We met Alyse on Saturday afternoon at a Starbucks in Macomb. She was referred to us by a fellow professional Metro Detroit engagement photographer, and we were excited to hear all about her upcoming October 2018 wedding in Fenton.
As we were driving up, we giggled that her venue, the Vale Royal Barn, looked stunning, and, if she liked rustic and country, we were her perfect professional photography team. You see, Courtney is a fourth generation farmer. Her family property is home to many heads of cattle, a bunch of horses, and acres of land for their hay company. And I (Megan) am what I like to refer to as a “wanna-be farmer.” Meaning, my husband and I watched far too many homesteading type shows, and when we moved back to Michigan a couple years ago, made it a point to buy a home on 10 acres so we could grow our current “hobby farm.” Needless to say, Courtney and I love the Michigan countryside, and barn weddings will always hold a special place in our hearts.
We immediately clicked with Alyse, and were laughing the entire time. That night, after going home and talking with her fiance Paul, she booked us for her Fenton wedding. She had mentioned during our meetup that she loved barns, and farm animals, and would love to have her engagement session on a farm. Luckily, we happen to know some great places to go for that. Paul and Alyse were gracious enough to make the trek up to the Port Huron area to Courtney’s family property, and spend the very next day with us outside in the cold for their engagement photo session. It wasn’t your typical engagement session. It involved herding cows, laughing at too-curious horses, and lots of breaks to warm up from the 20 degree weather. But it was perfect. We loved the magical element that the snow brought to the photos. We loved their quirky and hysterical love. And we cannot wait until their wedding in October where we will be their Metro Detroit wedding photographer team.
If you’re in the market for a Metro Detroit Engagement Photographer, we would love to connect with you. We promise, we love fun engagement sessions, and want them to be the perfect experience for each individual couple and your unique love story. To see more engagement photos, make sure to swing by our engagement photo gallery.
To say that we go to a lot of weddings every year is an under-statement. Mulberry & Sage Photography loves seeing all our couple’s hard work and dedication come to fruition right in front of our eyes, and we especially love being able to document it so that all those memories are preserved, and will live forever in photos. With the New Year quickly approaching, we thought it would be a fun addition to put together some of our favorite top wedding trends of 2017 that we saw over the past 12 months. Stay tuned, as well, because we have some predictions of what you’re going to see lots more of in the upcoming year, too.
Floral Crowns:
Once again, we cannot resist a good floral crown, and Dani went all out and fully delivered this love by incorporating them into her wedding day with her entire bridal party. The deep red hues mixed with the sage greens were the perfect combination with her rose gold theme, and all the details were seriously stunning. Her September wedding happened at Ruby Lodge Rental and it was the ideal venue for her ultra glam meets rustic wedding theme.
Gillian and Charlie met while they were in college at Michigan State University. Gillian is from the Port Huron area, and comes from a long line of sailors. She has her own sail boat, in fact, and her childhood home is located on the Black River. Her family has a long history of sea-legs, so her custom and personalized nautical wedding theme was the obvious choice for them. As luck had it, the MSU themed tug boat was also docked in downtown Port Huron that day, too, so we were able to take some photos with that. We pulled together some of her detail shots at her mom’s house, and used an antique model sailboat that is a family heirloom for her ring photos, and placed her jewelry on top of a book that her Grandfather wrote titled The Cann Boats. During their ceremony, they literally tied a sailor’s knot, to symbolize their union, and the strength of it.
One of the coolest portrait locations we’ve ever done was being granted exclusive access to go onto the Spartan Stadium field at Michigan State University to do Lauren and Brennan’s portrait session with their bridal party. They didn’t get the official clearance until about six days before their wedding, and they purposely didn’t tell their bridal party, because they knew it would be such a grand surprise for everyone. (We were privy to the secret beforehand, though!) Their wedding ceremony was on campus at the Alumni Chapel, so we all piled into the party bus and drove to the stadium. Everyone looked confused, and then Lauren made the big announcement and the bus erupted in hoots and hollers of excitement. Everyone’s face when they walked onto the field was priceless, and it was a spectacular location and experience for our last wedding of 2017. It went out with a bang!
While Hannah comes from a huge family, both her and her husband Devin cherish their intimate time together, just the two of them. Between their Lexington wedding ceremony and reception, we sneaked away to a private little beach and took some portraits of just the two of them, and they were so natural together. It was so laid-back and sweet, and it was great to watch them hang out together, and relax for a while before heading to their reception room full of family and friends waiting to celebrate with them.
To see more photos from Hannah & Devin’s Lexington wedding, check it out here.
