Ryan & Christine | Piper Palm House & Rose of the Hill Wedding in St. Louis, MO

Weddings

July 21, 2014

Ryan and Christine are good friends of ours from college, so we were thrilled when we were given the opportunity to photograph their special day. Between finishing their undergraduate degrees, and maintaining a long distance relationship, these high school sweethearts have waited patiently for this special day! They wanted to make their wedding day even more memorable by having it their dating anniversary, which is June 28, 2007. So the next time June 28th landed on a Saturday was 2014.

This wedding brought us two firsts since we’ve been in business. Since Gustavo was a groomsman, it was the first time that I (Danielle) was the sole photographer at a wedding. This was also the first time that we traveled out of the state to shoot a wedding, Ryan and Christine’s wedding was held in beautiful and historic St. Louis. With that being said, it went over very smoothly, I brought two cameras and made sure to get a variety of pictures using different angles and lenses.

The day started off at Christine’s grandpa’s house where she spent a few quiet moments getting into her dress and putting on her new earrings that her husband-to-be bought for her as a surprise. Accompanying the earrings was a sweet note Ryan wrote to Christine.

Immediately following the ceremony was an afternoon reception at Rose of the Hill. Right away I noticed the two bride and groom ducks sitting at the head table. If you know Christine, then you know she has a thing for ducks! In college, Ryan, Gustavo, Brian P, and Brian Z were in a barbershop quartet called The Augmented Four. It’s been a tradition that if a member of the quartet got married, the quartet would then sing a song to the bride at the reception. However, only three out of the four members were able to attend the wedding, so Ryan recruited one of his groomsman to sing tenor and the tradition was upheld! She really enjoyed it, and so did the guests! Christine recently lost her father to a battle with cancer. Even though he was not there, he was ever present in loving memories and special touches throughout the day. One of those special touches was the father daughter dance. Christine’s father was very close with his fraternity brothers in college, and remained close with these men throughout his life. Christine has grown up around these men, and has grown to look up to them as close family. In memory of her father, Christine shared a personal dance with each of them during the traditional father daughter dance. This was such a touching moment!

Between the cake cutting, toasts, great food, and dancing the hours just flew by! With the reception concluded, Ryan and Christine had some alone time to take more pictures, and what better backdrop to use in St Louis than the Gateway Arch! These are the unique opportunities we photographers live for, it’s not everyday you get to see this goliath piece of architecture up close. So as the sun set, thus concluded our day under the Gateway Arch in St. Louis.