We got to spend April 28th celebrating the wedding day of Ashley & Eddie Medina and being their Macomb County Wedding Photographer team. The forecast called for rain, but we were pleasantly surprised that it missed us completely. The sun even peaked out a time or two, which helped make the chilly spring day more gorgeous! Ashley and Eddie chose clean and classic (but beautiful!) wedding palette of navy, white, and silver. The girls choose any navy dress they wanted so everyone was comfortable and stylish. Eddie wore a navy suit and the guys wore gray with navy ties, for a perfect balance in contrast. White hydrangeas with many variations of white roses made for simple and stunning decor. All together, the whole day flowed perfectly from start to finish and we were so happy to be there to document it all.
One of the benefits of having two photographers is the ability for us to never miss a moment. For photos of the bride and groom getting ready, Megan hung out with Eddie at home, while Courtney met the bride and her girls at a hotel suite. From there, Courtney was able to stay with the bride before the ceremony while Megan captured the guests arriving. Courtney was able to capture Eddie’s face as he first laid eyes on his bride while Megan was able to focus on Ashley on her father’s arm walking down the aisle. I could continue, but perhaps you get the idea of why two is always better than one.
Ashley and Eddie were married at Trinity Lutheran Church with a reception at Villa Penna. They choose to forgo the typical bridal party photos and allocate that time to just bride and groom portraits at George George Park, and we LOVED it. We were able to focus solely on the new Mr. & Mrs. Medina in a relaxed and un-rushed time frame. After arriving at the reception, the night went on with great food, great music and tons of great times.
Please enjoy this sneak peek into Ashley & Eddie’s wedding day where we had the pleasure of being their Macomb County Wedding photographer. They just arrived back from their honeymoon and we send them the best and warmest blessings and wishes.
If you are looking for a wedding photography team that specializes in capturing your love story in St Clair County, Macomb County, or beyond, we would love to talk more.
Last weekend, we had the honor of doing Brittany and Dan’s Shelby Gardens Wedding Photography, and spending the day documenting their fun love story and learning more about who they are, and witnessing their love for each other.
The two of them met at the Mackenzie Tavern bar, so you will notice some photos there that were very important for the two of them to capture, since having photos done there on their wedding day kind of comes full circle for their unique story. Brittany is a librarian and incorporated that with the flowers from Eco Flower had love story page petals, and all the tables at their reception were named after great love story characters.
They had their wedding at the Genesis The Church in Royal Oak, Michigan, and we got to spend some time after their ceremony exploring the city, and finding some fun hidden gems that were tucked away and perfect locations to get creative and artistic during their portrait session time.
We asked Brittany what her favorite moment of the day and she said it was walking down the aisle towards him. When we asked Dan what his favorite moment was, he said it was walking back down the aisle with her after the ceremony. We loved how similar they were, and that they answered that not knowing they both picked moments similar moments before.
Their first dance was to Our Love by Judah and the Lion, and they are actually leaving today for their romantic Jamaican honeymoon.
Dan is the 4th and his family is affiliated with Wesner Tuxedo, and the maid of honor (Brittany’s sister) joked during her speech that they nicknamed him “Tuxedo Dan” ages ago. All the guests were super dapper and well dressed, as well. Shelby Gardens was a beautiful ballroom, and was massive on the inside. We loved the gorgeous little unique touches that Brittany and Dan used to make this beautiful space their own.
We asked Brittany to say why she loved working with Mulberry & Sage Photography, and this was her reply:
“They were fun, laid back and just a blast to work with. Mulberry & Sage Photography was very accommodating, and had such great ideas for photos. They chose such random spots we would have never thought of, that turned out so beautiful.”
If you’re planning a Shelby Gardens wedding and are looking for a professional wedding photographer, we would love to chat with you about how Mulberry & Sage Photography can fit into your vision of your perfect day.
Earlier this week we brought you all our favorite bridal trends that we saw happen this past year, while also making a promise that we would be back later with the rest of our weddings from 2017, because, frankly, they were all too amazing in their own ways. Instead of focusing on the trends though, we wanted to switch it up and chat about some of our favorite moments that we documented this past year. Often times, as professional wedding photographers, we look back at weddings and will remember certain aspects or tidbits of things that stood out from other weddings, and we love witnessing those, and sharing them. So this blog post is devoted to our favorite wedding moments of 2017. We can’t wait to share more upcoming wedding moments with you in 2018, too! (more…)
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.
To see more of Ann & Brian’s Royal Oak wedding, 
