Katie & Sean : Wedding

Katie & Sean knew what they wanted, and knew they wouldn’t have long to plan it. In just a handful of months, they put together a wedding for upwards of 600 guests that ended up feeling like an intimate dinner party at their church. How did they do that? Priorities.

Their first priority was each other. They knew what they wanted their day to feel like, and that the focus would be squarely on their relationship and their faith. They also highly prioritized their families and friends. They wanted the people closest to them to feel loved and appreciated throughout the process. In turn, so many people helped this event come together the way it did, because it’s impossible to know these precious people and not want to help them.

Every single person I talked to at Katie & Sean’s wedding just gushed about how beautiful it was… how simple and lovely and THEM it was. Because Katie & Sean had their priorities, and they knew what mattered. And ultimately, last Saturday night, they became Man & Wife in exactly the way they wanted to.

The entire event took place at First Baptist Euless… the church where Katie grew up, where her grandfather served as pastor, and where Sean has been serving as youth minister. The church where they met. And now, as they leave to start their ministry together in another city, it was so fitting to both end AND begin a chapter of their lives in this space.

Because of crazy high temperatures last weekend (and, let’s face it, this weekend), I wanted to avoid being outside as much as possible. Luckily, the reception space had a huge bank of windows that gave us some gorgeous light inside the comfort of hard-working a/c!

I posted a shot similar to the two next images on the McGowan Images Facebook Page earlier in the week.  These stained glass windows are original to the church, and were part of the building when Katie’s grandfather was pastoring there. Katie requested a bridal portrait with the windows if it was possible, but warned us that the windows were now in parts of the building used as classroom and storage space. With only a few minutes to work, we decided to turn off all the overhead fluorescent lighting and just let the sunlight wrap Katie up through that window… I like to think that the result is pretty fantastic for being on the fly!

Let’s not forget the boys… they were struttin’ their stuff, too!

Cute little people to start the show!

Mr. & Mrs. Beach!

There was so much joy in their first few minutes together…

Oooh Katie, work.it.out.

Recognize a familiar face in this wedding party? Thanks for sending this sweet couple our way, Bethe!

The reception was a very low-key affair, with no dancing or big events. After dinner & cake, Katie & Sean spent their time just visiting their guests in a very relaxed manner. Our goal for the evening was to capture these moments and conversations in as natural and unobtrusive a manner as possible!

Congratulations, Katie & Sean! We hope that these photographs bring back all your favorite memories of your wedding day, and that you’ll spend the rest of your lives together reliving these moments over and over again. You’ve got such an incredible journey ahead of you, and we’re so honored that you chose us to help you kick it off.