Lisa Hessel Photography

So after the tornado warning, evacuation to the caves, and a sky that all of a sudden became beautimous, Joey and Melody had a beautiful ceremony that went just swimmingly.

Joey’s sister performed the ceremony, which was so meaningful… and she did a fantastic job, might I add :). 

Married!

The food provided by Hollyberry was incredible.  

When Joey and Melody walked into their reception, they immediately took a turn on the dance floor, which was romantic and sweet. 

Melody’s dad was one proud papa. 

And then it was cigar time…

Don’t you just love when a bride shows off her new bling?

Melody and her maid of honor.  presh. 

Check out the maid of honor’s reaction to the shot they all took together

This moment was out of control hilarious.  You see, Melody and Joey and all their friends so enjoy being silly and singing and having a good time, which I personally think is quite endearing.  So, one of the members of the wedding party who will remain nameless asked the dj to play a special song and they all gathered round to sing together. It was quite a moment. I took quite a few photos, but to really capture how intensely serious these peeps are about their Disney soundtracks, I decided to flip my camera into video mode to record a bit.

small disclaimer… I am a photographer and NOT a videographer.  clearly.  This is the first time I’ve actually shot video footage with my 5D, but it won’t be the last :). Oh, and if you’re viewing this blog entry in an RSS reader, you may need to jump on over to the actual blog to see the video in all its glory.

Melody and Joey from lisa hessel on Vimeo.

Seriously, I love these two.  After what could have been a very stressful day with a very stress full twist(er), they bride, groom, and entire wedding party for that matter, were so light-hearted and fun, and it made my night.  And my week, really.

This is a good story… one I’ve been telling to just about everyone I know.  It’s the story of how Melody and Joey got married.

The day started with a pop color…

… some gorgeous, soft light streaming through the window

… and bride who could not have been more excited to get married.  Melody is pretty fantastic in every sense of the word.  Totally laid back and calm and giddy and excited and just as adorable as she can be.

The forecast predicted rain, but we weren’t worried. Although the skies were gently precipitating, the light that shone through the clouds was marvelous.

And um, could Melody’s eyes be any more stunning? 

I wasn’t the only one who was dying to photograph the beautiful bride :). 

Melody and Joey opted to see each other before the wedding since their evening ceremony afforded them no time before the reception for photos.  I was so excited to have them all to myself for photos.  And Melody, well, she was excited to see Joey. Can’t you tell? 

I love this moment.  Jon did such a great job of capturing their excitement. 

Since it was steadily raining outside, we headed to the City Museum for photos.  The ceremony and reception were scheduled to be held on the second floor of the City Museum, and we couldn’t have asked for a better place to shoot considering the stormy weather. We started off with a few shots of the wedding party.  I told Melody I really appreciated what a wonderful attitude she had about rolling with the punches and shooting indoors because of the rain.  She’s so great.  She started telling this story about how she had heard of an entire wedding that had to evacuated to the basement because of a tornado warning.  “So I guess we can be thankful this is just rain and not a tornado,” I told her.  She agreed.  She’s so great. I took this photo, and then a man clad in a City Museum employee t-shirt yelled… 

…”EVERYONE TO THE CAVES!”  I thought it was a joke.  But it wasn’t.  Were we really being evacuated?  Yes.  Indeed we were. A tornado warning had been issued for St. Louis City and it appeared that a twister was headed right downtown.  Everyone in the City Museum was forced to go to the caves -a dark, unbelievably hot, two story set of man-made caves.  That particular day, however, everyone and their brother had come to the city museum to play.  So, hundreds and hundreds of museum guests -some smelling pretty ripe at that point- headed to the caves, with the excessive amount of people who couldn’t be squeezed in filling up the area right outside the caves… which just happened to be the ceremony location.  I’ve got to be honest… my heart started to beat pretty quickly at that point, and I got a little nervous.  It was hot.  I was hot.  I started to get nervous about a tornado actually hitting the building.  Then I started getting claustrophobic. Too many people.  Too much loud talking.  It was getting hotter and hotter by the minute. Our limited amount of time to take wedding party images was quickly dwindling.  But, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Melody.  Still just as calm, adorable, and excited to get married as ever. She makes me smile.

So we rolled with it.  What better way to commemorate your wedding day tornado warning than a photo with your fellow evacuees? 

The evacuees, btw, LOVED IT.

After about 45 minutes of being confined in a tight space, the warning was lifted, and we resumed our regularly scheduled activities.  It wouldn’t be a wedding at the City without visiting the mirrored hallway in the vault room. 

The sun started peeking out and the ladies were just as happy as ever. 

This is so Melody and Joey.  Love these two.

The oversized hamster wheel is always hit.  

Melody and Joey did photo thank you notes for their guests, which I think is a marvelous idea!  This is just one of the options which happens to be my personal fav.  And would you check out that light??  Who would have thought that just moments before the sky was dark and gray and threatened to rip us to smithereens with hurricane force winds?  Ok, that might be a little dramatic, but you get the point :). 

So pretty.  To be continued…