Spencer and Jessica were married on the very very popular date of 8-18-18. They booked me for their wedding well over a year ago and since then we turned down dozens of weddings for this date. I am so so thrilled I could be the photographer for this sweet easy going couple. Their modern downtown Kalamazoo wedding was at the Radisson. Such a wonderful venue to have a wedding at….they take such good care of their wedding clients!
Almost exactly one year prior to their wedding, I travelled to Chicago to photograph their engagement session. After working with them that evening, I knew we were a perfect fit. What an incredibly sweet, kind, friendly, trusting couple they are! They just let me do my thing and their engagement session was an all time favorite of mine!
Now on to their amazing wedding! Wow!! What a perfect day it was….I am sure they all will agree it may have been a little bit humid, but we did not let that stop us! 🙂 Enjoy learning more about them below…I can’t wait to shot them all their images!!
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Spencer and I met through our best man, Billy Patrum. I swam at the University at Buffalo and was teammates with Billy and Spencer swam at Canisius College (about a 20 minute drive from UB) and was childhood friends with Billy. Fun fact: we both swam distance events (unfortunately for us). Billy had a get together with some friends at his house on June 1st, 2013 the summer after my Sophmore year and Spencer’s Freshman year of college. We instantly hit it off and began officially dating on August 5th, 2013! We were together for 5 years when we got married.
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Jess has always complained about her birthday because it fell during the most gruesome part of swimming, winter training; and I wanted to do something I knew she would never forget. So, after thinking long and hard about it; I decided I would take her on a 2-day trip to New York City and ask her to marry me. The problem was I had no idea where I wanted to ask her or how I was going to ask her. I just knew I wanted to do it in NYC and I would figure it out when I got there. Being me, I walked around the entire first day with the ring in my pocket, freaking out (afraid I would get pick-pocketed and that Jess would see this weird lump in my chest pocket; thankfully neither happened), and wondering when the right time would be to ask her. Later that day, we decided to book a trip to Top of the Rockefeller Center the following night to overlook the whole city. Once we to decided to go the Top of the Rock, I knew I had found my spot, I just had to wait another 24 hours. So, on her birthday (December 30th, 2016), at 70 floors up, overlooking the city, I got down on one knee and asked her to marry me! And she said YES! At least I can say this birthday wasn’t a grueling 8,000 yard practice!
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We love to take road trips together, eat burgers and fries, hang with our cats, relax at the beach, explore Chicago, try different wines (Jess) and beer (Spencer), and binge watch the office!
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Absolutely nothing, it was perfect.
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We are going to Jamaica in December! Spencer started his second year of law school the Monday after our wedding so we have to wait until his semester is over. It’s actually perfect because we would rather escape the cold anyways!
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Adopting our two cats, (Max and Abigail), graduating college, closing the chapter on both of our swim careers (and figuring out life without it), Jess getting her masters degree, living long distance for 8 months immediately after getting engaged, Spencer completing his first year of law school, and now definitely the biggest and happiest accomplishment is getting married!
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2. Date night at least once a week without distractions.
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3. Don’t waste any of our days together.
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Melissa was absolutely amazing. If you are looking for a photographer we cannot recommend her enough. She is extremely talented and is the most down to earth person to spend your big day with!
