It’s always fun to look back like 5 years or maybe even 10 and see where you were and what has changed. I’m blown away by some of the changes we’ve made in the past 5 years. When we started expanding outside of Northwest Arkansas, I really had no idea what would happen. I thought we would get one or two weddings. I never would have thought that about half of my weddings would involved traveling. I definitely never would have thought I’d be driving 9 hours to get to a wedding!
That’s exactly what happened for Agape and Mark’s wedding up in Illinois. Their wedding was up near Chicago and took place in two different cities. The ceremony was in the Naperville settlement at this cute little chapel. I really wish I had more time there. I honestly don’t know any of the history of this place, but it’s got all these old buildings and I bet a great story.
Things were moving pretty quickly when we got there, but we pulled off a first look right before the ceremony. One thing I loved about the ceremony was they did their own vows. There is something so special about hearing the special words that a couple chose to share with each other. It means so much more than repeating the same thing everyone else says. Right after the ceremony, we did a bubble exit and then headed off to Bolingbrook!
The reception was at the Bolingbrook Golf Club. They had a giant set of ballrooms and it was decked out and filled. We spent the first part of the reception outside doing photos. We were a little limited because we couldn’t take the whole wedding party out on the course, but we found a nice shaded spot and had a bunch of laughs.
The real fun started when we took Agape and Mark out on the course. There were three of us: two photo and one video, so we had to use a few golf carts. The couple took their own and that was fine, but the one we used had a second golf cart attached to it to carry more people. We randomly drove around and found this nice hill with the sun behind it. I thought it would make some epic shots. We did that and did a few other shots when we noticed some real golfers were waiting for us to move. They were nice enough to not hit balls at us. When went a little further and did a few more and the couple decided they were done.
It was at this point that things got funny. We didn’t know where we were going, so we made a turn…apparently a wrong one because our cart stopped moving. It didn’t want us driving off course. Mark and Agape backed up and took off to the reception. When we tried to backup, the second cart wouldn’t go straight and got stuck. Now we couldn’t drive forward or backwards. We were almost able to physically push it and turn it but nope. Luckily, some workers came and saved us.
The rest of the night wasn’t crazy but it was a lot of fun. The place was packed with people that loved Mark and Agape. We ran from table to table doing group shots. One thing I really loved about the reception was Agape’s sister sung a song for them, and in the middle, Agape joined in as well. Very sweet!
I’m so glad I met these guys back in St. Louis. I’m not sure if I’ll ever get to go back to that area of Illinois, but it was quite the treat and a wedding I’ll never forget.