Chesapeake Bay Wedding: Ben & Katie

Posted June 2, 2015 at 8:00 am in Chesapeake Bay Wedding

Today’s post is near and dear to my heart, the marriage of my friends, Ben and Katie, in their absolutely gorgeous Chesapeake Bay wedding. Ben was always on the fringes of my social groups before we finally started crossing paths a lot more frequently in undergrad when we were both studying Japanese. Not many people have created the most deranged (yet completely boring!) Japanese video ever with me, but Ben can certainly count among those few people. Ben was introduced to Katie through another friend of mine, Thara (the officiant!), while Katie and Thara attended law school and, well, the rest is history. I can’t speak to a lot of the speeches I hear at weddings, except that I know the people speaking them are trying to express the truth of their friends’ relationships… In this particular wedding, I can say it’s true, the changes I’ve seen (albeit at a distance) in Ben over the years he’s known Katie have been all for the better, and they are a couple that really deserves each other.

The wedding itself took place at Katie’s parents’ home, overlooking the Chesapeake Bay – it barely required any ornamentation at all! We ran behind schedule, perhaps predictably, and it was classic east coast boiling hot weather, followed by massive thunderstorm. At one point, one of my friends was patting me down with paper towels, just saying over and over, “You’re just so sweaty!” Thanks to all my friends for grabbing me water at every turn, and for Ben making sure to tell the caterers, “Uh, you took away the photographer’s food while she was taking photos during dinner. Please feed her again.” Anyway, I could go on and on about this wedding, so I think I’ll just let the photos (mostly!) speak for themselves!

The little dresser here is built by Katie’s family, so she wanted to include it somehow.



Katie and Ben had a unique first look – they wanted their friends and family to be able to see it, so they asked them to stand and watch on the deck!



Did I mention the crazy picturesque views?















I know it looks calm, but we were all sweating something terrible! Good job, everyone!





The bridge was also built by Katie’s grandparents. 🙂

I also convinced them to do a quick sunset walk with me before the reception started properly. If your photographer asks you to come out at sunset, definitely do it! Or at 10 pm, we love getting crazy night shots, too!




The storm moves in…dun dun dun!




Practicing the mother/son dance before it actually happens!










Okay, I need to explain a little here – this groomsman caught the garter, and the girl who caught the bouquet’s boyfriend eventually cut in to finish putter the garter on her leg! So, that’s why there are two men putting the garter on her! In case you were confused.




Shout outs to Groove Place for being an awesome wedding band! Also check out that rainstorm trapping us all in the tent! 😀

It was around this time that the power went out for the band, and so all we had were the brass instruments playing and several very talented guests singing/rapping!