Dakota County Courthouse Wedding Photography | Ellis & Laura | Apple Valley Wedding Photographer

It started off as just two kids who meet in math class at the U of M.

Laura and Ellis got ready at their new home and jam packed it full of their family and friends. The fall day started off with cinnamon rolls, Caribou coffee, and football playing on the TV while people got ready.

Laura got ready in the bathroom overlooking her back yard while Ellis put on his finishing details outside.

They had a first look in their backyard with all their family and friends watching from the deck! They were excited to see each other. It was a contained giddy excitement. We did a couple of portraits before heading over to the courthouse!

The judge was short literally and sweet. She read the vows and made it official- Ellis & Laura were finally married!!

We all wanted to enjoy Minnesota Nature at its best so we went to Lebanon Hills Regional Park for portraits! Although early for fall, we did even get some of the yellow and red color in the leaves!
Although it started to sprinkle just a little bit, the rain held off and we were able to get all the portraits in without rain!

They finished off the night continuing the celebration at Mannys steak house in Minneapolis !

Please enjoy a preview of their wedding day!

Love what you see?! I don’t blame you!! Here are the vendors who made it happen:

Photography: MW PHOTOGRAPHY

Dress: Bliss Bridal

Grooms Suit: Daniel’s Custom Clothing

Ring: Lasker Jewleres & Arthur Jewlers

Florist: Floral Etcetera

Where To Start Rescheduling Your Wedding Due to Corona Virus | Minneapolis Wedding Photography | MW Photography

Making the hard choices

To brides struggling with the decision of postponing your dream wedding due to Corona Virus,

First off I want to say I am so sorry you have to go through this. You have planned months and maybe even years for this day. Your desire to make it perfect drove every decision from the white dress to every place setting. This sucks and there is no way around it. Just know your wedding community is feeling it too; your vendors want to help as much as they can.

If you are the bride who has decided to postpone your wedding day due to the Covid-19, these are a couple of the beginning steps to help regarding your vendors.

1st reach out to your venue.  Ask your venue what days they have open to reschedule. In all honesty, you may need to be open to booking a week day. A lot of brides book from August to Oct; open weekends at your venue might be low due to the popularity of your venue. A small bright side to this is many venues offer weekday discounts! Normally changing your date would have financial charges, but this is not a normal circumstance! Ask your venue if you can transfer your deposit to a new day with no additional charge. Be courageous; ask ALL the questions.

When you have the new date established, it is time to see if your other vendors are available. Prioritize this by your vendors you know you can't do your day without. Prepare your heart that they might not all be available. If that is the case, ask them for recommendations for who could take their place in your wedding day. Don’t attack that business for not having your new day available . Trust me when I say your wedding vendors are doing the best they can to make you happy.

Most of your vendors will have a non refundable deposit clause in their contract, due to the extreme nature of the change, I do not think you would be out of place asking for a full refund. Prepare to be rejected by this request but you will not know if you do not ask. Be as kind as possible. Everyone is feeling the strain on this and from an insiders opinion people are willing to work with you more when you approach this type of situation with kindness and grace.

To the brides who are heart broken because your day has special meaning- my honest suggestion is to elope in your state. I know how special a day can be. Save your new date for celebration of your marriage when it is safe for everyone to be there. Contact your photographer, officiant, and Florist immediately for this request. It will be a very intimate wedding day experience that will allow you to keep your special day. Make sure your current vendors would still be open to doing this with you. Most will, some won’t as they are trying to protect their families from the virus. Again, I say be kind and ask for any recommendations they may have if you decided to go this route.

Check your locate government website to see what is open and what is allowed during this uncertain time.

Here is a Link to Minnesota’s Health Department Website: https://www.health.state.mn.us/diseases/coronavirus/index.html

I truly hope this was helpful. Know I am praying for you during this time.
Warmly,
-Molly