Hey we are sharing Laura and Kyle’s John Marshall ballroom Richmond wedding.

Remember how on our last blog we talked about how it was perfect weather? Well, this was the day after that.  And it went back to iffy weather.  Yet, still an amazing day. 

Kyle got ready with his guys at the John Marshall. Laura got ready at their apartment which wasn’t too far away. They planned enough time for us to be able to go to both locations.

They then had their ceremony at Saint Mary’s Catholic Church in short pump.

When you have a lot of different locations on a single wedding day there’s definitely way more moving parts. Thinking about transportation is a big one. For this day they had a party bus from Richmond Limo which made things a lot easier.  But still a lot more to logistically figure out. 

Even with preparing a bit of extra time they still ended up running a little bit behind. And I feel like sometimes brides get really stressed out if they’re running late. Which makes sense you want things to flow right. But you also need to remember, when you’re a bride, nothing is gonna happen without you on your wedding day.

She put on her dress lightning fast. She waited to put her dress on until getting to the church and ran back and slipped it on so quickly and then almost immediately went into the ceremony.

Sometimes when shooting Catholic ceremony’s time is really an issue because they have Saturday mass scheduled for right after the ceremony. So remembering to build in a little bit of extra time is important.

The timeline is so important. We love helping our couples build a timeline. We’ve actually even created a free resource that you can go and download to help you build your perfect timeline if you’re a soon to be bride. You can grab that right here.

Laura and Kyle decided to go super traditional and not do a first look. So walking down the aisle at the Catholic Church was the first time Kyle saw Laura. And his reaction was so sweet.

Rightfully so. Laura looked incredible. She had a gorgeous big ballgown with an amazing cathedral veil trimmed with lace.

And her florals were absolutely incredible. I think may be my favorite florals to date. Her bouquet was a perfect mix of timeless but also a little quirky. Which is a hard thing to do.

So right after the ceremony we did family formals at the church. And then we did bridal party. Originally we had scheduled trying to go to the capital building here in Richmond to take those. But because of the rain we adjusted and took them inside the John Marshall and right outside.

And then really really quickly (one of our quickest portraits times to date), we took Laura and Kyle to a nearby parking garage so that we could get the John Marshall sign in the background for a few portraits with them.

Laura had to brave the rain a bit – but it was so worth it.  

Not that it’s ever good for it to rain on your wedding day. But this was a good day for rain. There was lots of travel time and a bit of buffer room in between the ceremony and the start of cocktail hour for us to work around the rain.

She mentioned how it had rained for her mom and dad’s wedding.. And we talked about how they say it’s good luck for it to rain on your wedding day because when you tie the knot and then they get wet it’s only stronger. 

Then because of that extra time built-in Laura and Kyle were able to join their cocktail hour. And then we went into five hours of reception where so many people were dancing all night long.

Chris from Bunn DJ was shocked when the dance floor was full even before the first dances were finished. 

And the dance floor stayed for all the way throughout the night until their sparkler exit. Which I didn’t even think they were going to have a sparkler exit for a minute. Once we got out there they started lighting sparklers before we even had a chance to see what was happening. So we grabbed Laura and Kyle super quickly and ran outside. And luckily we were able to get it done before everybody sparklers burned out.

It definitely helps that they had lots of extra sparklers. So some people had more than one.

Also pro tip. Guests at weddings make sure you hold one or two sparklers and no more at a time. If you’re holding to keep them in separate hands.

Here’s my thing about sparkler exit. They are popular for a reason. It’s a beautiful and fun shot.. however after 6.5 hours of drinking, maybe it’s not the greatest idea to give out fire to drunk guests. 

If you want to talk about alternative ways to use sparklers at your wedding with love to have that conversation with you. You can still get a beautiful sparkler photograph and have fun without it being super dangerous.

No one was hurt at this wedding! Everyone is fine but you can take a look at what we mean below. 

We love you guys, congratulations.