wedding-something: a phiLOVEdelphia story: Final Photo Spot Before We Wed

After the Art Museum, we had just one final stop before heading to St. Patrick’s to get hitched. As I mentioned earlier, Mr. Turkey really wanted to attend cocktail hour. This meant getting all the photos done before officially becoming Mr. and Mrs.

You’ve seen pictures of the two of us and our bridal party, but we still had to get some pictures with ones who loved us most – and for the longest – our families!

We decided to do these photos in Rittenhouse Square because of its proximity to both the church and the Rittenhouse Hotel, where everyone was staying (and we’d party a bit later).

You can see on our welcome map just how close everything is (under 2 minute walk)
Photo (and booklet) by Two Paperdolls

Thank goodness the photographers had already scoped out a location for these photos because the park was hopping! There was an arts fair going on, meaning lots of tents…and even more people. They had found a secluded area for our first look, but this spot must have been more difficult since there were more than just two people being photographed. I bet you’ll barely realize there was any commotion as you see these images!

All remaining photos are by Philip Gabriel Photography.

Although I hadn’t given Gabe a shot list, I did mention early on that both Mr. Turkey and I wanted individual photos with each of our bridal party members. Lucky for us, he remembered and we took these quickly as our family congregated in the square.

With the groomsmen and ushers

With Best Man / brother M

Individual shots with each of the lovely bridesmaids

With MOH J

Because of various dynamics, specifically Mr. Turkey having two sets of parents, there were many versions of the family shots. You brides who’ve done family pictures know what I mean…it was like a revolving door. Bride with Mom, Bride with Mom & Dad, Bride & Groom with Mom & Dad, add Bride’s brother, etc. etc. I’ll spare you the full collection and narrow it down to the “main” shots.

With Turkey Dad, Turkey Mom and Brother Turkey

With SFIL Turkey, MIL Turkey, Best Man / brother M

With usher / brother R, FIL Turkey, SMIL Turkey, Best Man / brother M, usher / brother S

There were also a few one-off shots that we were very happy to have. Again, I won’t share them all, but here are a few favorites.

Mr. Turkey and all his brothers

Individual shots with the Turkey parents

Great couple photos of each of the set of parents

After the family shots were done, they made me put the veil on to take a few final bridal portraits and pictures of the unwed Turkeys.

So happy the veil was behaving itself right now

Last photo before saying "I do"

Now, if you look closely in the photo above, you can see that my flowers were getting a bit wilted on the ends and the bridesmaid bouquets were feeling a bit “tired” from the heat as well.

Love all the color, but some of the greenery near the bottom was wilting

It was at this point that choosing Rittenhouse Square for our final photo location ended up being quite serendipitous. Our floral designer, Evantine, has a store in the Rittenhouse Hotel and since there was a little time until the ceremony, the bridesmaids ran all the bouquets into the store for some “sprucing up”. It was like we had brand new bouquets for the ceremony – thank you, Evantine!!

I was no help at all on the flower front, instead heading into the trolley for a little time off my feet and a quick bite before it was “go time”.