You Make My Dreams Come True: We're Headed to the Chapel.. For Formal Portraits

Chapel/church - Same difference! After we finished our pictures I hopped back in the car with my wonderful MOH A and was about 10000 times calmer than I had been when we left the hotel. I cannot imagine what the day would've been like had we not done a first look and I hadn't been able to see and talk with David. I was finally just plain HAPPY and excited about the day! I'd totally forgotten about anything that had gone wrong, and I decided I wasn't going to let anything ruin the rest of the day.

I even tweeted a picture of myself (since I had loved when other brides did that!) and you guys were so stinkin sweet. 

I have seriously met some of the BEST people through this blog. I loved seeing all of the little well wishes throughout the day. 

Once we arrived at the church we started with the formal portraits. We took all of our family pictures except for the few large ones of whole sides of the family before the ceremony. I would highly suggest making a list of the formal pictures you want (although I know some photographers carry one) - I've realized since the wedding that we didn't get pictures with only our grandparents, we didn't get one with just my immediate family (parents, younger brother, and David and me), didn't get one with our officiant, etc. I know formal portraits are boring for anyone who doesn't know the people in them, so I'll just share some of my favorites.

David's family

David's siblings (cropped by me)

With his mom

David's parents

Those last two are some of my all-time favorite pictures of him! He looked so good!

Love my dad SO much!

Love my momma SO much too! And that this was unposed.

 My siblings

 Our wonderful ushers!

And lastly, the whole family pictures:

David's extended family

My extended family on my dad's side 

(We're too big to fit in one picture!)

My mom's side - Aren't my grandparents precious?!

The kiddos get their own post tomorrow - They're too darn cute. :)

I know this wasn't one of my more exciting posts, but maybe it'll give you some ideas of groups/pictures that you definitely want and some that you could do without. I wasn't big on doing the formal portraits (and it was a pain in the butt to get everyone in the right place at the right time) but I'm so glad now that we have them. I wish we even had a few more than we got, including one of just David and me at the front of the church. I know at least my grandparents would want a traditional picture to frame. Oh well, hopefully you're able to learn from my mistakes!

Tip # 8: Make a list of the posed portraits you want and the ones that aren't as important to you. Maybe even put them in order of importance so that you're sure to get the ones you really want even if you're running low on time!

*All pictures in this post were taken by Brandi Coldwell of Lola Jo Photo Design*

Need to catch up? 

We started on Thursday.

We decorated Friday morning.

We rehearsed.

We got pretty!

I put on my dress. 

We had our first look!

The guys had their turn. 

The girls stole the show. 

We got some fun bridal party pictures. 

We took bride & groom portraits.