Rachel & Ben // The Sunset Room // Irwin, PA Wedding Photographer

Fall Wedding Inspiration in Irwin, PA

What is the worst thing you can think of happening at a wedding? A vendor not showing up? Guests getting lost? The bride’s dress not fitting or tearing? Key people refusing to come? Family fights?

While all of those things are terrible, I bet you can’t think of what happened to Rachel & Ben on their wedding day.

The dawn of their beautifully planned red-themed wedding day had arrived. Ben went to the church that morning to deliver their marriage certificate to the priest. Rachel was already getting her hair & makeup done, and was scheduled to head to the church next to get ready there. Her dress, her details, and her bridesmaid’s dresses were already at the church, waiting for her. As Ben gave the priest their marriage certificate, he laughed that they had never even opened it. Nervous that anything would happen to those super important papers, they simply left them sealed in the envelope.

Who would have ever imagined that that would have been the biggest mistake ever?

The priest opened the envelope as Ben was leaving and he immediately called him back. I can only imagine the color draining from Ben’s face as the priest gave him the bad news: the marriage certificate in the envelope was not theirs.

Scrambling, thus began a flurry of phone calls – they called everyone they could possibly find a number for. The court house, judges offices, clerks, even a friend of a friend who worked at the court house – every attempt was made to get in touch with someone who could help to figure this mess out. However, with it being a Saturday morning, every single office was closed and unreachable.

With their slew of dead ends, the priest apologized & delivered the worst news possible: he could not marry them.

What would you do? You are literally hours away from your wedding. You already have vendors and a reception location booked. Friends & family have traveled in from out of town. And suddenly, you are told that you cannot get married in the church you had planned everything around.

I honestly don’t know what I would have done, but I know what Rachel & Ben did. Though upset and confused, they flew into a Plan B that they didn’t even realize that they might need. With the loss of the church, they also lost their “getting ready” location. A friend’s Grandma offered the use of her house, a co-worker was asked to “officiate” a ceremony (even though everyone understood that it wouldn’t be legal), and a location was secured. Rachel’s bridesmaids went into super-bridesmaid mode as two went to the church to alert arriving guests that the wedding ceremony would be in a different location, and two went to the new location to direct people where to go.

What followed was a lovely, outdoor ceremony. Rachel & Ben promised their lives to each other, and even though under less than ideal circumstances, they smiled & laughed and got “married”. And if you closed your eyes and didn’t know the story, you wouldn’t even realize the hurdles it took to get to that point.

This wedding was photographed under Lasting Memories Photography by Ellen, during which I played the role of second-shooter.

Since I was playing the role of second-shooter for the day, I got to hang out with Ben & his groomsmen while my sister Ellen was off photographing Rachel & her bridesmaids.

Their reception at The Sunset Room in Elizabeth, PA started right on time and went perfectly as planned.