Tiffany Blue Fall Wheeling WV Wedding

Hello! Hello! Hello!  Hello, everyone!  This past weekend was VERY eventful and it started out with this Tiffany Blue Fall Wheeling River City wedding!  Everyone please give Sam and Nate all your HBP love and affection because they are FINALLY on the blog for their wedding! Enjoy!

This wedding feels like it came and went so fast but it also feels like it took forever to get here…’tis the year of 2020, I guess!  You see, this wedding was supposed to happen on Memorial Day weekend.  I never book Memorial Day weekend but I did for Sam!  I always have it blocked off but when she “met” me at another wedding back in 2018 and then reached out about her own wedding…I KNEW I definitely wanted her as a Hannah Barlow Photography bride.  And I was right!  She’s come to all my workshops and texts me all the time ANDDDDDDD I even made friends with her groom, Nate!  He makes me laugh ALL the time and he’s ALL about the timelines which is so funny and ironic considering we ran behind the beginning of the day! HA!  More on that later!  First, we met up with Jared (videographer) at River City and took some reception shots.  It was a breath of fresh air to have a new color palette!

We were almost done with details when Jay (Coordinator at River City) popped in and was kind enough to light the candles!! YESSS!  More photos!  I like things to be “complete” and lighting the candles always makes it feel complete!

Then, we were off to Oglebay to catch the guys and gals getting ready!

I KNEW Sam was going to have a lot of details for me.  I thought 30 minutes was MORE than enough time…but then she handed me what she exclaimed was the “Hannah Box” and I thought “Uh Oh…I’m going to need more time!” HA!  That’s where we started to lag in the timeline but it was worth it!  Sam also LOVES photos so I wanted to make extra sure she had all the photos she’d ever want and MORE!  The Hannah Box – Exhibit A…below!  This is the first time I’ve had a color coordinated detail box JUST for me!  It’s usually just the shoe box!  I love the little things!! Also, huge shoutout to Lacey for reminding me to take this one!

I took ALLLLLLLLLLLLL the details!  All of them!  So many it’s really ridiculous BUT I know Sam well from over the years and I knew she’d want “over the top” quantities of photos!

It was at this point I realized it was five minutes until 1 o’clock and I was supposed to be with Nate at 1 o’clock…and I was still finishing up detail shots! AHHHHHH!! Hair and makeup was JUST finishing up so we walked through Oglebay’s lodge and found the guys.  They weren’t quite ready yet either so I gave Nate his gift and had him open it and then I headed back down to the girls to do gift opening and invitation shots with the girls!

I also multi tasked like a crazy Hannah person and did the invitation suite shots.  Per the usual, I picked the bouquet up to place it by the invitations and big drop of water came off it and landed RIGHT on the COVID date change note….Ugggggghhhh.  I knew I’d be able to fix it later so I bravely said, “Hey, Sam! You’re going to kill me BUTTTTTT…” HA! Yep.  Our relationship is on that level.  I showed her what I had done and I swear her eyes bugged out of her head.  I’m giggling though…I knew I could fix it!  Here’s my Hannah “oops”….  See all the ink smudged on the date change note (top of the photo below)?

…and because it was MY fault…I absolutely, most certainly…100% and definitely fixed it!  I’m so glad I learned Photoshop all those years ago!  This took me about 15 minutes and you’d never know, right?!  You know what I always say, “You’ll never know it even happened…until I blog about it!”  This is one of those perfect examples!

Sam got to open her gift from Nate.  She MAY have known what it was…HA! Aren’t they beautiful?!

Then, Sam had a very special gift for her mom, Joni!  It was SO nice to FINALLY meet her!  It felt like it had been a LONG time coming!

One last shot of the ladies before they got dressed!  That’s Sam’s aunt on the right.  I swear I know her…but then I realized it may just be because our personalities are similar!  She is full of fun and life and laughter!

NOW, we headed back to the guys to help them get ready (or just take photos really)!  These guys were awesome and SO fun and easy to be around!

After we did those, I sent them off to the first look location and headed off to get the beautiful bride ready!! EEEEKKKK! This dress though!! GAH! I’ve ALWAYS loved Maggie Sottero!  This dress gave me ALL the feels!  Isn’t it perfect?!

First look time!! WOOOOOO!

They had their moment…and THEN…Nate informed Sam she had a rouge hair in her nose.  I kid you not!! We could not stop giggling and I have some EPIC behind the scenes photos for the end of the year!! You just wait and see! Look at her reactions…Bahahahahaha!

CUE THE DRAMATIC music! UGHHHHHHHHH!! The light was just perfect!! PERFECT!!!!!

These are definitely bride and groom shots for the WIN!!

Then, we quickly moved locations.  These guys rocked it!! Such an easy group to work with!

