Davis, IL Wedding Photographer | Bret & Jessica

Davis, IL Wedding Photographer

Happy late New Year everyone!! A crazy schedule change over here plus the holidays forced me to take a longer-than-expected break from blogging, but I’m back and ready to catch you all up on all of the wonderful things I was able to photograph last Fall!

I’m jumping back in with Bret and Jessica, whose wedding I photographed back in October. Their intimate wedding was filled to the brim with lovely, heartfelt moments and I’m excited to share some of my favorites with you all!

See their engagement photos HERE

Day of Coordinator: Cheri Robinson of Dream Day Design & Rental
Hair & Makeup: Morgan Sims of Elite Design Team
Florist: Country Girl
Wedding Dress & Bridesmaid’s Dresses: Brandi’s Bridal, New Glarus, WI
Suits: Kohl’s
Getting Ready Site: Country Inn & Suites, Freeport, IL
Ceremony & Reception: The Lodge at Lake Summerset
Caterer: Hillsdale Deli
Cake & Cupcakes: Cathy’s Custom Cakery
DJ: Celebration Sound

How They Met:
Bret and I met at my first job, McDonald’s. He was a manager and I was a crew member. We liked each other at the same time, but never found out we liked each other. Bret moved away so for about two years we were out of touch. He was friends with my best friend Allison who set up a day for all of us to hang out and celebrate mine and Bret's birthdays in October of 2017 (his and my birthdays are two days apart). We hit it off that night and have been together ever since. I was going to community college in Freeport at the time, so we spent basically a year doing long distance. We would try to see each other at least once a week and talk on the phone every night. Fall 2018 I transferred down to NIU and Bret, who had been in Dubuque, followed me down there. We got engaged in Madison, WI, in August 2018 and got married in October 2019.

The Dress:
I grew up watching Say Yes to Dress, so I thought finding my dress would be more emotional than it was. It was fun trying on wedding dresses, but it didn't feel as emotional as I was hoping it would be. Probably because 1) I got my dress one month after being engaged and 2) it still didn't feel real that I was actually engaged. But it was still SO fun. I went to two places in one day and ended up finding my dress on the same day. I got my dress at Brandi's Bridal in New Glarus, WI. I wanted a lace dress with a long train. I fell in love with the train on my dress. It had a lot of subtle sparkle. I got the straps on my dress changed into lace capped sleeves because that was my vision. It made my dress look 10x better than it already was!

The Jewelry:
What really made me feel emotional standing in my dress wasn't the dress, shoes or jewelry, ironically. It was the dainty headpiece I wore. That's what tied the whole wedding outfit together for me.

The Groom’s Suit:
There was nothing special about Bret's suit. We just went to Kohl's and tried to buy cheaper stuff, while still looking nice for the wedding and to wear again after the wedding. I still think he looked good :)

The Venue:
Our venue was actually pretty reasonably priced, which the main reason why we booked it. It was also five minutes down the road from Bret's parents house and where Bret grew up. It was also pretty close to all our family too, which was important since we didn't want to make them drive over an hour to our wedding.

The Ceremony:
Our ceremony was outside the venue building in the courtyard. I originally wanted it out on the grass by the water, but the week of the wedding we saw that it was supposed to be pretty cold and windy on the wedding day (which it was), so we thought having it in the courtyard would be warmer. We made it look as close to fall themed as possible. It was small and intimate, which I think suited both of our tastes really well.

The bridesmaid’s dresses:
For my bridesmaids dresses, I showed them styles I liked and disliked and had them try on one's that were similar to the styles I liked that they wouldn't mind buying/wearing. We weeded out the styles we all didn't like until we agreed upon a style I liked and everyone said they would be fine with wearing that day. It probably took us around an hour to decide.

The Reception Decor:
The theme was Falling in Love. We had fall decor everywhere! It was truly beautiful.

The Reception:
The party was awesome! We had so many compliments on our wedding and people actually stayed and danced the whole night! It couldn't have been better!

The Honeymoon:
Honeymoon is postponed until I graduate from NIU in May..wootwoot! No final decisions yet on where we will go, but we are currently thinking we will go to Door County, WI.

Anything you would have changed?
I had a lot of advice for my wedding day which I took, so I felt like the day went really smoothly. One of my biggest struggles was eating the day of my wedding. Everybody told me I would struggle with this so I was aware of it, but I still couldn't beat it. I had no appetite the morning of the wedding, so I tried to eat some food with protein like eggs and ham. I also forced down some cereal because I literally hardly ate any food. I was starving for lunch, but only ate a little because I didn't want to mess up my lipstick. By the time I had eaten 4 bites, the videographer had arrived and started needing me for some shots, so I didn't have much time to eat lunch. By that time, I wasn't hungry anymore, but I was starving when it came time to eat at the reception. So I basically went all day without much food. So I would say I wished I would have given myself and my girls more time for lunch, but that was about it.

Advice for couples planning their wedding:
Hmmm... there is a lot of advice I could probably give couples. I would say, start planning early. It took us until the day of to get everything decided on and it gets pretty stressful when you get close to the day of. Also, keep on top of your vendors. Make sure they still have you on the calendar for your event. My original DJ told me they would come out to meet me at my venue in May 2019, roughly 4 months before my wedding. I asked them three times over the summer if they were still willing to meet and they basically blew me off until 2 months before my wedding they just randomly decided to quit on me. Luckily, I was able to find a better DJ that same week who was available. Also, don't fret if they have you on the calendar but don't start asking for details until couple weeks before the wedding. Our wedding planner told my mother and I that that is very normal, they have a lot of other weddings to worry about and will focus on yours when it is closer. For example, I was worried about my cupcake lady not knowing what I wanted like a month before the wedding. My wedding planner told me that that was normal. She said she would only need like 3 days to make my order.