Traditional Ceremonies & Portraits:
Ann and Brian’s Catholic faith is very special to them, and their Royal Oak wedding at National Shrine of the Little Flower Basilica was gorgeous. They had a special relationship with their priest who married them, and the full mass ceremony was chock full of funny little glimpses into their relationship together, as well as with their priest. He was the first person to stand up at their reception to tell a funny story of the couple. We took lots of photos inside in the chapel, and then headed down the road to the stunning St. Hugo on the Hill for some additional photos on the grounds. The architecture both inside and outside of these historical Catholic churches is gorgeous, so we had to include them into this round-up, for those brides that love tradition and history.
Beth and Mark are like a real life, modern day Brady Bunch family. They each have 3 children of their own, who were ecstatic to take place in the marriage of their parent and their new “bonus parent.” All three of us got to come in and photograph their wedding day, and we loved breaking up and watching different family dynamics come to life before our lenses. Their children comprised 100% of their bridal party; Mark’s kids stood on his side, and Beth’s on hers. And, when it came to the reception time, the kids gave speeches and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. They also had a sand ceremony, signifying the joining and mixing of their families. Their wedding and reception took place at the McMorran Place in Port Huron, because ice hockey holds a special place in their hearts.
Kat contacted Mulberry & Sage Photography exactly 8 days before her spur-of-the-moment destination elopement, and everything seemed to line up perfectly in the cards for us to photograph their backyard elopement. They wanted to elope and get married in Lexington, because they both love the area and it holds special meaning in Kat’s heart, as she used to spend her summers there. They both live in Western Michigan now, so having their wedding over here was a special destination for them. Their backyard elopement was so sweet and touching, and their love for each other was the main focal point of the entire evening.
Amanda and Lance planned a fall wedding at the chapel in Goodells County Park, and really wanted to utilize bright and cheerful colors that went with their country-rustic theme. The guys all wore cammo vests, and the entire bridal party sported their best pair of cowboy boots. The real kicker though, is that on this particular day in September, it was seriously nearly 95 degrees outside. Everyone gets a gold star covered merit badge for putting on a happy face, and going along with outdoor photos, despite the intense heat.
They say that close friends turn into family, and that was really the theme that we saw shine through at Ashlee and David’s wedding last summer. Ashlee’s bridal party was full of friends, as well as some siblings in the mix, but everyone was so close-knit and tight with each other, you couldn’t exactly tell who was related through blood, and who wasn’t. Which, come to think of it, kind of marks the best kind of friendships, right? David’s groomsmen were the same way; his best man even jumped in on some of the family portraits and everyone kind of just laughed, because that is really nothing new or different. The bromance game was strong, there.
As you know, Mulberry & Sage Photography is a wedding photography team located in Eastern Michigan. While we were compiling our lists, we couldn’t possibly narrow our weddings from 2017 down any more, so we will be putting together a part two post of Top Wedding Trends of 2017, made up of Courtney’s top picks that she saw at the weddings that she photographed over the past year. Then, as mentioned before, we’ll be back in January with some bold predictions of what we think is to come in 2018. We hope you enjoyed this small preview into what (half) of our 2017 looked it, and the happy couples that chose us to document their special day. If you’re in the market for a wedding photographer team in Michigan, we’d love to chat.
As a wedding photographer, many times we are able to collaborate with other local photographers and work alongside them as a “second” photographer for the wedding they booked. A few of our Mulberry & Sage Photography brides may remember Serena from Little Anchor Photo, as she sometimes works with Megan on popular wedding dates where Courtney & Kathryn have other commitments. She had Megan come along with her for a couple weddings last season, to act as her right-hand-(wo)man and since they are such stunning weddings, we couldn’t help sharing some of our favorite images that we took while working as a Macomb County Wedding Photographer.
Today’s blog spotlight is the wedding of Leah and Nick. They were the sweetest couple who met ages ago, because they grew up (literally) across the street from one another. One of their earliest date memories is walking down the street to the 7-11 and getting Slurpees. In fact, over time, they became Slurpee-regulars, and so incorporating that into their portrait session time was important for both of them. Their wedding took place in a tiny little church in Macomb, and then their reception was in a stunning big red wedding barn out in the country, which, sadly, was forced to shut down due to city ordinances. (Which is SUCH a bummer, because it is seriously gorgeous.)
Their reception was full of tiny little details to make their guests feel welcome and loved. They had a popcorn and S’mores bar set up during cocktail hour, and we loved their wildflower seed guest gifts, and how it went along with the rustic-chic theme perfectly. The deep red hues and eucalyptus and sage greenery went perfectly with the big red barns, and it was a beautiful day outdoors, full of laughter and love for the young couple.
