted wedding photograph. Using the historic hotel as the backdrop would be kind of cool. So once the dance was going strong, Joannie and I set up for the light painted wedding photograph. Sarah even helped out making sure I didn’t step on or lose anything in the dark.
We used Brooke’s beautiful long bridal veil, with Joannie holding it up for the light breeze to take hold of it. The resulting pre-light painted wedding image below is a pretty wedding photo for sure, but it’s not quite complete yet. After Nick & Brooke’s part in this, we sent them back inside to have fun with their friends and families.
Pre-light painted nighttime wedding photo of Nick & Brooke.
The creative part of this pretty wedding image came after they left. With Joannie at the tripod, I went around the garden with one of our high powered MoLight V860II-C Speedlights “light painting” with it in the various areas that were too dark to see in the original image. The final image below is the combination of 17 different exposure layers. I blended together in Photoshop to create this one really special light painted wedding photograph!
Light painted nighttime wedding photo of Nick & Brooke.
Nick & Brooke, thank you so much for the honor of being your wedding photographers, you guys are so sweet and your families and friends are awesome! We hope you enjoy these fun wedding photos and the special highlight music video below. See you soon when we start working on a fun wedding album together! – M&J