*Dialup warning! This post contains tons of photos!*
Jessica & Steve were married on Oct. 24 at the Alice Campbell Alumni Center on the UI campus. It was nice having both the ceremony and reception in one location! That doesn’t happen very often. The ceremony was beautiful (and we had great light to work with!), and the couple carved out an hour and a half of time for us to shoot portraits of them and their wedding party in between the ceremony and reception while the guests were enjoying cocktails. It worked out perfectly as we had a chance to walk to the Quad and were not rushed as we took lots of relaxed and creative portraits. My assistant for the day was my friend Rob from Still Life Photography and two of my absolute favorite shots of the day are his and I’ll point those out in the post.
I was so excited about the fall colors, and we definitely had a fantastic palette to work with around campus!
And Rob’s view… those red bushes and bokeh (background blury-ness for my non-photog readers!) just make the photo!
They both went to the School of Social Work at UI. “Learning and Labor” is right! And now Steve’s going for another master’s degree!
This one’s mine:
But I like Rob’s version better. 
A big thank you goes out to the student who left a piece of chalk on the Quad!
My shot, but Rob’s pose:
Rob’s view from the back (before he instructed Steve on how to dip his bride!):
I love this one Rob captured just before Jess’ walk down the aisle with her dad. It’s moments like this when it’s great to have an assistant photographer shooting with me!
They had one of the best first kisses I had ever seen. Steve, FTW!
Isn’t this groom’s cake sweet?! I couldn’t wait to get home to show my husband. It even had an autographed puck on it!
Vendors:
Ceremony & Reception: Alice Campbell Alumni Center
DJ: Bugbee’s DJ Plus (Greg)
Florist: University of Illinois
Catering: University of Illinois Catering
Cake: Round Barn IGA
Hair: Ruth’s Salon
