Kansas photographer going to Peculiar, MO

As a professional wedding photographer located in Wichita, KS, I was THRILLED when Nancy (Allison's mom) reached out wanting to book her daughter's wedding. It was quite funny actually, I've never heard of the town called Peculiar, MO and I thought it was "peculiar" that they wanted a Kansas photographer to photograph their wedding! All laugh's aside, I was extremely honored to travel for their wedding, and the best part? They didn't book just me, they booked my best friend Chelsey as the videographer as well! We couldn't believe we were chosen to travel to Missouri for this special occasion.

The week leading up to the wedding, we were hard at work trying to book our hotel, finishing client galleries, and creating a packing list for the trip. We ended up booking our hotel at the Quality INN in Belton, MO which was only a few minutes from the wedding venue. Needless to say, we are never cheaping out on a hotel again! The day before leaving was so busy. We were charging our batteries, cleaning the lenses and camera sensors, pre-packing our wedding day essentials, all of the wedding prep we do before the big day! We were so excited to get the ball rolling!

The drive from Wichita to Peculiar was only about 3 hours but when a wedding is on the line, we wanted to make sure we left plenty of travel time for pit stops, emergencies, road construction you name it. We would rather be an hour early than not leave enough time for unexpected delays! Once we triple checked our packing list we grabbed our favorite road trip snacks - sour patch kids, red bulls (okay that's just me), onion rings - and headed for the road! The Dogwood Gardens, here we come!

Rustic wooden gazebo decorated with orange ribbons and floral arrangements for an outdoor wedding.

Elegant white lantern centerpiece with pampas grass on a rust-colored table runner at a wedding.

Wedding sweetheart table decor featuring a glowing letter A, white lantern, and burnt orange rose.

The most relaxing wedding I've ever been to

For trusting someone you've never met to capture your wedding day, Allison and Nancy were SO sweet when we first met them! They were so excited to have us there and really helped us feel calm about being in a town we've never heard of, at a venue we've never been to and people we've never met in person before. Wedding details are normally the first thing we take care of on a wedding day! It helps keep everyone relaxed instead of pressured to finish getting ready for photos. It normally takes us 45 minutes to an hour depending on how many details there are on our shot-list! Her decorations and floral were just absolutely perfect and you wanna know who did them?? NANCY!! HER MOTHER! We were truly impressed at how professional her decor looked for someone who's never done it before! It was so good that Chelsey, who is currently engaged, is thinking very seriously of asking Mrs. Nancy to do her floral!

After getting all of the details needed, we found Noah and his guys for their portraits. His little groomsmen were just so stinking cute!! Have you ever seen it take 5 people to put a boutonniere on.. well I have! I'm not exactly sure why, but we just could NOT get Noah's boutonniere to stay on. His dad tried, his mother tried, I tried, we all tried and eventually made it work but we were all laughing so hard about it taking 5 people to put it on!

Smiling bearded groom having a white rose boutonniere pinned to his black suit jacket.

Groom laughing as groomsmen and young ring bearers playfully pile on him outdoors.

Older woman pinning a succulent boutonniere onto a smiling bearded groom in a black suit.

After finishing up all of the wedding party images it was time for Allison and Noah's first look with each other. We thought the perfect spot would be under these trees full of fall foliage right across a small runoff from the venue's pond. I made sure to put my 28-75mm zoom lens on so I could get some wide shots and close ups at the same time! For some reason.. and I hope he's forgiven me by now.. but I kept calling Noah - Nathan.. Which I think is because I have photographed a groom named Nathan before and they must've been thinking about me that day (old wives tale?)! But it was just hilarious when I was trying to get him into position I kept calling him the wrong name and eventually I got Noah down! I'm really glad we could all laugh at the fact my brain wasn't working right that day! Any who, we positioned Noah facing away from the venue so we could walk Allison down across the field where we then told him to face the opposite way from her. I know that sounds a bit complicated but you can see how beautiful the images turned out from the set up!

Following immediately after was their private vows they shared together. I love when couples choose to do this because it's such a beautiful and intimate moment they get to share together for the rest of their lives! It's so touching to hear them promise things to each other, things that mean the most to them, and watching them both cry is my melting point. There's just something about seeing a grown man cry happy tears for their soon to be wife that brings out the water works in all of us! It was such a beautiful moment that set up the rest of their special evening. View some of my favorite images from their wedding day below!