Courtney + Daniel’s Wedding

 

Irongate Equestrian Center Wedding Croton, Ohio

 

One of my sister’s friends mentioned to me in passing that there was a new wedding venue opening up in Croton, Ohio. She works with horses, and the new venue was an equestrian center being sold and turned into a wedding venue. Central Ohio has had its fair share of barns turned into wedding venues, but a horse venue? Sounded a little crazy, but I couldn’t wait to check it out during the open house. You might have seen pictures from the open house on their blog. There have been a TON of changes to the venue since then. During the open house, they still had dirt floors in the arena and now they have actual floors!

 

When I met with Daniel and Courtney they were so excited, and yet a little hesitant, to get married at Irongate Equestrian Center in Johnstown, Ohio. It was a new wedding venue, after all, and in its first season of weddings! You might remember Daniel and Courtney from their engagement session at Inniswoods Metro Gardens and Buckeye Lake. I know Daniel and Courtney are so happy that they got married at the Irongate Equestrian Center, though, and we are elated as well, that we were able to photograph their wedding. Seriously, Daniel and Courtney, you two are one of our favorite couples. You have the sweetest, most genuine and loving personalities and were a ball of energy on your wedding day. We love June weddings, and having you two as our first couple at Irongate was perfect. I cannot express the honor and joy we received from photographing your wedding.

 

Daniel and Courtney had both their ceremony and reception at Irongate so it was only fitting that they got ready at Irongate, too. We started out the day in the rooms upstairs. Scott was a couple floors away with Daniel where the guys were getting ready. They had a crazy thing happen with their shirts; half of the guys ended up with euchre color shirts instead of white! Luckily, Men’s Warehouse came to the rescue and the Easton store drove out white shirts to the guys!! Way to go, Men’s Warehouse! We were able to photograph the girls before the ceremony, but the guys’ pictures had to wait until after the ceremony because of the shirts. We always like to plan extra cushion time during the getting ready portion of the day because things happen – hair runs late, wrong color of shirts, traffic, etc.

 

In over 100 weddings we have never had one wedding run perfectly smoothly. Something unplanned always happens. It is nearly impossible to make every little detail come together perfectly without a hitch – on our wedding day, the table the minister had brought for our sand ceremony somehow disappeared from the pool deck! Our minister had to hold both jars for us as we put the sand in instead of the jars being on the table! We totally did not plan for that, but we rolled with it! Our hair ran about 45 minutes late, too… so we had a couple things happen on our day that weren’t planned. Planning the extra cushion time into the morning is huge to keep things running on time. The extra cushion time also allows us to get back on track in time for the ceremony.

 

 

Daniel and Courtney’s ceremony was outside on the lawn overlooking the main field. They had a gorgeous archway covered in pink flowers and little pink roses lining the aisle. I loved the doors they walked through to come down the aisle. They had gorgeous floral wreaths on the doors and it is a nice touch in an outdoor ceremony.Their ceremony was meaningful and so full of love. I love it when our couples have friends and family members as their officiate like Daniel and Courtney did. It always adds a special touch to the ceremony.

 

Once the ceremony was finished, we headed over the stone bridge and dirt road for some fun wedding party pictures. We quickly finished those up and headed into the reception hall! We had planned for pictures at sunset, and to this day – their sunset pictures are one of my favorite sets. I use them a lot because I am so in love with them! The sun was setting perfectly over the fields at Irongate. You might remember seeing these pictures in the blog post I did about sunset portraits a little while ago. When we came back in from shooting those pictures, Daniel and Courtney danced the night away with their friends and family. At the end of the evening, we ran outside for an adorable sparkler send-off.

 

We are truly blessed every year to have such amazing couples trust us with photographing their weddings. We cannot be more touched by our couples love, personalities and ability to laugh and have fun. Daniel and Courtney, you two are truly amazing, and we wish you the world in your marriage!

 

 

 

 

 

 

View their Inniswoods and Buckeye Lake Engagement Session

 

View Irongate’s Open House

 

Why we Love Sunset Portraits