Full bridal party shot fun!

AND NOW…this beautiful bride!  AHHHH!! This dress is what dreams are made of, I tell ya!

Lacey nailed this behind the scenes shot!  It wasn’t planned or posed…NOPE!  This was just Nate watching his soon-to-be wife!

Seriously, this light was amazing!  AMAZING!  Look at all these shots of these pretty ladies AND this is just a handful of what is in their actual gallery!  Can you believe it?!

OooO yea…and I told Sam and her sister, Ashley, to have a “sibling moment”!  This was PERFECT!  Hair pulling!! I don’t have a sister myself…but this is what I always imagined it would be like! HA!

My flower girls this past weekend ROCKED their roles!  Someone even joked this little one could be hired for her epic flower girl poses!  She hammed it ALL up and it made for SO many great photo opportunities!

Then, we got to do MORE bride and groom formal photos!! Sam and Nate were supposed to have their wedding in the spring.  That didn’t work out, of course, due to COVID.  Sam really wanted flowers too (they had flowers for their engagement session which you can see HERE).  The day before their wedding…the flowers were still there.  We were driving to this location and I looked over…and they were GONE!  I kid you not…within 24 hours of their wedding, they had been removed.  I looked right at Sam and said, “OMG…GIRLLL…they are GONE!”  BUT…I always believe everything will work itself out and it did.  They got the color anyway…with this beautiful foliage!  There are soooo many couples who dream of this and don’t get it.  Everything came full circle and the wedding Gods wrapped these two right up and gave them ALL the color!

I was loving Lacey’s angles.  No surprise either…Lacey LOVES the fall and she was even squealing (in her own way…much more quiet than me) when she took these ones below.  She even showed me because of her excitement and she was right…they were keepers!

OOoO my goodness ME! AHHHHHHH!!! Pretty sure this set below are my favorites!  Also, HUGE HUGE HUGE shoutout to Jared Thompson!  We hadn’t met in person yet and he was SO amazing to work with.  We were shoulder to shoulder all day and helping each other out AND he’s the first one ever to give me some of my own sass and jokes right back at me and it made for an amazingly fun day!  I hope to work with him lots more in the future!

BUT WAIT…there is MORE!  Seriously, I wanted just a FEW more.  This was about 10 minutes before the ceremony and I just needed a few more and I’m SO glad I did!  AHHH!! Look at these black and whites!

A few more of the beautiful bride, of course!

In true Hannah fashion, just when you think I’m done…I’m NEVER really done, right?!  It was the perfect way to end this formal photo session too because Lacey and the wind teamed up for these epic veil shots!  I bet you can all hear me just squealing away!

OooO hey there, Lauren!  I actually think this may be her FIRST time on my blog.  HOW is that possible?!  She’s one of the brains behind all these beautiful Oglebay weddings!  She’s amazing and I love her dearly and FINALLY she got her part on my blog.  Also, Sam and her were in a sorority together…bigs and littles and all that jazz!! So, they requested a photo and I was happy to oblige!

Now, it was time for the ceremony!! WEEEEEEE!  Here comes the bride!

It was SO beautiful!

Then, there was this moment that happened.  I didn’t even get photos of it because I was in a little bit of a panic.  Nate just…TOOK OFF.  That’s right.  Right before the vows, he ran…and no…I didn’t take photos of it.  I never in one million years would guess he would be the one to run…and he did.  So, I was panicking!  PANICKING!  Turns out…his jokester self just couldn’t stay calm even during his own wedding ceremony.  In true Nathan fashion (yes, using his full name here because he had me SWEATING), he “ran” and then huddled up with his guys to “discuss”.  Everyone at that point took a deep breath and then giggled…even Sam! HA!

He came back (if I could have smacked him…I would have).  I took a breath…and they got married!! Mr. & Mrs. Harper, everyone!

As everyone was leaving, I saw two familiar faces who…gave me an epic photo!  Everyone remember Emily and Michael?  They just got married a few months ago!  There is nothing more sweet than a past couple who is happy to see you and I am always SO happy to see them!!! YESSSS!

Then, we went right into family formals and took ALL the photos.  And I want you to meet someone…Trey!  He’s been one of Sam’s best friends for years so we had to take a funny photo of her married to someone else! HA!

Sam had one other request – suspension bridge photos!! It was SO bright out that we really had to work out technical skills!! WOOOOO!! We did it!

I actually think I like Lacey’s angles better though!!  For such bright light, we got so many great ones!

I kind of loved this one of them “walking off into the sunset”…black and white!  Kind of looks like what you’d see at the end of a movie, right?!

Jared was doing his video thing and I was just creeping in the background!  Romantic, right?!

