JOSH + SUSAN FOWLER
Adventure seekers   //  15 years of marriage
5 kids  //  2 businesses  //  We like living life to the fullest

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Weddings // Williamsburg Winery // Mikaela + Michael

This wedding was all about the details!  There were sunglasses & coozies for all the attendees, thousands of rose petals covering the aisles, monogrammed robes & personalized bags for the bridesmaids, bubbles, glowsticks, and two amazing choreographed dances, all mixed in with a hundred other beautiful details.  It was completely breathtaking and so neat to see their personal touch on everything.  And can we talk about her dress for a minute?  Wow!!

I could talk about this wedding forever, but I’ll spare you & share some pictures!  I’ll add some commentary throughout because some things just can’t be explained in pictures.  And that’s why we’re excited to share a highlight film of their special day later on!  If you like what you see here, will you Like us on Facebook?  Then you’ll be the first to know when we have the highlight film completed!Please notice the amazing blue skies…They had this beautiful box & during the ceremony, put a bottle of wine & love letters in it.  They nailed it shut & will open it on their first anniversary!Those rose petals… beautiful!And check out the skies now! This cake!  Mikaela’s jaw dropped when she saw it.  She was blown away– and so was everyone else.  It was stunning– and delicious!Those rings- wow!!I’ve seen this on Pinterest & always loved it.  I was so excited when Mikaela said she had the chalkboards for each bridesmaid to write where they met.  I’m sure they all have tons of pictures of the two of them, and this was a fun way to add a spin on it for her wedding day!Mikaela had read this post from Elizabeth + Chad’s wedding and decided to do a dress reveal to her bridesmaids as well!  It really is nice because it made it less chaotic while she was getting her dress on, gave some special time with her mom & sister, and allowed the bridesmaids some down time to tie up loose ends before the ceremony without worrying about being in pictures.  The suite they were getting dressed in had a bedroom upstairs where she got dressed, then came down the stairs.Her dad was waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs and that was another powerful & sweet moment!  I love when things are scheduled to allow time for everyone to enjoy the moment.  It makes everything more relaxed.Mikaela + Michael decided to make a special time before the ceremony to see each other, then take some pictures.  I am so glad they did, since it started raining immediately after the ceremony!  It was also great because they got to enjoy more of the day together.We direct the groom where to stand for the best lighting, but after that, we just let them enjoy the moment & we focus on capturing their real emotions.  We use long lenses so that we’re not part of that moment! Oh here come the rain clouds!  We had to step inside for a few minutes right in the middle of family pictures.  And they had a lot of family!  Thankfully, everyone had great attitudes & enjoyed the air conditioning.  🙂The flower girl… oh my word… she was too funny!  She wasn’t really into dropping the petals on the ground.  At the end of the aisle we found out why… she was saving them all for the grooms head!A horse & carriage?  Dreamy!No, Michael’s not having second thoughts… he’s just sweating through every bit of his clothing due to the heat!Do you see the raindrops?  Kind of beautiful!These two are in great spirits considering it’s pouring rain on them!And this isn’t what it looks like.  Mikaela is practically sprinting to get inside & Michael’s plan of carrying the umbrella for her turned into chasing her!  He really was trying to be a gentleman!But we’ll forgive the rain because of this magical shot…You know you’re saying all the right things during your toast if this is the brides face!That funny face?  That’s after he tried to dip her… and she refused!A total surprise to the bride, her dad had planned a Footloose entrance with her bridesmaids!  And they rocked it.And the bridesmaids didn’t know… that Mikaela & her dad had this dance planned!This was an awesome way to do dances– they played spin the bottle, and whoever the bottle pointed to after the spin had to dance in the middle of the floor!  At one point, someone put down a new bottle, and pointed it straight towards Josh, our videographer.  And like any great videographer, he passed off the camera to the closest guest & got down to business on the dance floor!Do I even need to caption this?Well, I should say… she started it!Yes, that’s our bride doing selfies with the video camera (above).  We love trying new things to make each video totally unique!

And this is our second bride this year to crowd surf.  It sounds crazy, but I think this should be a new trend– it’s awesome!

Congratulations Michael + Mikaela!

  1. […] check out their wedding pictures here, and Mikaela’s awesome father-daughter dance […]

  2. […] the longer everything will take.  The best example we had of buffer times & large families was Mikaela & Michael’s wedding this past summer.  Mikaela knew she had a crazy big family, 18 people in their bridal […]