Our Wedding Day: The Photographic Tour

I took a stack of wedding photos into work yesterday. I didn't want to make a big show of it, but the two girls I sit next to had wanted to see them. But it quickly turned into someone walking by, saying "oooh what's that?" "Wedding photos!" "Oooh, I want to see!"

So how could I say no to showing off the photographic evidence of the best day ever? 

People were especially amused or confused by our picks for our posed photo spots. Reactions from some of our photos ranged from "Your bridesmaids look so young!" to "Why did you take a picture in the middle of the street?" to "You walked all over campus in your dress?" 

But for real, they loved them. And I loved peeping over their shoulders with the biggest smile on my face while they flipped through, and I got to relive our wedding day--again. That's pretty much the best thing ever.

Several weeks before our wedding, I met with Meagan Jepson, our photographer, to show her the church and give her some ideas I had on where I wanted to take photos. Throughout my four years at Penn State, I had been slowly gathering potential wedding spots in my mind as I would walk to class every day. The side of Old Main on the steps? Yes. In front of the restored State Theatre? Perfect. On the stools of the College Diner? Hmm...too much? Nah. It'll be awesome. I had even come up with the perfect route for making sure to hit all the wedding spots in the short period of time that we had. Meagan excitedly scribbled them all down in her notebook, also pointing out spots in the church that would be great for indoor photos. 

It was when I went to share the ideas with other people that I had one of my only Bridezilla-esque moments. A lot of folks, including my fabulous fiance, weren't sure that we would be able to hit all of those spots in the hour that we had to take photos. The plan involved getting all 20 guys and gals of the bridal party up to Old Main, situated for photos, and then working our way down College Avenue to get the rest of the shots I wanted. Even our wedding coordinator at the Elks was hesitant to say it would work.  This might have caused a bit of a meltdown. I had been dreaming of having wedding photos at these spots for years, and I was going to make it work. Dammit. 

So after stressing the importance to everyone of how we were going to have to move quickly (and sending out a wedding day itinerary that included all the photo spots so there would be no confusion) everyone hopped in the cars and headed up to Old Main on campus after the crowd had began to disperse at the church. We had to take turns with a few other wedding parties, but we got the shots at Old Main. And they were amazing.

*Photos by Meagan Jepson Photography

Next, the bridal party got back in their cars to head up to the reception, and Ian and I made our way downtown with the photographers to get the rest of the perfect shots. And stopped for some impromptu ones along the way.

We popped into the Diner and got some of my favorite vintage-y shots.

And then made our way to the State Theatre, which just happened to have just let out of a movie so the lights were on (!!!!) and took some more of my favorite pictures. OK, they all are my favorite.

With the last snap of the camera, Meagan said it was time to head up the reception. 

Proving that, while in all other areas of my life my timing is terrible, it was spot-on for our wedding day. And I got to take our photographic tour of State College in my wedding dress.