A Spring Wedding at Villanova and the Belle of Blue Bell | Mary and Joe

If I could sum up Mary and Joe’s spring wedding at Villanova and the Belle of Blue Bell in just one word, it would for sure be joyful (With fun as a close second!)! These two and the people that they surround themselves with were so delighted to be together celebrating their marriage. There was a buzz of joy and excitement in the air all day that made it impossible not to have the biggest smile on your face.

That said, I’m not going to lie… I was a little nervous heading into this wedding day! Mary and Joe are so loved, and they had 12 (!!) people on each side of their wedding parties! (Yes, 26 total people including Mary and Joe!), and there was a HUGE chance of rain in the forecast. Queue my immediate panic about where we would do wedding portraits and how we would get everyone around campus in the pouring rain. What I didn’t realize though was that their group of friends and family were ready to do whatever they needed to do to make Mary and Joe’s wedding day fun and easy while ensuring that these two felt celebrated all day long… including getting a little wet along the way!

While Mary and Joe’s spring wedding at Villanova and the Belle of Blue Bell was filled with so much joy, it was also filled with so much meaning and so many special touches.

During their planning process, Mary let me know that her mom would be making her veil, but I wasn’t ready for just how gorgeous and special the piece would be! Mary’s mom hand sewed individual pearls to Mary’s veil, and when there were a few areas that needed to be finished up the day before, many of her family and friends jumped right in to help. I love that such a gorgeous piece has instantly become the most special family heirloom, and as Mary and Joe said their I dos, Mary was wearing a piece with so much love and care poured into it by her some of the people closest to her.

Mary and Joe also met and became close at Villanova, and they chose to marry on the school grounds where their love story began. Not only did they have their ceremony in a space that is so special to their relationship, but their wedding mass was celebrated by the principal of Joe’s high school. At one point, he pulled out a few lines from the graduation speech that Joe had written years ago, perfectly tying it into their homily, and I’m not sure that there was a dry eye in the chapel after that!

While we were hoping that Mother Nature would clear out the storms while these two were getting married indoors, she had other plans! When it was time for family portraits after the ceremony, it was raining just enough to get you wet, but not enough to make this crew shy away from taking portraits all around Villanova’s iconic campus. At one point during this portion of the day, I turned to Mary and Joe and said something along the lines of: thank God you’re chill because most couples would not be this cool about playing in the rain! Needless to say, the time in the rain was worth it, and we had SO much time to create gorgeous portraits of these two on campus. Just wait until you see how stunning these two are!

Once it was time to head over to the Belle of Blue Bell, I noticed that the rain had started to let up!

I kept my fingers and toes crossed the entire drive over, and when we got to their reception venue, the sky was dry! We were able to take the rest of their portraits outside before their cocktail hour was set to begin. As these two caught up with loved ones and sipped on signature cocktails, I had a chance to photograph their gorgeous ballroom’s setup. Their table numbers were hand made and featured photos of the happy couple at the age of each table number (So Table Two displayed a photo of them at two years old!)— this was a huge hit amongst their guests and such a sweet personal touch!

After a lively round of entrances, the sweetest first dance, and parent dances, it was time for dinner! As my second photographer and I sat in the lobby to eat, we saw something that we hadn’t seen all day: SUN! We had pretty much written off sunset portraits at this point, thinking that it would be cloudy for the rest of the night, but when the sky cleared, and the sun dipped to a gorgeous golden glow, we snuck Mary and Joe away from dinner and out for one final set of stunning portraits.

When we came back inside, we were greeted with hoots and hollers from a full dance floor that didn’t die down for a second throughout the night. As Mary and Joe danced the night away, it was so apparent just how loved these two are. There were inside jokes, limbo poles made from ties, Taylor Swift belted out at the top of everyone’s lungs, and so many memories made. It was a joy to photograph!

Now… I know why you’re really here, and that’s to see just how gorgeous Mary and Joe’s wedding day was. We’ll get to that in a moment, but first a little thank you!

Mary and Joe, it was such a pleasure to be part of your wedding day! Thank you so much for having me along as your wedding photographer… now get to scrolling ALLLLLL the pretty from your epic day!