Hi, Rachel Wirsing here! We are playing catch up on the blog (life and work has been so crazy lately), and my wedding is what we’re kicking off with. Yes I’m guest writing my own blog post!! I thought it would be fun to read a blog post from the bride’s perspective of her wedding day!

I have known Ashley since I was 7, and for the last 5 years I have worked for her at Faith Photography so it was a no brainer that we would ask her to photograph our wedding! I mean who else would we have asked?! Being a wedding day assistant gave me tons of insight when planning my own wedding, and the entire day was AMAZING!! Christian and I (mostly me 😉) planned out every detail in a way that was true to us and what we wanted. We kept tradition for certain things, but we also added a few different elements that made our day unique, so us and just PERFECT!

Our original date, June 19th, was postponed and we ended up having to push our date back almost 2 months to August 7th. Since we had sent all of our save the dates, invitations and rsvp’s out prior to making that decision, we had to update everyone quickly via our wedding website. I know.. all of that hard work and money on invites just to end up having to send an electronic update. I realized shortly after, that I wouldn’t have anything to photograph on our actual wedding day as far as invitations went so I reached out to a local calligraphist that we had worked with at a recent styled shoot! And can I just say, they turned out just BEAUTIFUL!! 😍 Noted Calligraphy is your girl for all things calligraphy and pretty paper. Trust me.

We got married at Lakeside at Welch Estate, located in Powhatan VA. This venue had everything we were looking for and the second we toured it, I just knew it was the perfect fit for us. I wanted an outdoor ceremony and not only could this venue provide that, the reception was “under tent” (we wanted protection from weather), but felt like we were still outside with the glass 360 view outside of the tent which was stunning!

So what did we do different than most at our wedding?! During our ceremony we included a worship song. Music has been a big part of our relationship, and keeping Christ at the center of our marriage and wedding day was top priority on our list. I was skeptical at first, but it turned out to be one of my favorite parts of the day! We also went straight from our ceremony into our reception tent, and asked our guests to remain outside during cocktail hour. This gave Christian and I time to view the full reception area in all of its’ decorated glory before guests came in, and to take pictures in the beautiful space before it got messed up. Lastly, Christian’s parents hosted a Vietnamese Tea Ceremony towards the beginning of the reception to honor Christian’s heritage on his Mimi’s side. All of these things truly made our day so so special.

If you made it through all of that, thank you for reading!! This was fun to write and share! I will be sure to mention and provide links to all businesses at the bottom of the post, so be sure to scroll down to see the vendor list!

Much Love,

Rachel Wirsing