EMILY + KELLEN

They both played the trumpet in the high school band. That’s where Kellen and Emily met. Their personalities were similar: Kind, shy, “good egg” type of people who never got in trouble or had anything bad to say about anyone.
After gathering the courage to ask for a first date, Emily and Kellen went to see Alice in Wonderland at the Marvel Theater in Carlinville. “Kellen was too scared to hold my hand because he didn’t want to ruin his chance at a girlfriend.”
He didn’t ruin his chance.
In fact, Emily was his girlfriend for an entire 13 years!!
“I wanted to be finished with nursing school before getting engaged. He respected my wish, and during my senior year of nursing school we got engaged.”
Emily had a baby shower for her friend Katlynn in Carlinville. While there, Kellen showed up to Emily’s parents’ house without her knowing to ask her dad for his blessing. Unbeknownst to Kellen, Emily hadn’t left the house yet. “I saw Kellen’s car, wondering why he was in Carlinville. Kellen hurried away and ignored my calls and texts. At this point, I was suspicious as to what was going on. Kellen went one way to the courthouse and thought he was going to not see my mom and I, but we caught up to him. We followed him to the courthouse, and I was so confused and annoyed that I didn’t know what was going on. Kellen pulled up to the courthouse and so did my mom. I still had no idea what was going on. I happened to look over and saw that he was dressed up underneath his coat because it was FREEZING that day. As soon as I saw that he was dressed up, I knew this was it! We walked to the bench at the courthouse where many prom pictures had been taken years before. My parent’s neighbor, Jen Swan, took pictures of the whole thing. It was perfect! After spending the day telling our families the good news, we went to supper with our best friends, Sammie and Justin Heggy, who were both in our wedding party.”

They decided upon April 22 for their wedding date and chose Walnut Hall Estate for their venue. “Our inspiration for the day was simple but elegant. We had dusty blue and sage green as our main colors. Walnut Hall Estate has everything we were looking for! It was the perfect venue. We did not have to leave the venue to go take pictures and it was beautiful to take pictures outside, but also great to have the option for pictures inside when it got too cold. The character that the venue has is incredible. The Wellers have put so much thought into every detail of Walnut Hall Estate to make it feel like it’s truly a one-of-a-kind venue.”

We can attest to everything Emily mentioned about Walnut Hall Estate. We photographed Emma and Ryan’s wedding there the weekend before but there is just so much there to work with and feel inspired by that it was as though we were photographing at a totally different venue. When a venue sparks your creativity two weekends in a row, you know it’s good.

We are so excited to share Emily and Kellen’s wedding day with you today! Enjoy this look at their day.

Kellen received a pin with both of his grandfathers’ pictures on it that have passed away. He wore this in his suit jacket the day of the wedding. Also, the cuff links he wore belonged to one of those grandfathers. Emily- The moment I looked forward to most was doing a first look with Kellen. It was amazing to have that small amount of time just the two of us. It definitely lived up to my expectations. I am so glad we did it.
Kellen – I was excited to see what Emily looked like in her dress. Our flowers were wood flowers (Sola Flowers) that were kept the natural white color.It was very chilly and windy on Emily and Kellen’s wedding day, but they braved it all and let us get some beautiful photos of them outdoors. It was worth the chilliness to enjoy these beautiful blooming redbuds.
One of the highlights of Walnut Hall Estate is in the event of rain, you still have a beautiful place to take photos. We warmed up with the two for some inside pics, and it obviously was a beautiful place to photograph.I’ll give you one guess who stole the show…“The other moment that will last with me forever was walking down the aisle with my dad. I ugly cried down the aisle. It was so joyfully emotional to be surrounded by all of our family and friends during that moment.”“We had an exact replica of our dog, Louie, made out of clay for our cake! It was perfect, down to his spots!”I still have dreams about these desserts you guys. Like unbelievable. Roger and I actually skipped dinner and ate dessert instead. No judgment. It felt right.“We had a choreographed dance to the song From the Ground Up- Dan+Shay. We just felt it symbolized us and our future life together. It made it more special that it was choreographed by our sister-in-law.”The mother-son dance song was sung by Kellen’s cousin, Ainsley.

“You never believe that it will go by as fast as they say, but it does! Enjoy every minute!”

VENDORS:
The Nixon Chick rentals- all florals and decor, day-of organizer. Angie did it all! She tailored everything to us! Carly Stewart- Makeup
Kristi Miller -Hair
Epic Entertainment- JR Levora
Brass Door Catering
Ginger Bean Bakery
Kara Koster- cookies
Walnut Hall Estate– All of their staff was SPECTACULAR!