Matt and Liz : Married!

Less than two weeks ago, my brother-in-law Matt got married to the greatest girl in the world, Liz! It's a huge privilege to take wedding photos in the first place, but it's even more special when I'm shooting a family member's wedding: you're awwwing and ooooing and baaawling behind the camera as the wedding day unfolds right before your eyes. There's nothing like seeing your brother marry the girl of his dreams :)

Matt and Liz got married in Peoria, Illinois; their reception was at the Gateway Building, right downtown on the river. A photographer's dream, basically... Anna {my sister} was my second shooter, and I know I can speak for her when I say that we loved every single minute of this wedding day! {And trust me, that's really saying something, since we shot pictures for about sixteen hours, haha!}

***To see a slideshow of the wedding day, click here!***

Ok now, want to see the pictures already? Here are some of my favorites :)


Before the ceremony, a first look:


I love this one -- when Liz's dad saw her for the first time:


And then, it's go-time :)




Mr. and Mrs.!

{Also, I should probably mention that their limo was a stretch Escalade -- a 20-seater, complete with a 460-channel satellite T.V. dish, Playstation3, something like 6 flatscreen TV's, a lazer light show, a fog machine, shag carpeting... haha! It was totally amazing!}

Beautiful bride, handsome groom!



If I had to pick a shot for a canvas to hang above their couch, this would definitely be it ;)




Introducing... their awesome wedding party!



Anna stuck with the guys during the morning, so all of the shots below are hers... as I was going through the shots for the first edit, I kept coming across these ridiculous poses. These aren't even all of them, but here's a taste :D

Reception details {note the U of I table!}:




First Dance dip!



Do these two look familiar? :)



And finally..
for their getaway, they walked to their hotel. Perfect? Yes. And, I couldn't resist...