A Summer Lakeside Lakefront Backyard Wedding on Kentucky Lake
Kaitlin & Jacob had always planned for their ceremony and reception to take place at Jacob’s parents’ lake house on Kentucky Lake. No other location was even discussed – and from my first meeting with Jacob’s parents during their engagement session, I knew they were going to be excellent hosts! But I had no idea how perfect their lake house was for hosting both the ladies and the men getting ready in separate areas of the house. I didn’t know that their back yard was ideal for a lakefront wedding ceremony, that their driveway and garage worked very well as a reception site, and that several great portrait locations were just minutes from their house! But of course, Kaitlin & Jacob knew all of this!
When Kaitlin, Jacob, and I were working on their wedding day timeline they had a list of potential portrait locations that they hoped I would find ideal for their bridal party portraits and bride & groom portraits and as luck would have it, we were able to shoot at every single one! I praised them for their great location scouting AND for their desire to have more than the usual amount of portraits. They wanted multiple locations and therefore, more portraits of their favorite people in the whole world on the most important day of their live thus far. And I, well, always want more portrait time! More portrait time=more portraits!!! Needless to say, Kaitlin & Jacob were ideal clients for sure!
So how did we manage to get all of those portraits (guys, I only shared 1/10 of the images!)? Where did we find all the portrait time, despite the fact that they chose not to do a first look? First off, I photographed Kaitlin and her bridesmaids while my second shooter was at a different location on the parents’ property photographing Jacob and his family. Then I photographed Jacob and his groomsmen while my second shooter photographed Kaitlin and her family. That way their images will still look cohesive: both separate bridal parties at one location, both separate families at another. Winning! Then, after the ceremony, we only had to photograph the families together (at the previous family location), which took very little time, and the whole bridal party together and bride & groom portraits. That’s when we went “off campus” to not two, but three locations! What??? I know! I was in heaven! Two of those locations were lakeside, which was so important to Kaitlin & Jacob. Four things made this possible: 1) they rented a trolley bus to transport everyone, 2) their guests were happily partaking in food and drink back at the reception the whole time and didn’t miss us at all, 3) their bridal party was full of great listeners! 😅, and 4) they hired two fast shooting photographers (hey, that’s us!)!
I usually watch the radar pretty closely throughout a wedding day, especially if I wake up that morning and see that I have a reason to watch it. On the morning of Kaitlin & Jacob’s wedding day, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky and the short term forecast looked clear. It wasn’t until after dinner that the clouds rolled quickly over the lake and we all found ourselves crowding into Jacob’s parents spacious, yet still two car garage where half of the guests tables were situated. But the show must go on! So friends and family alike shared chairs and standing room and laughed and enjoyed each other’s company and watched Kaitlin & Jacob cut their cake, share their first dance as husband and wife, and dance with their parents. Almost like clock work, the rain stopped and everyone moved back out onto the paved driveway for the party dancing and no one skipped a beat! The fun never stopped even though the sunshine did for a short time. They say it’s good luck for it to rain on your wedding day – I’d say Kaitlin & Jacob got the best of both worlds!
