Sneak Peek: Mike and Kelly's Autumn Wedding in Griffith, Indiana

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Mike and Kelly had some wonderful autumn colors for their wedding at St. Mary's church in Griffith, Indiana. Today we give you a sneak peek of the Getting Ready in Schererville to ceremony and formals in Griffith up to the reception at Chetniks Memorial Hall.  More images and behind the scenes commentary to come at a later date.

The bride to be was all smiles when she received a delivery of flowers from her soon to be husband Mike.  These came complete with an "insider" humorous note that only Kelly understood.  Of course, she explained it all to us.  Good luck with your new last name Kelly!!

The Schererville neighborhood had great Fall leaves everywhere and made for a nice scene for some quick bride and bridesmaids photographs before the limousine would wisk them away to the ceremony.

Wedding photography can be dangerous!!  This bridesmaid may be laughing, but the sudden stop of the maniacal postal driver moments before was a bit startling!!!

The ceremony at St. Mary's Church in Griffith started out with the cute ring bearer walking down the aisle.  I hope someone got a picture of him high fiving me as he walked past.

The bride walks down the aisle flanked by her parents...

The church is a beautiful building.  Here the bride and groom pray during the ceremony...

Family photos were done inside the church immediately following the ceremony and we ended with a few moody couples shots in a dark area of the church of the new Mr. and Mrs. Mucha.

Soon we went to go enjoy the wonderful Fall colors of Griffith Park with the entire wedding party...

Our next destination was Oak Ridge Prairie, also in Griffith.  Here is one of the happy couple strolling as the Autumn leaves fall upon them...

The wedding day ended at Chetniks Memorial Hall in Schererville with dinner and dancing.  Kelly had the tables decorated to show off the Fall season and sentiments of the day.

Many more images to follow from throughout the day.  Subscribe to the Journal here and / or the SBV Photography Facebook page for more updates.

A Villa Cesare Wedding Reception with Jackie and Brandon

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Wow, what an epic night of fun for Jackie and Brandon's reception at Villa Cesare Banquet Hall in Highland, Indiana.  Great guests, great food, terrific entertainment and a couple deeply in love made for a perfect mix of ingredients.  Let's dig in...

As we waited for the entrance announements, I went around the room taking detail shots and candids like the one above of the flower girl in the air courtesy of her Dad who was one of the groomsmen.

The bride and groom raised their arms in triumph as they entered the vast hall to cheering guest....

Parents of the newlyweds were all smiles as the champagne toast was about to begin.

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The structure of Villa Cesare is quite striking as you can see in this wide shot of guests raising their champagne glasses...

First dances began soon after dinner with the happy couple taking center stage on the vast dance floor...

Jackie's Dad gives her a spin during the Father and Daughter Dance...

It didn't take long after that for the DJ to fire up the fog machine and the crazy fun to begin...

Half woman, half chicken?  It's the chicken dance taken quite literally....

Every direction I turned had smiling faces staring back at me...

Happy wedding guests in hard hats....

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I'm thinking they are playing Y.M.C.A. by the Village People in this next photo....

Mother of the bride hams it up on the dance floor while Dad shares a laugh with one of his bridesmaid daughters...

Balloons, straw hats and dipping brides = good, clean fun!!

It truly was an epic wedding reception at Villa Cesare Banquet Hall in Highland.  Our newly married couple got a chance at a few last dances toward the end of the evening.  A few balloons remained and the fog machine was still running although I have a feeling that the Jackie and Brandon custom wine bottles were all but empty at this point.....

Click here to view the entire gallery of Jackie and Brandon's Fall Wedding.

White Hawk Country Club Wedding: Linda and Tom's Sneak Peek.

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As you will be able to see from this sneak peek of Linda and Tom's wedding at White Hawk Country Club, the sky was looking ominous and threatening rain.  I believe we had a few sprinkles during the ceremony, but that was about it.

Taking a look at the above image of the golf course and of the girls below, the early part of the day was a sunny and warm Fall day.  Linda and Tom are clearly in love so even if we had had hit some cold temps, they would have warmed the place up.  No doubt they are a great couple and I had a blast photographing their big day.

Linda has to be the quickest dressing bride I have ever met!!  We didn't do the traditional Getting Ready shots and within minutes of arriving she already had her dress on and was going over her decorations at White Hawk's clubhouse for the reception later that night.

As a fan of weeping willow trees, it didn't take much to get her to pose beneath the gorgeous one that sits upon the White Hawk golf course...

Tom, the groom was on the other side of the building practicing his fake getaway....

Linda's son and Tom's son both stood up in the wedding.  Here they are with their congratulatory cigars...

Linda's daughter and Tom's daughter were also part of the wedding party.  Here they are posing in front of the creek that runs through the White Hawk grounds...

White Hawk Country Club provides great scenery for an outdoor wedding.  Here the bride gives her son a kiss as they walk down the aisle together....

The gazebo has the golf course greenery as it's backdrop.  Here the wedding party listens to the officiator's words of wisdom...

Linda's deceased mom holds a special place in her heart and she played an important role in the ceremony proceedings with the couple paying their respects.

We rode a limousine style golf cart deeper into White Hawk for some wedding party photos on the greenery. The skies were quite dramatic at this point, but still no rain.

The White Hawk clubhouse is a wonderful spot for a reception with the built in steakhouse providing delicious food.  Here the newlyweds take their first dance together...

Many more images to come from Linda and Tom's gorgeous Fall wedding at White Hawk country club in Crown Point.  Subscribe to this Journal and "like" the Facebook page to receive updates and a link to the full galleries when all the images are ready for viewing.

Photo Booths at the Wedding Reception

Every once in awhile I notice another vendor at a wedding that really stands out.  I usually get really busy with editing of the images and meeting new clients that sometimes I forget to point out these exceptional businesses.  I plan a few more of these spotlight posts, but today I will concentrate on a fun reception phenomenon that has really taken off this year - the Photo Booth.  Hey everything that is old is new again, right?!!

I have seen many of these in 2011 and I believe the best of the bunch is Memories in Minutes.  I like to take a peak at the images that come out of these machines both for the shock value (it's a private booth & supposed to be silly) and the print quality.  Now, none of these machines are going to produce images with great lighting that you can hang as a wall portrait.  That is not their purpose.  However, you do want to have photos that are at least on par with a small point and shoot.  Many times I see very low quality images getting spit out, but the Memories in Minutes folks had a higher quality.  They also are extremely friendly and are greeting and helping your guests in and out of the booth.  Visit their website for details as I'm only going off of memory here, but I have seen them filling a nice looking album with the images.  It appeared to me that it get's delivered to the bride and groom at the end of the night.  Very cool.

I imagine this could be one of those things that may be taken lightly, but as usual, quality does matter.  I can attest that they are professional and will do a good job for you on your reception night.  Oh, as bride and groom, don't forget to stop into the booth yourselves.  Have fun!!