Stefanie & David’s wedding: St John Greek Orthodox Sterling Hts. & Royalty House Warren MI

Some Thoughts…

Stephanie and David’s wedding took place at St John Greek Orthodox Church in Sterling heights Michigan. It was an absolutely beautiful day for the wedding. The reception was held at the Royalty House in Warren.

Getting Ready…

We started off at the bride’s home for some getting ready pictures. The dress was hanging in the doorway and the flowers had been delivered. We took the opportunity to get some detailed shots of getting ready. The bride was beautiful and radiated such joyful energy. Some families came to the home to meet the bride. We took a few shots in the backyard before we left then headed for the church.

Patrick Abel wedding photograph — Patrick A. Photographer

David and the guys were hanging out before the service and we took a few pictures of them before the bride arrived. The intention was to have the bride and groom see each other before the service so we arranged their first look in a small chapel off to the side. It was a very special moment for both of them. Everyone got ready for the service as the excitement built up in the room.

April B. Wedding Photographer — April B. Photographer

The service…

St John Greek Orthodox is one of the more beautiful churches in the area. The Orthodox faith is one of the more interesting for us. The services are beautiful and the priests are often very agreeable to having us document the event. This means we can get closer then in a lot of churches and are not considered a distraction. It’s all about the bride and groom and the celebration of a beautiful moment in time.

After the service the couple walked out to their guests in a sea of bubbles. Some of those shots are absolutely gorgeous. We then went back inside to get a few family shots of the relatives. We didn’t put a lot into our blog but it took us about a half an hour to work our way through those groups then we had a little time with a couple.

The park, not…

We followed the limo and they intended to stop at one of their favorite Parks. Construction put us all over the map and when we finally arrived at the park it was closed. They were working on the street in front of it and we couldn’t gain access at all. We had gone quite a ways out of our way to get to this special Park and had to think fast for a new plan. We were running out of time so we headed back to the reception.

The Royalty House has a gorgeous fence out by the road and the couple couldn’t believe we got such beautiful shots near the street. We were pretty surprised too and delighted I must say. We angled they’re camera up for a lot of them to block out cars in the parking lot and ended up with some pretty neat pictures though not nearly as many as we would have had we managed to get to the park. They seem very happy though and we were relieved to get some nice shots of the two of them together. Combined with what we got at the church I think we got pretty lucky.

The party…

The royalty house is a beautiful venue. The room and the up lighting photograph so well that night. They draped a beautiful curtain behind the couple that made for some really nice backdrop effect as we shot the toasts and the dinner.

After a fabulous meal the couple took to the dance floor. Having two shooters on location meant we could cover it from multiple angles. This was a pretty good-sized party so it helped having two shooters there. They danced and played to live music and the crowd joined in. What a fabulous evening! When we were getting ready to wrap up our shooting we asked the couple to come outside for a few night shots. The night shots are beautiful! We went back inside and made our last shot of the night, one where they were up on the balcony at the top of the stairs inside the lobby. It ends our blog and it’s positively one of our favorites!

We can’t wait for our next Royalty House wedding!

You can also see one of our favorite weddings for Erika and Mark at St. Nicholas in Troy.