St. Joseph, Michigan Southwest Michigan Wedding Photography, Location, Planning

My wedding was in St. Joseph, Michigan Last weekend so I headed down on Friday for the Saturday event.  Our house is still on the market in Southwest Michigan if you know anyone who is looking.  I stayed the two nights at our house and cleaned, mowed and got the house looking perfect for the open house on Sunday.

The wedding photography was set to start at 2pm in St. Joseph so I took off way early and headed to the reception, The Blue Dress Barn in Millburg, and checked out the venue.  I have never worked at this location so I met the owner and scouted the area.  It turned out to be a wonderful spot for a wedding.  I will show some images shortly.

We started images on the bluffs of St. Joseph with the bride and maid of honor first and then the groom.  Here are some of the pre-wedding shots.

The wedding was located on the St. Joseph bluff at John En Howard Band Shell.  Another nice spot for a wedding since there is great views and lots of  seating for everyone.  The only negative that I can see is that the train track is close by and luckily we didn’t have a train, but I heard stories that they had to stop and wait.  Just another memorable event to remember your day, right.  As far as outdoor locations go, the John En Howard Band Shell is convenient for parking, centrally located, and kind of sunk down into the ground to get out of some of the winds.  It is all concrete so you have to suspect some hard, no pun intended, images.  I personally tried to get tight shots to remove a lot of the grey, but it was fine.

The wedding went smoothly.  It was very hot in the sun but luckily we had a bit of overcast and some wind at times.  The day was extremely humid throughout too.  The bottom line…it didn’t rain!

After the ceremony the bride and groom got into their get away car and headed to the beach with the wedding couple to make some beautiful images.  Here are a few of them on Lake Michigan Beach at Jean Klock Park in Benton Harbor, Michigan.
             

Everyone headed to the reception location which was The Blue Dress Barn in Millburg, Michigan.  Amy and Kirby, the owners, are very nice and willing to work with you on your special events and wedding.  The barn is very beautiful and makes a great background for wedding images.  There are numerous locations for awesome images around the barn.  We spent some time visiting these areas and making images.

Again, the day was very hot and humid and there was no air conditioning so I tried to space out the family images throughout the evening.  We made use of a lot of different areas of the blue dress barn, it is huge and a great spot in the world, highly recommended!

A fantastic wedding day for both Alaina and Ron.  Be sure to check their wedding page here.
Their wedding images and album will be online in the next couple days.  Keep checking back for updates.

Flowers were by Tara Florist Twelve Oaks in St. Joseph, Michigan.  There were very classy, elegant, and worked perfect with her simple outdoor cornflowerish color theme.  I would definitely recommend Tara Florist.

Transportation was a friend’s convertible Saab 93 which I would also recommend, especially on a hot day.

The DJ was Vibe Entertainment.  Kevin was the man and he did an awesome job of keeping people dancing even with the humid, hot weather that made dancing not that appealing.  He was very cool and I enjoyed working with him too.  Thanks Kevin and yes he is highly recommended.  

Just a perfect wedding day and one to remember forever for Alaina and Ron.  Went off perfectly and we made incredible wedding images together.  They are both very photogenic and easy to get along with.  They had a dip that can not be matched. I honestly thought they were professional dancers.  Thank you to Alaina and Ron for letting me be a part of their special day!  

I will leave you with some beautiful images.  Be sure to check my wedding photography website and check this blog for updates.  Make sure to bookmark this site!