When I was pregnant with my second son, I shot a lot of weddings at Justin’s side. In fact, I shot all the way up until the 36-weeks-pregnant mark, which was way past the point where a bride’s kindly grandmother would ask me if I needed to sit down.
After the baby was here, though? I took most of the year off and Eric Bjerke stepped in as Justin’s second shooter. So when Eric’s son Jack contacted us about shooting his wedding last spring, we were all over it. And that’s way before we knew about the tree nursery venue or the donut pegboard!
I say “we” here, but my hand in this wedding was all in post-processing. Justin teamed up with Eric to shoot Jack + Kayla nuptials at Greentree Nursery in La Grange, and what a wedding it was! Kayla and Jack are smitten with each other – you can see it in every frame where they’re looking at one another, you can see it in the tears they both shed during their ceremony. As a nod to their tree nursery venue, they even planted a tree together during said ceremony, which was moving and funny in and of itself. You have to love a bride and groom who aren’t afraid to get a little dirty.
As the bride and groom are both vegan, a traditional wedding cake was out. Instead of opting for a vegan cake, they did one better and ordered dozens of vegan donuts from Vegan Donut Gelato in Modesto and displayed them on a giant pegboard emblazoned with “DONUT LEAVE ME HANGING.” It was a huge crowd-pleaser and the filled donuts made for a very messy and fun donut-smash at the end. Kayla and Jack, thank you for including us in your wickedly fun wedding day, and Eric, thank you for all your help and talent and support!
