Dorothy Ann and Matthew’s Amazing Solstice Fantasy Wedding

Dorothy Ann and Matthew first found me on a site called Offbeat Bride.  This site, as its name implies, is for the couple who is not looking for what would be called a “traditional” kind of wedding.  The people who come to Offbeat Bride definitely march to the beat of a different drummer.  I love (and thoroughly identify with) this kind of couple, which is why I advertise there.

A Little Backstory

When Dorothy Ann first contacted me almost a year ago she was very excited to tell me her ideas for her wedding, and for the engagement session that she was hoping to do very soon.  She and Matthew are huge fans of the “How To Train Your Dragon” movies, and wanted to do their engagement session with this as a theme.  I am also a big HTTYD fan, and thought this was a really cool and fun idea.  I’m not going to spend a lot of time talking about the session, but you can see it by clicking on this link – Forest Engagement Photo Session with HTTYD Theme.  This session was an absolute blast, and I came away from it very excited to work with Dorothy Ann and Matthew again at their wedding.

OK, a little more info on Dorothy Ann and Matthew.  As well as HTTYD, they are also heavily into Star Wars, Star Trek, Game of Thrones and JRR Tolkien.  I am also very much into all of these things, and the more the three of us “geeked out” about our shared interests the more intrigued I was about their wedding plans.  Dorothy Ann told me early on that she would be carrying a Kylo Ren lightsaber at the wedding, though she did not fill me in on all of their other plans at that time.  Oh, and they have a pair of rabbits named Bolton and Balish; two names that should be familiar to all Game of Thrones fans!  The more I got to know Matthew and Dorothy Ann, the more I liked them!  I really felt like I had found a couple of kindred spirits, and as I just mentioned this only made me more excited to be their photographer.

Getting Ready

Back to the wedding!  Because the wedding was taking place on the shortest day of the year, I knew that our opportunities for outdoor photos would be very limited, even if the weather was cooperative.  The couple were fine with that, and only had a few photos that they wanted to do outside if possible.  I arrived at the church, Maple Leaf Lutheran, at about 2PM.  Dorothy Ann had already gotten into her dress, so we just did a few last-minute dressing room shots before moving on to the First Look.  Dorothy Ann had spent a lot of time on her photo list and had done a great job of planning out the pre-ceremony timing; something that I always appreciate!  Of course, weddings being what they are the best schedule in the world is still subject to others being able/willing to follow that schedule, and I had warned Dorothy Ann that we would likely end up needing to make adjustments.

The First Look went perfectly, and we moved on to other photos the couple wanted, some of my favorites of which you will see below.  I had discovered during the engagement session that Matthew and Dorothy Ann were very willing to listen to any ideas that I had for photos, and were very good at following directions.  They had also done an excellent job of leaving plenty of time for their photo session, something that many couples have trouble with.

As you look at Matthew in the photos, please be sure and notice the very nice Star Trek pin he is wearing.  Dorothy Ann sent me a pin as well, a Hand of the King from Game of Thrones.  I very proudly wore this pin to the wedding, and plan to use it at future weddings as well.

As I mentioned earlier, Dorothy Ann had a very nice Kylo Ren lightsaber that she bought just for the wedding, and I turned off all of the lights in the sanctuary so we’d be able to get some photos with the lightsaber. It was still a bit brighter than I would have liked (still lots of daylight), but we had fun and got several good shots.  We knew that we’d be able to get more photos after the ceremony when it would be much darker.  But the remaining daylight worked great for some photos with the stained glass windows.  Again, you’ll see some of these below.

Of course, we also had to do the somewhat less exciting standard bride, groom and wedding party photos, as well as the family photos 😉  The Fellowship of the Rings (wedding party at a typical wedding) consisted of bridesmaids Amelia Waggoner and Laura Williams, and the groomsmen were Brian Hecox and McGill Chisholm.  Wendy Beard was the mother of the bride, and Mark and Ann Thorsteinson were the parents of the groom.  Pastor Julie Blum was the officiant.

The Wedding Ceremony

Once we finished all of the needed pre-ceremony photos, it was time for Dorothy Ann to move to the basement as the guests began to arrive for the ceremony.  Wedding ceremonies almost never start on time, but this was a rare exception!  The guests were all in place in the sanctuary when the clock hit the scheduled start time, and the ceremony began.  It was a very nice traditional ceremony with a few extras thrown in by Dorothy Ann and Matthew, including a very cool handfasting ceremony.

Once the ceremony was completed the guests all headed to the basement, where the reception was to take place.  The newlyweds hid out for a few minutes and then re-entered the sanctuary for Round Two of our “fun photos”.  In addition to Dorothy Ann’s lightsaber they now got out Matthew’s Jedi lightsaber, which they had bought just a few days earlier.  The sun had now set, and once the lights in the sanctuary were turned off the only light remaining was from the candles and the lightsabers.  We played around with different photo ideas in the sanctuary for awhile, then moved outside for a few photos that Dorothy Ann really wanted; she kept her lightsaber for these shots but Matthew had to give his up! 😛

The Reception

Even though we were having a lot of fun coming up with more ways to use lightsabers in photos, the guests were all waiting for the newlyweds to make an appearance and get the reception underway.  So we finished up our last photos and headed downstairs.  The room had been decorated to give the appearance of being outdoors under the stars.  The table decorations were something I had never seen before; which considering Dorothy Ann and Matthew should not have been much of a surprise!  They had created very cool signs of famous mythical couples, a different sign for each table.  But not just your typical famous couples like Romeo and Juliet; instead there were Pygmalion & Galatea, Psyche & Eros, and Hades & Persephone among others.  You’ll see some samples below.  So original!  Did I already mention how much I like this couple?  😀

But my favorite was the decorations of their own table, a beautiful box engraved with their initials and wedding date and surrounded by the three Night Lights.  And if you don’t know what the Night Lights are, you REALLY need to watch the three HTTYD movies!

They began the reception by doing their first dance, which was appropriately “For the Dancing and the Dreaming” from HTTYD Two . Once the dance was finished the buffet line was opened and everyone grabbed some food.  I found the Meat Pies to be especially tasty. 🙂

From there the rest of the reception was a very mellow party, with everyone enjoying each other’s company.  Matthew and Dorothy Ann made their way around the room and tried to personally greet all of their guests.  Once everyone had finished their dinner it was time for the cake.  Again, this was a cake unlike any I have ever seen and I have photographed roughly 1200 weddings.  The cake was a beautiful Hobbit house (actually “burrow” would be more accurate) on a green field.  Very nicely done, and quite tasty too!  The cake was created by Hillcrest Bakery, click the link and check them out.

Unfortunately the party finally had to come to an end.  Dorothy Ann changed out of her wedding dress and the couple made their exit.  I got a few last photos outdoors with the Christmas light still in place outside the church, and managed to convince Dorothy Ann (and no, it wasn’t very difficult) to carry her lightsaber for some of these shots.

I hope you’ll check out the photo below.  This is only a small number of the photos that I shot at the wedding, and if you were one of the guests and would like to see more I suggest you contact the couple and they can point you to the complete gallery of their photos.