Joe + Amber: 07.17.2010 (Church of St. Michael and Millennium Hotel Minneapolis)

Two beautiful venues for today's wedding of Joe and Amber. Amber did hair & makeup for our bridal fashion session a couple months ago, so it was fun to turn the camera on her! We've shot a couple hundred weddings now and think we've seen it all but we had THREE "firsts" with Amber and Joe: 1. Limo breakdown and subsequent jump start (video to come later), 2. Tornado Watch sent all guests to the basement of the Millennium hotel (we had a great view of the storm from the domed ceiling of the hotel! and 3. Groom Joe wiping out on the dance floor for both dollar dance and garter toss. :) I got to polka with Amber as well, not sure if that was a first...

The Church of St. Michael is a beautiful historic church in Stillwater, and the priest actually married Amber's parents, Amy and Steve. Usually during the message of the officiant I usually take a little break, charge batteries, kick my shoes off or something but something somewhat magical happened Saturday. Somebody comment with the guy's name - it was a guest preacher and he told this story about "true love" that had everyone on the edge of their seats:

(Abridged version) He was sitting in a park enjoying the summer day when along came an elderly man pushing his wife in a wheelchair. She was smiling as they passed by him on the bench. The man pushed his wife up very near to the swings, helped her out of the chair and gently onto the swing. When he gave her a gentle push her smile lit up even brighter. Then the man said to his wife, "Now get ready for the run-under!" and proceeded to 'run' along side the swing and push her even higher; both of them beaming. You could hear a pin drop in the church... what an amazing storyteller. He told Joe to always give Amber the "run-under." Awesome.

Remember when you were a kid on the swings and you started getting "in sync" with the person next to you and you called it "married" to that person? Funny but it's really true that as a couple you need to be on the same page otherwise it's pretty crazy trying to communicate, and I think we all can relate to that! Joe and Amber have been dating since 7th grade so they are pretty in sync. The guests were peppered with our portrait clients and models so we ended up staying late until the tornados passed. :) I'll post their video soon but here are some of our favorite images to start below. -Judd and Joe

Wedding Links:
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Album pre-design (available in about 4 weeks)