Whewwww!! It all happened SO fast and we had more than made up for the time we were behind!! We were actually ahead of schedule at this point!! WOOOO!!! Time to head to River City for the reception!  I found this amazing cake and these cupcakes!! They looked SO good! SOOO GOOD!

Per the usual, I quickly took some more photos that I had taken earlier in the day because I’m just obsessed with glasses being full.  Call me weird but I think it makes all the difference!

Mr. and Mrs. Harper, everyone!  They’ve been chatting with me for about two years about this day.  They knew alllllll the things to do to get me squealing!  Walk in..smile big…SPIN (dying over here) AND THEN A DIP! COMMMME ON!  It was perfection!

Ashleigh would be SO proud.  Ashleigh’s “thing” is to get a photo of the cake after it’s been cut so the couple can remember the inside too (us photographers are weird, I know).  I remembered after they cut their cake! YAY!

Speeches were made…glasses were raised!

Can we talk about how cool this “guest book” is?!  I mean…I love unique things but this is definitely one of my favorites!

We had dinner and then I did my usual creeping as the couple mingled!

THEN, first dance MAGIC happened.  Sam, Nate, and I talked about being “centered” for their first dance.  I tell all my couples this but these two have attention to detail just as much as I do!  They nailed it!  In return, I was able to give them these beauties!!!!  We took the traditional shots too but I love love love to get creative and River City ALWAYS gives me that opportunity!

Mother/daughter dances and mother/son dances were danced!

THEN, the party got started.  They did the traditional bouquet and garter toss (after Nate did an epic removal).  They did the dollar dance too (which are always some of my favorite photos).  I also got to see this familiar bride and groom again!

Then, the party got started and we photographed all the moments until it was time for us to leave!

AND…of course…before I left…I made sure to get photos with some of my BIGGEST fans and loyal blog readers.  That’s Joni…Sam’s mom, on the left down there and I just recently found out she reads ALLLLL the blogs!  I had no idea!!  JONI!  Make sure you comment, every once in a while I send my loyal blog readers goodies!  Nate’s mom also grabbed me as I was leaving and I was so glad she did!  I had looked for her before I packed up but couldn’t find her.  Turns out she was sitting at a table chatting with some guests and got my attention RIGHT as I was about to get on the elevator!! At that point, I felt so good about the day and night and knew this blog was going to be GREAT!

Well, that’s a wrap on this one!! WAAAHHH!! Sam and I have gotten SO close over the years.  Not only do we chat about allllll the wedding things but we chat about other things too.  It always makes the weddings so much sweeter when I really get to know the bride AND groom, in this case!  Also, her sister Ashley is a nurse and took care of my dad when he had his heart attack last year.  He was in the hospital at the same time Ashley and Sam’s dad was in the hospital and sadly, their dad passed.  So, I had an even deeper bond with them on a much much much more personal level.  It’s like being with friends instead of clients, I tell ya!  Nate’s also from my county and we went to the same high school.  They are SO much younger than me.  Actually, Nate was in high school when I was a substitute school nurse (which makes me want to crawl under a table and hide…HA!).  It’s SUCH a small world, I tell ya!  So yea…I had all the connections with this group!  When COVID first happened, we were so worried…and they DID have to reschedule.  It felt like it took so long to get here but now it’s come and gone and I don’t even know what I’ll do without all the Sam texts.  Heck, we used to Facetime a good bit too!! AHHHH!! It’ always bittersweet when these weddings are over and I could ramble and ramble…but I won’t.  All good things must come to an end!

SO, ONE MORE TIME…

Congrats to Mr. & Mrs. Harper!  Take that COVID!  They did it!

__________

Vendor Shout Outs!

Bride’s Gown – Maggie Sottero from Sorelle Bridal Salon

Maid of Honor Dress – Adrianna Papell

Bridesmaids’ Dresses – Christina Wu Occasions – Sorelle Bridal Salon

Men’s Attire – Rondinelli Tuxedo/Sorelle Bridal Salong

Shoes – Badgley Mischka and Kate Spade

Jewelry/Rings – Tiffany and Co (Engagement Ring), Kay (Wedding Bands), Other Jewelry – Virginia Geiger (Etsy)

Hair – Ashley Terek and Denise Stevick from Posh Hair and Nails

Makeup – Kaitlin San Felippo – Posh Hair and Nails, Amanda Medovic – Gypsy Soul Salon

Florist – Kroger

Videographer – Jared Thompson

Cake/Desserts – Whisk Bakery

DJ – DJ Nick Arno

Ceremony Venue – Oglebay Formal Gardens (Coordinator – Lauren Mitchell0

Reception Venue/Catering – River City

Transportation Trolley – OVRTA Trolley

Invitations – Rich and Shirley’s Quick Print

Photo Booth – Selfie Snaps

Guest Book – ElementalCraftwords on Etsy