The Wonderfully Unexpected Wedding of Dee + Elike

You know how we keep talking about how our couples have the best love stories? Well they continue to not disappoint. When I met Dee and Elike, I was immediately excited to capture their wedding. So let me suggest that you start with some tissues – I certainly needed them while editing this wedding. I was on a roller-coaster of laughter and tears just knowing how special this moment was for so many people.

Not all love stories start in your 20’s but no matter how much time passes, when you meet your perfect person you feel 20 all over again…True love is ageless. For us it isn’t all about the frills (although we certainly do love them) It’s about the connection between our couple – they way they look at each other, still make each other blush, and have these quite moments of nervous excitement. It’s that undeniable energy – that love – that makes my throat start to tighten and my eyes start to tear. It is witnessing pure joy and appreciation and watching families come together in celebration.

I think that Dee + Elike’s love story was best told by their children. Both Dee’s daughter and Elike’s son gave the most amazing toasts telling the same tale from their own experience of how for the majority of their lives it had just been “Mom and I” or “Dad and I” – at first they both were really cautious to the idea that their parents had an “other”, but quickly they both realized how significant this “other” was. They both talked about how they had never seen their parents happier and how naturally they became a family. To them it was wonderfully unexpected adventure and that is what makes this story so beautiful.

You should have heard the roar of applause and laughter at the reception when Elike made a little toast starting out with “My Wife and I”…. Everyone just burst out in excitement at the word Wife. You have to understand why… For years, Elike’s family had been harassing him about finding a partner… Why don’t you meet someone nice? — Pressure — Pressure — Pressure and he was not interested. So no one ever expected to be having a wedding especially Elike. On his very first date with Dee, he said – I don’t want to get married but it only took a short period of time for Elike to realize that he DID in fact want to not only marry – but spend the rest of his life with this amazing woman. This is the happily ever after that everyone strives for and I am just beyond blessed to have captured this beautiful wedding with two incredible people!

Just love this classy capture of Dee doing her makeup!

What a beautiful Bride!

Elike’s smile is one of the BEST we have seen all year!

Dee’s sister preformed the during the ceremony – it was beautiful!

Dee’s Smile is infectious and yes that is her Dad 93 years young!

Look at her groom’s face! That is such an amazing reaction!

The tears were going all day.

Check out Jas’ reaction to the wedding kiss – we heard all about how excited she was for this wedding!

So many warm embraces from family and friends.

It’s official.

We loved sneaking away for these bridal portraits.

They look like a fairy tale.

The Batcheller Mansion Inn looked great for this intimate wedding party.

These are the toasts we were talking about … I can’t get over the reactions and emotions.

We loved Taylor’s toast – not a dry eye in the Mansion when she talked about how she loves the family she now has.

But one of the biggest laughs was when Dee’s girls talked about how protective (but excited) they were to find out about Elike…

Another great moment in the night was when Elike decided to surprise his bride… Dee is a big fan of Salsa Dancing and Elike really isn’t a big dancer… but for the past several months he has been sneaking off on Sundays to take dance lessons so that he could do this dance just for her. Now that is some epic love right there!