Photography Series: Molly Michel

Today's featured bride is the beautiful Molly of MThree Studio! Besides being a dedicated and talented photographer, Molly is also a graphic designer and up until recently used to create the paper products for her clients in addition to capturing them on camera. She is one of the most creative people I know, which certainly shines through in her wedding! Molly and Ken were married in the historic Turner Ballroom in Wisconsin, in an event full of DIY details that was photographed by Heather Cook Elliott . Check out those flower chandeliers! In addition to offering up some advice below, there are also some great explanations of the photos in between the pictures so be sure to scan through the post. Thank you, Molly!

Do only what means something to you. Don't just do things because everyone else has, or because you think you are supposed to. This is a day about the two of you, make that true of everything you do that day. On the same note, infuse yourselves into all the details. One of my biggest regrets is that we didn't choose processional and recessional music that meant something to us. We are HUGE music buffs, and yet I went out and bought the "wedding music" cd and chose some random classical pieces for our musicians to play. I wish we would have thought to use Tom Petty, the Beatles or Coldplay, it would have meant so much more to us.

Remember that no one can ruin your day for you but you. At our Rehearsal Dinner we made a pact that no matter what went wrong, we were going to love every second of our wedding day and be happy. Because we decided we would, we were. We didn't let anything bother us, and plenty went wrong, trust me. Slow down and take a few moments to soak it all in. It goes by so fast, (I know, everyone says that) and the best thing you can do for your memory is to take your new Husband's hand, step back and appreciate everything going on around you for a few minutes. Take note of the sounds, the smells, the beauty and make a mental imprint.

My last piece of advice: Hire a wedding planner. I'm serious. No matter what size your wedding is, how small your budget is or how good you think you will be at planning your wedding, you need a planner. There is so much I would have loved to have done, so much I worried myself sick about or worked myself silly over, that I failed to enjoy a lot of our planning process. If I could do it again, I would spend the money to have someone else worrying about all of that so I could enjoy being engaged. Had I done this, I think I could have spent time on what really mattered to me, and what I wanted to work on, not just what I had to do. I would have had time to worry about outfits to wear to my showers, creating an amazing honeymoon, wrap the gifts for by bridesmaids and write them thank you notes or even going for a facial - just a few things that fell to the wayside.

Our first kiss. Hubby surprised me by dipping me for it, quite a moment! I also love that one of our Best Men, Paul is getting ready to catch me. I can always count on Paul to be looking out for us.

We stopped at our favorite bar - a piano bar called Lucille's Rockin Pianos and took a few shots there. Ken pretended to play, there is a cardboard cutout of Ray Charles between us (on the other piano) and my brother is toasting us in the background. Just a perfect shot.


I tossed a fortune bouquet. It was actually seven bouquets tied together to look like one. Each one had a little fortune on it, i.e. "You will marry a man who loves to travel". We thought it would be great for seven ladies to catch them, and then the guy who caught the garter would get to dance with seven women (taking some of the awkwardness off we hoped). My sister in law, who you can see on the right edge of the picture, is a master bouquet catcher and actually caught three of them!

For one of my Bachelorette parties ( I had two) we went to Nashville, TN. We learned a great line dance there and performed it at the reception - the girls even donned their cowboy boots!