I shoot a lot of weddings, like a lot a lot. Barns, ballrooms, rustic and lakeside. I love them all.
My favorite weddings though?
It’s the weddings where the couples are so in love you can feel their love for one another fill up every square inch of a room. The weddings where the couple cannot keep the over-the-top smiles off of their faces. The weddings where guests are weeping on/off throughout the ceremony. Yeah, those weddings are my favorite and why I do what I do. The Phillips wedding was all that and more.
Sarah + Matthew are both actors, and actually met each other while working on a musical together. My kids also met Sarah + Matthew during a rehearsal of a musical (Hi, Hopeful Theatre!), and my kids both fell in love with them. I was completely honored when Sarah asked me to photograph their wedding.
The Four Eleven is such a fun venue, it has such a fun/funky vibe. I love the concrete/white wash brick, and love the ivy covered walls outside.
Some of my favorite parts of their wedding day were the flower girl and her fanny pack (i might be biased though, because that’s my daughter), Matthew’s face when he saw Sarah, the families praying over the couple during the ceremony and how EXPLOSIVE their dance floor was.
Sarah + Matthew, thank you so much for having me. I am so honored that I got to be your wedding photographer. Wishing you guys a lifetime of happiness.
How did you two meet?
We were dance partners in a musical at Artisan Center Theater.
Tell us about your proposal!
Matthew proposed at the 4 Eleven venue on July 10th 2020! It was beyond sweet and both of us could not contain the tears as he got down on his knee. Obviously I said yes…
How many guests did you have at your wedding?
190
Tell me about your dress. Where did you find it, how did you choose it, how did you know it was the one?
I bought my dress at Diane’s Bridal in Fort Worth. It was the sweetest little shop where I got to have a private appointment with my mom, mother in law and my best friend!
It was the first dress I tried on and I instantly fell in love with it. It is a beautiful ball gown style covered in flower and butterfly details. The dress of my dreams in real life, I knew it was the one as soon as I saw a mirror.
Why did you pick the venues that you chose?
A friend got married there and her pictures are were so perfect! Matt and I had already talked about getting married, when the pandemic hit we knew the whole world was going to push weddings out to the next year so we went on venue tours. On the venue tours Matt took a beautiful opportunity in the fantastic 4 Eleven to pop the question. So of course we had to get married there!!!
What song did you walk down the aisle to?
Can’t help falling in love - sung by a friend
What song played for your first dance?
When I Say I Do by Matthew West
What inspired your wedding décor? Did you have a theme in mind?
We sort of just went in blind, taking pieces of things that we love and it fell together beautifully!
What colors did you choose and how did you decide?
Maroon and gold, I on social media these colors and I fell in love!
Tell me about some of your favorite wedding details and how you came up with them!
We had a friend sing out aisle song, it will always be one of my favorite memories. And then my flower girl isn’t a dress kind of girl so we had her in a maroon suit with a fanny pack full of flower petals! Amazing!
Tell us about your food and cake - if you didn't have a traditional wedding cake, why not, and what did you have instead?
So Matt and I don’t like cake so we had a dessert bar topped off with shot glass desserts and a popcorn bar! As for the food we did appetizer bars with all sorts of our favorites. Including some good ole chicken nuggets.
What was your absolute favorite part of the day? Does your spouse have a different favorite?
We both agree, our favorite part of the day was after we cut the cake. The DJ announced that the dance floor was open and IMMEDIATELY ALL of our friends RAN to the dance floor and it turned into the most wonderful party. Guests jumping up and down having the time of their lives, Matt and I will never forget how LOVED we felt in that moment.
Did you see each other before the wedding? If not, did you like waiting or would you rather have done it differently? Tell me why or why not!
We did not. Matt and I had opposite opinions about this, I wanted to see him but he wanted to wait. We settled on waiting and I wouldn’t have traded that first look in aisle for anything in the world. Our eyes filled with tears and I didn’t think I could love him anymore till just then.
Any advice for those couples planning their wedding now?
Get yourself a website ASAP. It helped keep me in track and make sure I wasn’t missing anything. About a year out start collecting your people they will be a family and support system!
