Heather Neal Photography

This lovely couple already had their wedding elsewhere and asked me to capture their reception back home in Kansas City. Showing up and jumping straight to the party was a fun change for me! This location was new to me as well and I’m not sure how but I never even new it was there. The Rhapsody is tucked away in Independence and is a beautiful space for a reception or party and the nice people there made sure every need was met. I even got a walkie talkie to communicate with the dj and ask for him to send certain people out for photos! LOL. You can bet I’m thinking of purchasing this luxury for all of my future weddings! Even though this wasn’t a full wedding I still have a lot of favorite things so I’m still incorporating that into my blog post, as usual. Here goes:

The location: As I said, so helpful and handy. Also for not being a huge location, there were a ton of beautiful places for photos.

The Meatballs: The bride and mother of the groom made the food for the reception and made these meatballs by hand. One of the perks of being a wedding photographer is that I get to eat they yummy food. These were by far the best meatballs I have ever had!

The games: I love how the old traditions of the dollar dance, hokey pokey, etc. are being replaced with fun games at the reception instead. The “shoe game” is always a hilarious one and the scavenger hunt musical chairs style is a blast to watch as well.

The father daughter dance. This one almost always makes my favorties list. Hits me in the feels.

I love weddings. I’ve been to my share of them…definitely more than the average person and that makes all of the little things that make each one stand out a little more obvious to me than to most people. That’s why when I blog about weddings I like to share my favorite things about each one.

This one would have to start with FAMILY. I have worked with this family before which alway is a treat beause A) It’s always nice to already know the people I’m going to be with all day and B) because it’s a huge compliment when your clients love the work you are doing and how you are taking care of them enough to keep coming back. I took this bride’s High School Senior Portraits a few years ago and then a couple of year’s later I took her brother’s. They are such a nice family and I’m glad they keep giving me excuses to see them again.

The other thing that stood out about this wedding for me was LOVE. That sounds silly because of course there is love at every wedding (hopefully), but as I watched Hannah and Michael together, not only was that love literally visable, but I remember several moments where I remember thinking “I hope when my daughter finds someone, they look at her the way Michael looks at Hannah”. I saw a lot of those moments when editing their photos again and a couple of my favorites are below: I caught Michael happily checking out the ring on his new bride’s hand and then the one on his own.

The LOCATION for this wedding is one of my favortites as well. This was my second wedding at Milestones Barn in Warrensburg, MO. and it is a beautiful location that makes my job easy and fun! Nancy from Miletones is a pleasure to work with and very accomodating!

And lastly, I have to mention the FOOD. Funny thing…when I first started doing weddings, I felt awkward eating and would try to get by on some nuts and a protein bar. Through the years I learned that was dumb and if I was going to be shooting for up to 10 hours straight I needed to eat a little more that that to keep from passing out and have the energy to capture everything from the applying lipstick and mascara to the crazy moves on the dance floor so I just started informing people at their consultation I would grab a quick bite and they usually just look at me like “well, duh”. Anyway, I shoot a lot of rural weddings east of Kansas City and this is probably my 3rd or 4th that has used Plowboys BBQ out of Marshall, MO for catering and it is sooooo good.

I can’t wait to see what the future holds for this sweet and fun couple and wish them many years of happines!

This was such a lovely late spring wedding at the First Baptist Church in Lee’s Summit, MO and SUCH a sweet couple. Usually I have already shot a few weddings by June but this wedding actually kicked off my wedding season and it was a great start to a busy year of “I do’s”. One of my favorite things to do when blogging about weddings is play “My favorite things”. As someone who attends A LOT more weddings than the average person I think it’s interesting and fun to take a look back at what stands out to me and what I loved most about each one, so here are my faves from this beautiful day:

1) The tradition. So many weddings today include all kinds of unique things to really stand out and usually those are some of the things you can find on my “favorite things” list. What stood out to me in this case though was the charming and comforting tradition that you don’t see that often anymore. I hadn’t realized how much I had missed a good church wedding!

2) The Father/daughter/grandfather dance. Ok, this is really #1. The father daughter dance gets me every time. I think it’s because I know how quickly time is flying and I can just picture my husband and daughter on her wedding day every time I watch a bride and her father. Although it’s not just me, these are often the biggest tear-jerking moments in most of the weddings I shoot. So at this particular wedding when grandpa cut in, well…let’s just say it’s hard to shoot through tears. But luckily I managed to capture it all.

3) The slideshow. There were multiple big screens with slideshows of the bride and groom from their childhood all the way through the present playing during the entire reception which was a lot of fun!

4) The bouquet/garter toss. So perfect. The girls eagerly hoping to catch the bouquet with a few little girls who are dreaming of someday being a bride especially hoping to be the lucky catcher and then a bunch of guys standing around hoping NOT (or at least acting like it) to catch the garter.

Congratulations and many happy years to this lovely couple!