Last Saturday we kicked off our wedding season with Kathryn & Jeff’s wedding at the Cathedral of the Incarnation, here in sunny Nashville, TN.  We provided a LOT of photographic coverage for this event, so forgive that this entry is a little longer than most.  Daniel and I shot for a hair over 15 hours each, and then we brought in a roll of white seamless paper and studio lighting to set up in a side room at the country club, where the wonderfully talented Kay Anderson was on hand to provide really fun group photos throughout the reception.  It was tough to distill 33 man-hours of wedding photography into a single blog post!

Kathryn prepared for the wedding at her family’s beautiful condo on West End, and some of my favorite moments were the exchanges of thoughtful gifts between family members.  I was particularly drawn to the reactions of Kathryn’s sister to her ring and Kathryn’s mother to her card, which are documented in this series.  Kathryn’s efforts at modesty while donning the dress created a fun moment as she struggled with her over-sized shirt.  Once dressed, Kathryn and I took a moment for a series of portraits, my favorite of which has her seated at the family Steinway.  Meanwhile, Daniel met the guys at Uncle’s Barber Shop, where Jeff was undergoing a straight-razor shave.  Daniel stayed with the guys as they traveled to the hotel to complete their preparations, and then on to the Cathedral.

At the Cathedral, Kathryn and Jeff chose to have a first-look, and I absolutely loved Kathryn’s expression as she showed her soon-to-be husband her gown.  We proceeded to the group portraits, and then final ceremony preparation.  One of my favorite shots of the day depicts Kathryn’s mother smiling as she brings the veil over her daughter’s head, moments before they all walked down the aisle together.  I also love the shot of the bride and her parents as they walk down the aisle: Kathryn is smiling so hard she looks about ready to burst.

After a beautiful ceremony, we took the Party Trolley over to Centennial Park for some group photos and portraits at the Parthenon. Inspiration credit on the group photo to my good friend Sam Hassas in San Jose, whose casual groups are always stunning.

I dearly love the portrait of Kathryn’s mother, which we shot outside while discussing how she felt about the day, and about her daughter. Its a beautiful expression, and one I hope Kathryn will treasure.

The reception kicked off at about 5pm at Richland Country Club in Brentwood. Now I have a LOT of wedding reception experience and I’ll be honest: when I saw the reception scheduled to go on until 11pm, I thought to myself: “no way is this party going to run that long. 9 or 10pm at MOST.” What I didn’t count on was the tenacious party spirit of this wedding’s guests and the fact that Kathryn and Jeff had hired the Pat Patrick Showband for entertainment throughout the evening. This party ran full steam until the band reluctantly relinquished the stage at 11pm: what a great performance! There’s a fun shot of front-man Gino Speight rockin’ the mike towards the end of the set. Also worth noting is that Kathryn changed into a dance-friendly dress for the reception, which is showcased in the photo where her father twirls her about the dance floor.

If you would like to register to see the entire (massive) set of images when they are released, with the option of ordering prints, please register at this link:

Wow, that was a lot of writing.

Thank you so much to Kathryn and Jeff, and the entire rest of the family for having us there to document this joyous occasion.

image by Daniel Shaw

image by Daniel Shaw

image by Daniel Shaw

image by Daniel Shaw

image by Daniel Shaw

images by Kay Anderson