Buddy & Diana’s Crown of Life Lutheran Church wedding in West St. Paul, Minnesota!
Buddy & Diana kissing by a pretty pond at Southview Country Club.
A little background on Buddy & Diana and their Crown of Life Lutheran Church wedding. Joannie and I have known Buddy since he was born! Buddy’s dad, Bob, was one of my best men at our wedding (Buddy’s mom Laurie was at our destination wedding too). Buddy’s dad is also the Godfather of our daughter Michelle and I am the Godfather of their oldest daughter Melissa too!
All weddings are pretty special to us as Minneapolis wedding photographers, but some of them have very personal ties too! This was definitely one of those weddings for us. Very fun!
The Wedding Day Begins
Their wedding highlight video begins with everyone getting ready for the big day. There’s some silliness going on here and there and that’s always a good thing at a wedding as it keeps everyone relaxed and calm.
Buddy’s first look at his pretty bride follows and it was a very nice moment for the two of them. Right after that, there’s a photo of Buddy and his dad holding grandpa Leo’s pocket watch in his memory.
At the conclusion of their first look, Joannie and I took the two of them outside for a few minutes while the wedding party finished getting ready.
As wedding photographers, this was our first Crown of Life Lutheran Church wedding and so we had arrived earlier than normal to “scout out” the neighborhood for nice places to take their wedding photographs. Turns out that an outstanding location was about 40 feet from the back doors (see below) for their Crown of Life Lutheran Church wedding!
Hard to believe there are a driveway and parking lot about 30 feet behind everybody isn’t it? Pretty doggone beautiful I’d say!
Diana and the groomsmen right outside the back door at Crown of Life Lutheran Church.
Buddy and the bridesmaids in the “backyard” at Crown of Life Lutheran Church.
Hot and Humid
The weather last Saturday was pretty hot and very humid, so Joannie & I tried to keep everyone (and the flowers) in the air conditioning whenever we could. The flowers especially as we’ve experienced “wilted” flowers in the summer heat too many times in the past. Thankfully there was a little breeze now and then to keep us humans more comfortable.
We took tons of great wedding photos in this really pretty surprise location. Buddy and Diana, the bridesmaids, the groomsmen, the whole crew, individual images of Buddy with each groomsman and each bridesmaid with Diana and lots of fun candids too. There’s even a cameo of yours truly mixed in there!
The whole time we used a fair amount of supplemental lighting to get great light into everyone’s eyes and balance with the background lighting.
There’s even a fun series of wedding photos with Buddy’s sisters “putting him up for sale”! You can read more about the cute story behind that right here.
We concluded our outdoor wedding photo session and moved inside to do all of the family portraits and a few formal wedding party photos in the nice air-conditioned church.
Crown of Life Lutheran Church Wedding Ceremony
Then it was time for Buddy & Diana to have their Crown of Life Lutheran Church wedding! And it was a very pretty wedding too! A little laughter and a few tears mixed in, just the way it’s supposed to be. Nice!
Time to party & celebrate! We’re off to the beautiful Southview Country Club for the wedding reception, dinner, and dancing!
First stop when the wedding party arrived at Southview Country Club was to get some great wedding party photographs at this really wonderful wedding venue. You don’t have to look very far at Southview Country Club as it’s pretty everywhere you look. We concentrated on the first hole and the beautiful pond that intimidates golfers from the tee box. The first image in this blog post was taken at Southview Country Club as well.
Buddy & Diana’s wedding party at Southview Country Club.
These guys are not afraid to have a little fun and maybe even a drink or two. They were pretty much on “auto-pilot” in the posing department which is a fun way to get real expressions and I think we accomplished just that!
Buddy & Diana at Southview Country Club.
Southview Country Club Wedding Photos
We cut the wedding party loose so we could spend some time with just Buddy & Diana and capture some pretty wedding photographs of the two of them. The casual wedding photo above is just one example of just how beautiful Southview Country Club is.
After dinner and their first dances, we took Buddy & Diana outside one more time for just a few minutes to enjoy the sunset and took advantage of the “sweet light” that time of day offers us for great wedding photography. We captured the pretty sunset wedding photograph below and the cute, casual wedding photo that follows right at sunset.
Buddy & Diana at sunset on the 18th hole at Southview Country Club.
Buddy & Diana, thank you for entrusting us to be your wedding photographers. We hope you’re enjoying these “teaser” wedding photos and the highlight music video too (pretty sure you will). We totally enjoyed spending your wedding day with you and we look forward to showing you all of the fun images we captured throughout your special day and creating a beautiful wedding album for you to cherish forever!
Buddy & Diana enjoying the sunset at Southview Country Club.
Thank you very much and we’ll see you again real soon!