Nate was “teased” a lot for choosing Leap Day as his and Carrie’s Finger Lakes wedding day. Of course there was the comment, that he only had to worry about their anniversary every 4 years. On the day of the wedding it was 20 degrees with, I will say, the perfect dusting of snow and everything was by the water which gave us great wind gusts. So of course Nate was “teased” for picking the date when anyone was cold, especially during portraits outside. However, now with the Coronavirus and the social distancing, I see Nate as quite the genius who slipped in their Finger Lakes wedding right before everything hit.

Ben and I know Carrie from Penn State, she was my roommate (and partner in crime at procrastination) during our junior and senior years. Her last name (now maiden name) is also Adams so her and Ben use to joke that they were siblings. The three of us hung out a lot. When Ben worked his co-op for 2 semesters she would creep behind me on Ben and my video chats and then magically appear with a chair to join us. She was also one of my bridesmaids who stood by Ben and I as we got married and I joined their “Adams family”.

I’m going to be a bit honest here, after you get married and you have single friends all you want for them is to be able to experience the same kind of joy, love, and closeness that you have in your marriage with someone as well.  Sometimes it’s hard to ask single friends how they’re doing in the relationship area because I can’t even imagine how hard the dating scene is. Carrie would keep me updated, but when she told me that she was dating a guy named Nate from her church and that he was meeting her family for the first time by going on a week long vacation with them, I knew it was serious. Talk about a way to meet your future in-laws!

Little did I know, Nate had a crush on Carrie first after seeing her lead worship at church and in their life group he started attending because he heard that Carrie sometimes went. But what really changed their friendship was when Carrie had surgery on her knee and was on crutches and Nate was there for her and drove her anywhere she needed to go. So even though their dating relationship seemed relatively short (at least from the updates I was getting), their friendship had been building for awhile.

Carrie is the one that got me into Friends. We had the most comfortable couch in our apartment in college and we could spend all day sitting on it with her heated blanket on watching the show. I blame and also thank her for my Friends addiction. I wish I would have thought to make a shirt like her’s for my wedding.

Also Carrie actually goes by her full name Carrie Beth (or CB for short). For her four years in college she decided to go by just Carrie, even though we had a Kerry in our group of friends and it would have made life a lot easier. Carrie + Nate had a smaller wedding and Ben and I felt like the odd ones being the only people calling her just Carrie.

Carrie wore her mother’s pearl earrings, necklace and bracelet.

Nate is actually color blind and can only see gray and blue so it was so sweet that those were the colors Carrie chose for the wedding.

Carrie + Nate wrote private vows to each other that they later read to each other after the ceremony.

Carrie + Nate chose not to do a first look, but Carrie did do one with her father. Father-daughter first looks are always so special 🙂

Carrie surprised Nate with a Lord of the Rings ring box.

While I was with Carrie, Ben actually went over to hang out Nate and his groomsmen. Since it was a trip to drive to the Finger Lakes Ben was actually my second shooter for this wedding!

Nate wanted to subtlety include Star Wars so they found a paisley Darth Vader tie for him and plaid Storm Trooper ties for the groomsmen.

There was no lobby to the church so Carrie and her dad were waiting outside in the 20 degree weather to walk down the aisle!

Their life group leader was supposed to marry them, but due to unfortunate events he couldn’t make it. Luckily, Nate’s father had previously got licensed to marry Nate’s cousin and was able to step in save the day!

Married!!

I love how much they make each other laugh!

Since it was a small wedding we were able to get a whole group shot.

I took Carrie + Nate to a secret little nook so that they could read the private vows they wrote to each other.

Thankfully Carrie runs warm (we used to secretly change the thermostat in our apartment) so she was up for pictures outside!

Carrie used to talk, back in college, about having her brother as her “best man.” I thought it was awesome that she did and that he did a great job of helping her throughout the day and watching out for the train of her dress. The bridesmaids were very sweet and did a great job at not looking like they were cold, but I’m pretty sure they hated me for taking them outside. haha

I just love stained glass windows in churches! I’m always trying to think of ways to be creative and use it.

To tell the bridal party to yell and cheer at the bride and groom to kiss or not? Luckily we had the whole church to ourselves. 🙂

Oh Carrie you are such a beautiful bride!

I always love genuine smiling, laughing pictures, always.

Garden of Life Flowers did an amazing job with all of the florals! And I loved that they gave me some extra to style the details.

There was a pier right by the restaurant that we stopped at for a few more pictures.

There were even a couple of rows of these makeshift houses that people store their boats in that I thought were adorable!

One of my favorite pictures besides the very first one in this post!

Even though Carrie’s dad knew it was going to be a smaller wedding he said he still wanted his father-daughter dance. It was so sweet.

Instead of cutting into a wedding cake, Carrie + Nate cut into this very thick cookie cake (that was delicious by the way).

Before Ben and I took off for the night we went back to the pier for a couple night portraits. I love this one so much, it’s so magical, the light snow looks like pixie dust!

Congratulations Carrie + Nate! Ben and I were so happy and thankful that we could be a part of your wedding day and capture it for you. We are so excited to see all that God has in store for the two of you and your marriage. Nate, I feel like you somehow married into this “apartment family” that Carrie and I created a long time ago, so welcome to the family!

 

 

 

THE FINGER LAKES WEDDING VENDORS

THE DRESS & VEIL | David’s Bridal

BRIDE’S JEWELRY | Bride’s Mother’s

WEDDING DRESS HANGER | Etsy

BRIDESMAIDS’ DRESES | Bought Their Own

GRAY FAUX FUR WRAPS | Amazon

GROOM & GROOMSMEN ATTIRE | Bought Their Own

GROOM’S PAISLEY DARTH VADER TIE | Cufflinks

GROOMSMEN PLAID STROM TROOPER TIE | Amazon

LORD OF THE RINGS RING BOX | Etsy

FLORIST | Garden of Life Flowers

INVITATION SUITE | Vista Print

CEREMONY | Norton Chapel at Keuka College

RECEPTION VENUE | Nolan’s on Canandaigua Lake

COOKIE CAKE | Kathy Morland

PHOTOGRAPHER | Cassady K Photography