Sarah + Ryan

Pere Marquette Lodge Wedding

Sarah & Ryan’s Pere Marquette Lodge Wedding was located at Pere Marquette Park within Grafton, IL.

The couple met as neighbors and their relationship grew and took off from there. He proposed in Sarah’s home as they spent most of their time there, because they lived so close to one another.

Ryan’s sister helped him pick the ring by getting him access to Sarah’s Pinterest board where she saved rings for the future.

Wedding Day

On their wedding day, they had a lot of bad luck. Normally this isn’t the kind of stuff you want to remember but it is worth mentioning. Both of them remained calm and went on with the day with grace and focused on what was important.

Both Sarah & Ryan took every hurdle and made it work for them and kept their eyes on the fact that they were getting married and going to spend the rest of their lives together. Of course, that is why they were there.

The ceremony ended up inside by the big stone fireplace in the lodge. From the flowers to the lights looked absolutely beautiful set up inside. The light was dramatic and perfect. In fact, I can’t picture it any other way.

Here are two seriously upbeat, positive people. I was impressed as we rolled with the punches, and worked around the outbursts of rain. At one point, Ryan almost stepped on a snake in a field, but they kept going! And we got a gorgeous portrait of the two of them under the cloudy, stormy skies.

Tradition

One of the things I love about their wedding was the incorporation of their own traditions. Sarah & Ryan included their traditional date night shot just before they walked into the reception. Interestingly, this particular tradition of theirs dates back to their very first date. Ryan’s family also has their own tradition where the bride and groom play tug of war with a loaf of bread, and whoever gets the bigger half gets to make the decisions. (It was the first time the groom’s family had lost in a long while!)

Despite the rain and all the things that went wrong, Ryan & Sarah had a beautiful wedding and reception full of love and laughter.