Charlottesville Wedding Photographer: Jenny and Travis
Back in May, I had the privilege to introduce Jenny and Travis to you when I featured their engagement portraits. Now, I REALLY get to introduce them to you! I knew from the time that I finished their engagement session that their wedding was going to be a blast, but I had no idea just how fun it really would be. The whole day was anchored on Jenny's relaxed nature and her extreme ability to have things organized before yesterday's wedding. She is a planner at heart, but she also knew that if everything didn't work out 100% correctly, it would be just fine! Because she was so relaxed, everyone else felt at ease and nothing seemed to stress anyone out. Jenny, if the whole government employment thing doesn't work out for you, you'd have a bright career as a bridal consultant! Their wedding was held at the UVA chapel and their reception was at Siips Wine and Champagne Bar on the Downtown Mall. And because we were able to finish the family portraits before the ceremony, I had plenty of time to get some fun portraits of Jenny and Travis around the Mall. There are so many great options down there!
The rest of this post will mainly be photographs from their wedding day yesterday, but I feel the need to do a brief explanation on something because it needed to be explained to me! I can honestly say that I've never before met a couple that has a name for their relationship! Sparkle Motion. That's what they use to refer to their relationship! According to Urban Dictionary, Sparkle Motion means a "Phrase that can be used to describe something 'awesome.' Originally from the movie 'Donnie Darko,' where Sparkle Motion was the name of a dance group composed of little girls."
Sparkle Motion started an inside joke that took on a life of their own and they found numerous ways to tie it into their wedding to help make all the details personalized. That was the true beauty of this wedding. Jenny and Travis knew how they wanted it to go, they worked hard and planned it out, and then they were able to relax and truly enjoy their day. You can't get much better than that!
Many thanks to Wendy Ward who came along with me to did a stellar job helping photograph this wedding. Our son Zach turned five weeks old yesterday so Sarah is taking some time to stay home with him! Here are a few of our favorite images from their day. As always, you will find MANY more wedding photographs on our facebook page (and you don't need a facebook account to see them)! Enjoy!
Many of our couples opt for a first look before the ceremony as a way to calm the nerves as well as get 99% of the portraits completed before the ceremony. Jenny and Travis took it a step further and decided to have Travis come and finish getting ready with the whole family. This might be enough to shock some mothers of the bride out there, but it totally fit their personalities and made for a great start to the day. They rented a gorgeous condo downtown and we all had such a great time before heading out into the heat! Here they are with a last-minute rehearsal of the first dance! I think it is so cool that they took dance lessons in preparation for their reception!
Wendy got a great series of three great shots of Jenny just before the ceremony.
Sparkle Motion even made its way onto the marquee at the Paramount Theater across from Siips. Nice touch!
My daughters were slightly jealous when they saw the pictures of Jenny and Travis eating ice cream and riding on the carousel. I love the guy's expression on the left!
Another side note: Travis has a background in law enforcement and trains people in weapon safety! I just had to throw that out there before you see this next image of their rings on their cake-topper!
Given the nature of this job, I've seen quite a few toasts. I can name the most touching and the most sincere, but until last night, I couldn't really name the best ever. Well, this was it. Jenny's brother and maid of honor ended their toasts by singing (with guitar accompaniment) a personalized version of Elton John's "Don't Go Breaking My Heart." You can tell by the reaction of everyone in the room just how hilarious these two were!
Congratulations, you two! I hope you enjoy your time off!