We hope you enjoy this small preview into Nick & Leah’s day where we worked with Serena to be their Macomb County Wedding Photographer. If you’re in the market for a wedding photographer team, we’d love to chat with you.
Last weekend, we got the amazing opportunity to be Lauren and Brennan’s East Lansing Wedding Photographer team for the day. Lauren contacted us back in March and reserved her late fall date with us to capture her wedding at Michigan State University, and we knew right away that it was going to be great, but we didn’t know just *how* great it would turn out. It’s our last wedding for the 2017 season, and it ended with a total bang.
We arrived in East Lansing and were able to spend the morning watching the girls get transformed by their amazing glam squad, and take some fun bridesmaids photos in their cute matching robes. We loved that, even from the beginning, every single detail was planned out, from the customized and sentimental (yet humorous) hankies, to the gifts that the bride and groom gave each other that were unique and personalized to their soon-to-be-life-partner. Brennan gifted Lauren a beautiful pair of pearl earrings that matched her necklace perfectly, and Lauren gave Brennan a personalized beer mug, and a watch. We loved seeing the sweet emotion from Lauren when she read the card that Brennan wrote. In fact, there were emotions everywhere, and it was awesome. Her Dad cried when he saw her for the first time, as well as walking her down the aisle. Her bridesmaids were dabbing tears all day. It was seriously beautiful to witness, as well as photograph.
Lauren and Brennan were married (with Brennan’s grandfather as the officiant) at the Alumni Chapel on the Michigan State University campus. It was a sentimental ceremony, and was jam packed with people that, you could tell, adored them both. Afterwards, Brennan and Lauren surprised their bridal party with the grand announcement/secret that they had been keeping: we were going on the field at Spartan Stadium to take portraits. It was like watching a kid in a candy store; and the level of excitement was off the hook. And when we were finished there, we headed to the Spartan statue on campus for some photos as well.
We loved how their green and white theme really was everywhere, from the stunning floral to the up-lighting at their reception hall. Their small details, such as the large wooden cutout shape of Michigan in lieu of a guest book, really displayed their love for each other, as well as the importance of the college where they met each other. We had a blast photographing their wedding, and loved their bridal party Wobble dance, as well as the non-stop energy on the dance floor.
We hope you love this very small preview into the day we spent being Lauren and Brennan’s East Lansing Wedding Photographer team. We love being Eastern Michigan wedding photographers, and traveling to various locations across the state (and country!) If you’re in the market for a wedding photographer, we’d love to connect with you and learn more about your special day that’s unique to you and your fiance.
One of the best parts of booking your Port Huron wedding with Mulberry & Sage Photography is the teamwork mentality and aspect we bring to the table. You may remember from yesterday’s blog post that Courtney photographed a beautiful wedding on Saturday in Port Huron. Well, Megan and Kathryn spent the day on Saturday being Liz and Jordan’s Port Huron Yacht Club Wedding Photographer team, and it was a gorgeous day (amidst the down-pour rain all day!) full of love, happiness, and laughter.
Liz and Jordan are a fun loving couple, but we think we portrayed that perfectly with their engagement session that we photographed earlier this year. Their wedding was supposed to be outdoors at the Port Huron Yacht Club, however, with the rain coming down, it was moved last minute indoors. Everyone was super cool with it though, and adapted perfectly to the last minute change. Drinking good beer and liquor is a big tradition for Liz and Jordan, so it didn’t surprise us at all when we arrived to photograph the guys getting ready that they were getting ready to pour out a shot from a bottle of Hennessy that was saved specifically for a special occasion for more than 20 years, or the fact that Liz and her bridesmaids insisted on doing photos in the bar at Freighter’s before heading over to the yacht club. But that’s what makes our job so fun: showcasing the special details of everyone’s special day, and what’s important to them, specifically.
Capturing the small details that Liz worked so hard on was really important to her, as well as Jordan’s reaction to when she walked down the aisle. And Jordan didn’t disappoint! He dabbed away tears and everyone in the room could see just how much he loved and cherished his bride. The room upstairs was decorated beautifully, and we had a blast celebrating their reception and capturing many sweet and tender, as well as hysterical, moments with them there, as well.
We hope you love this small glimpse into when we were Liz & Jordan’s Port Huron Yacht Club Wedding Photographer team. If you’re looking for a Michigan wedding photographer, we’d love to connect, and you can email us at hello@mulberryandsage.com
We met Alyse on Saturday afternoon at a Starbucks in Macomb. She was referred to us by a fellow professional Metro Detroit engagement photographer, and we were excited to hear all about her upcoming October 2018 wedding in Fenton.
To see more of Ann & Brian’s Royal Oak wedding, 
