These days it’s really popular to have a gigantic wedding with hundreds of people, tons of decorations, lots of food, and partying for hours. I love these weddings, and they are so much fun, but that’s not for everyone. Some people are looking for something different. Wendy and Derek did exactly that with their intimate wedding in Fayetteville.
Intimate Wedding in Fayetteville
It’s so amazing how small and interconnected the world is. I’ve said it plenty of times, but it seems that every wedding I photograph, I find a personal connection. It might be the bride or groom or I might see a guest I know. In this case, I actually knew the groom from high school. I didn’t know Wendy, but it was really a pleasure getting to meet her. She has quite the personality, and she’s in charge of bananas for Walmart, and I eat a lot of bananas. As weird as that sounds, we actually had a conversation about that.
Wendy and Derek could have easily had a huge wedding since they are both from this area, but the opted for something smaller and intimate. The ceremony took place at St. Catherine’s at Bell Gable, which is the perfect wedding venue for elopement or intimate weddings. Feel free to check out a few more of our weddings at St. Catherine’s. The only people in attendance were the parents and grandparents, so there were maybe 10 people in the stone chapel.
St. Catherine’s at Bell Gable holds maybe 50 people, so sometimes space can be an issue. There have been times where the place is completely packed, and that means I have to stay in one spot the whole time. For Derek and Wendy’s intimate wedding, the number actually made my job easier. There were open seats, so I could easily move from what spot to the next without having to crawl around people and annoy them.
I was there for only an hour, but we managed to get a lot done in that short amount of time. We started with the ceremony, and it lasted maybe 30 minutes. From there, we did about every possible grouping with the family members. Since there weren’t many, we knocked that out in about 5-8 minutes. That left the rest of the time for couple portraits.
The chapel at St. Catherine’s is really beautiful, so we did most of the shots with that. I had them stand out in front of them for the majority of the shots. My favorite photograph was in front of the doors. I told Derek and Wendy to lean in opposite corners. Wendy just naturally did this pose with holding her dress, and I loved the way it looked.
Normally, I don’t do many intimate weddings in Fayetteville or elopements, but when I do, I really enjoy it. It’s nice to do something different. The great thing about intimate weddings is that I really get to focus on the couple. I don’t have all the other things distracting me like a bunch of guest shots or details. It’s all about the couple, and I’m so glad I got to spend that time with Derek and Wendy.
