The Shrine of Christ's Passion Wedding Photos

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For Stacey and Steve's Spring wedding we took our formal wedding photos at The Shrine of Christ's Passion in St. John, Indiana.  This internationally known tourist attraction sits just in front of the new St. John the Evangelist Church.  It's a unique location for wedding photos and we were able to give the appearance of a mountainous area as seen in the photo of our bride facing the large duplicate of Jesus' cross.

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One of the couple's favorite wedding photos was this casual stroll amongst the greenery of The Shrine of Christ's Passion walkway.

I knew that Stacey was a big fan of selective color shots from their engagement session the previous year.  The groom instinctively helped his bride hold onto the bouquet of flowers while they embraced closely together.

The wedding party patiently waited for our couple's session to end and we gathered them all around the circular drive of the spectacular new church.

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Here is another one of my favorites with the bride and groom at the bottom of the hilltop with the church illuminated in the background.

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Below is one of my designed wedding images.  This is one I call the Love Story Canvas Wrap.  It's 20x24 sized wall print that wraps around wood and comes with a saw tooth hanger for immediate hanging.  All of our packages are digital, but still nothing beats a spectacular looking wall print.

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Finally we have the wonderful couple waving to all of their family and friends in this vintage looking wedding photo.  To see more of Stacey and Steve's Catholic wedding ceremony, visit this post from a couple of weeks ago.

Megan and Austin's Fall Wedding Pt.3 (Formals)

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After the ceremony at St. Michael's Church, we corralled immediate family together for posed shots around the altar.  I tend to go conservative for these shots as we are in a place of worship and I want to be respectful at all times.  It's not a hard and fast rule, but we usually take the wedding party out on location for "looser" shots at a local park, the beach or wherever we decide beforehand.

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Here is one of my favorites and the image chosen by Megan and Austin for the front cover of their wedding album.

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We then trekked out to Ellendale Farms in Crown Point, Indiana which is a very picturesque neighborhood with a large gazebo in the middle of it.  At this point their was still a threat of rain and storms but they never did materialize.  We had the gazebo to hide under if it did rain.  Our Plan B were the umbrellas I brought and also shooting in the lobby of the Radisson Hotel at Star Plaza.  This is where Megan and Andrew would be staying for their first night as man and wife. The weather held up so we never went to the hotel.

I decided to use the ominous sky as a backdrop for the groom and his groomsmen...

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One of my favorite images of the bride Megan....

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This wedding party was certainly a fun one and it shows in even these more "serious" group shots...

Many more shots of Austin and Megan's Fall Wedding can be found at my alter ego, the SBV Photography website.  Stay tuned for the next installment where we take a look at some highlights from the Reception at The Patrician in Schererville, Indiana.

Heather and Flo's Autumn Wedding Pt. 3

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I always like to put a few collages together for the bride and groom.  The above image consists of Heather's bouquet, their "bride and groom" champagne glasses and a shot taken right after the ceremony.

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Immediately after the ceremony ends is when I like to do group shots with parents, aunts, uncles, etc.  I tend to go a little more traditional with these than wedding party shots or couple shots. Grandmas tend to not go for those jump in the air, waving your flowers around images!!  :)  

After we get all of these, I like to go to another scene with the wedding party.  It's important to change scenery for the sake of the wedding album.  Imagine page after page of the same background, that can be quite boring.

Getting folks together for formal pictures can be quite the challenge.  It always seems like someone is always drifting off somewhere.  A word of advice for newlyweds, designate someone to be in charge of gathering family members for the group photos.  This will make things go quick and smooth.

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I tend to work large and then medium and then break things down to just the couple.  In these shots, I told Heather and Flo to just be man and wife for awhile.  I advised them to just be natural, while you know, my assistant and I swirl around them with a gigantic lens and lighting!! Seriously though, folks always get the hang of it as did Heather and Flo.

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Heather gets the award for bravest Bride as she gleefully maneuvered the rocks along the lake in heels!!

Heather kind of just handed the bouquet off to Flo while she hopped across rocks and I thought that was a unique image, the groom holding the bouquet.

This next formal was actually taken before the ceremony at her aunt's house.  We found a shady spot in the backyard just minutes before leaving for the ceremony.

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Below is our happy, sun kissed bride!!  To view more formal shots, please visit Heather and Flo's Outdoor Formals.

CHRIS & ELISE: WEDDING AT VALPARAISO UNIVERSITY PT.4

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When I arrived at the church, Chris was waiting with his family so we decided to take some formal shots until Elise arrived and we arranged their pre ceremony meeting.  We got a few in with his family included these two with his Dad and his best man.

Chris takes the award for calmest groom ever.  Here he is chillin' just as I was receiving notice of Elise's arrival.

After this shot we went to the side of the church to put Chris in a hidden away area for the big meeting chronicled in Pt.2.  It was at this time that he showed me a bag stashed outside in a corner that had all the frisbees for our wedding party shot out on the big lawn...

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One of our other pre planned stops was the spiral staircase inside of Chapel of the Resurrection.  We took several versions.  Be sure to enlarge the images for a better view...

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A quick one, just seconds before the ceremony was to begin at the entrance of the spiral staircase...

It was one heck of a bright sunny day and I wanted to make sure these guys didn't fry in the sun so I turned their backs to the light and used some flash to make sure their faces could be seen. The bridesmaids were a lot of fun willing to endure multiple shots so I didn't get any blinkers in the bunch.

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The kissing bridge is practically right off Route 30 close to the south entrance of Valparaiso University.  I gave these guys a spot to stand and they did the rest...

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There is no way we could not use that spectacular stained glass window as a backdrop for a few...

One of the things I'm known for is photo montages like the one that begins this post and the one below.  This one is actually one photograph.

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Hey, we can't forget about the groomsmen in Reservoir Dogs mode...

For parents and aunts, uncles, etc. I tend to go more traditional, meaning no frisbee tosses!!

Lastly, I leave you with a shot of the entire wedding party gathered around a grand piano in the choir loft of the chapel.  Tune in tomorrow for the Reception.

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