Patrick and Brittany’s Semple Mansion wedding photos
Joannie and I had the extreme pleasure of being Patrick and Brittany’s wedding photographers at their truly beautiful Semple Mansion wedding on October 25th.
These two are such a cute couple. They remind me of Joannie and myself! Among their many great qualities, they really love each other, love to have fun, love the North Shore of Lake Superior and have super nice families and friends. They are the perfect wedding couple.
Engagement Portraits on Lake Superior
Speaking of the North Shore of Lake Superior; these two made the trek for our 2014 North Shore Portrait Weekend and we had a blast with them creating their beautiful engagement portraits!
On Patrick and Brittany’s wedding day, Joannie and I had the honor of working side by side with the very talented Brad Rich of A.B. Rich Films. Joannie and I met Brad at a wedding last year and we fell in love with his talent and hard work. This guy brings almost as much equipment to a wedding as we do! And just like us, he uses all of it and he knows how to use it all too. That’s why he’s one of our featured Wedding Vendors on our “The Best Wedding Vendors” page on our website. We look forward to seeing his talents shine from Patrick and Brittany’s incredible wedding day at the Semple Mansion.
Like Brad, Joannie and I arrived early and we got to work right away with all of the cute wedding accessories that Brittany and the girls had for her wedding day. Shoes (quite a lot of them actually), their wedding rings, garter, special hangers with everyone’s names on them, Brittany’s cute wedding veil and of course the girls dresses too!
The Bridal Suite
After we got done “playing” with all of Brittany’s pretty wedding details, it was time for some images of everyone getting ready. The girls in the Bridal Suite on the third floor and the boys down in the Billiard Room on the lower level. There was certainly lots of fun and lots of emotions going on in these two locations and throughout the whole wedding day as well! As you’ll see in their wedding photography highlight video, these two and pretty much all of their family members are an emotional group, to say the least, the even got Joannie crying and me teared up too at one of their three first looks!
The First Look(s)
Yes, three first looks! You heard that right! While Joannie and I were bouncing around the Semple Mansion while everyone was getting ready, I had the feeling that it would be a good idea to let dad have a first look, but not to tell Brittany. So that’s what we did!
What I didn’t plan though, was Brittany’s mom having a first look with Brittany’s dad before the first look with his daughter! It just sort of happened as we were getting dad ready to see his pretty daughter in the main ballroom upstairs. It was a really cute and very special moment that none of us will forget.
Once that took place, dad then got to see his daughter in yet another fun and emotional first look. All the while, poor Patrick was waiting in the wings to see his beautiful bride.
Well, what happened next. As you can see by the image above, Patrick and Brittany had their first look on the beautiful Grand Staircase at the Semple Mansion. It was really fun to witness and photograph while mom, dad, and the bridesmaids watched (and cried) from upstairs.
Great Wedding Photos
Well now that everyone was looking great and all dressed up in their wedding best, it was time to take some wedding photographs! And that we did. Starting right there on the Grand Staircase and then moving down to the first floor with family and wedding party portraits right where the wedding ceremony would happen just a bit later in the wedding day.
After all of the formal wedding photos, there was a short memorial service to remember family and friends that were there in spirit, including Patrick’s mother. It was a very touching moment and I’ll always remember it because it was done so well. I took just one photograph to capture the moment. Very sweet.
By this time, wedding guests were going to be arriving soon, so it was time to hide the bride! On her way up the Grand Staircase, we took a few minutes to capture more beautiful Semple Mansion wedding photos like the one above. Brittany was now sporting the eight-foot wedding dress train that she would be wearing for the wedding ceremony. Just when you thought that things couldn’t get any better. We even had Patrick sneak in a few wedding images before they both went into hiding.
Also shortly before the wedding ceremony, Joannie and I met Patrick and Brittany for some cool wedding photos in the wine cellar downstairs while their guests were arriving upstairs. Nice.
We have a lot more Semple Mansion wedding photos as we continue with the reason we were all there in the first place; their wedding ceremony!
The Grand Staircase
It was a wonderful ceremony with lots of nice touches, including Brittany’s entrance down the Grand Staircase to meet her father during the processional and two wedding readings by two really cute (and fun) grandmothers!
Well, by now you’ve probably guessed that this was a really big wedding day coverage for Joannie and me! So big in fact, that we’ll be doing our wedding highlight video in two parts! Part One concludes with our newlyweds coming down the aisle as husband and wife! Sweet!
Watch for Part Two in the days ahead. It will have lots of fun wedding reception, dinner and dance highlights as well as a few images at the gift opening held at The Depot in downtown Minneapolis, MN. Told you it was a big wedding day. It didn’t even fit into one day!
Thank you, Patrick and Brittany, for a really awesome wedding day experience that Joannie and I will never forget. Enjoy Part One with much more to come!