Ashley & Chester Part 1 :)

I met Ashley over a year ago when she was searching for a wedding photographer.  She came to me via my Mom-In-Law, who works pretty closely with Ashley's Mom!  It was before Lisa and I became an "official" wedding photoging team, and I was pretty nervous.  It was my first non-friend/family member lead, and I knew they were interviewing other photogs.  I really didn't have a lot of confidence.  Plus, I technically had only photographed a few weddings at that point, so I didn't have the portfolio that we now have when we meet with potential brides and grooms.

I was optimistic, but also realistic on my chances.  There are a lot of amazing photogs in St. Louis.  One thing that I did take away from our meeting was the feeling I really "clicked" with Ashley, and I hoped that would carry a lot of weight when it came to decision making.

Lucky for me it must have, because I was super surprised, happy, excited, and thrilled when I got the call from Ashley saying that I had been chosen!!!!  It was a long wait, but their day finally arrived earlier this month.  We had exciting new Illinois locations to work in, and we had an amazingly temperate day to serve as our background . . .

Lisa and I had a bit of a role reversal for this wedding. Usually I shoot the guys and Lisa shoots the girls, but we did it differently this time...fun to mix things up :) Lisa had an absolute blast with these handsome boys.....she said she laughed A LOT.

Ashley's amazing gift to Chester, and gorgeous new watch and monogrammed cuff links. Love it!

Chester and his groomsmen had such great sense of humor....here they are showing Lisa their "guns". haha!

Can we just say...Chester and Ashley's children are going to have some amazing smiles :)

Loved the coozies they provided for all the wedding party members for their beverages on the ride to and from the church!

Ashley made these handkerchiefs totally by herself!!!  I was amazed by the incredible attention to detail and technique that she put into them :)  Her Mom is one of those women that has endless amounts of talent, and she makes absolutely stunning children's clothing for the Women's Exchange.  Ashley told me that she doesn't possess the same talents that her Mom does, but you never would have known that by looking at these!!!!

The Church that the ceremony was located at (a Church that has been a part of Ashley's family for a long long time) was having it's annual "Fall Festival". We loved that the boys wanted to take part of the fun....Chester was quite the hit at the dunking booth. The poor guy in there got very wet :)

LOVE this!

Lots of darling kiddos to photograph :)

We always love the sweet moments between a Daddy and his daughter right before the ceremony...these were extra sweet :)

 Chester's First Glimpse of Ashley.

Ashley & Chester,

We hope you enjoyed this glimpse of the 

first part of your day, as much as we did.

The second half will be even better,

and we will let you know as soon as it is up next week :)

What an amazing day it was!!!

Hugs,

Kelly & Lisa