Buffalo, MO Rustic Barn Wedding
How Chelsea Met Zac
We first met the day I got baptized at my church. Zac is my best friend’s younger brother and I went back to her house for games after church. I was interested in Zac but he wouldn’t give me the time of day since he thought I was much older than him since I was friends with his older sister. Well months later he found out I was actually his age and with a little prompting from his brother in law he finally asked me out on a date a year later. The part you have to remember through all this is Zac was from Nebraska and I’m from Missouri so we had our first date at Silver Dollar City after he travelled 500 miles to go on a date with me. Crazy part is I think we both knew we had found the one by date number 2!
How did he propose to you?
Um, remember how I said we dated 500 miles apart? Yeah that made for an awkward proposal. We knew we’d need to get engaged soon if we were gonna be able to live together soon after I had graduated college so we both knew it was coming (I even picked out my wedding ring with him). So I got all dressed up knowing he had to propose on a certain day (we were viewing wedding venues the next day and you can’t do that without a ring) when he was down visiting me. Zac had planned to play some of our favorite music and take me out onto a trail and propose up on one of the old towers on the trail but he didn’t know Branson trails closed once it got dark (His hometown trails never close). He had to improvise on how he’d propose in a town he knew nothing about he took me on a walk at the landing in the middle of winter so it was fairly empty. He thought he had a great back up and would propose in front of their fountain with all the lights on us. At that moment he realized just how much I hate being the center of attention as I knew it was coming and ran before he could get down on one knee. All plans ruined his last option was to propose on my grandmas doorstep so I could still show off my ring when I walked in the door cause he knew grandma would be asking.
What was the Engagement Session like?
This too was right after we got engaged. In fact it was the day after we looked at wedding venues because we had to get everything done before he went back home. We had a lot of fun thanks to Gabe being a good friend and willing to work with us. His knowledge of the area and good photo-opt places helped immensely. He even made an abandoned building spot turn out to be some of my favorite photos.
The Wedding Day
Fantastic isn’t a good enough word for my experience. We had to do rehearsal, decorate the venue and have the wedding all on the same day so things were pretty busy. I didn’t even think about photos for all the small things like our dresses and boots. Gabe did, he helped us out and staged them all for pictures so my bridesmaids could focus on helping me. He knew which people were in my wedding and who my friends and family were and I got some of the most wonderful photos to look back on because of him. We had a lot of laughs trying out different shots as nothing about our wedding and way of doing things felt traditional but Gabe made it easy.
I was so pleased with one of the edited photos you did of mine. The one that frankly was in a ugly area but once you put snow all over it in the photo it’s one of my absolute favorites we have"