“Our queen!!! These are so so amazing. You captured all of the emotions from our day and I couldn’t be more in love with every single one of them!! Thank you so much!!!“

If Grace and Spencer’s candlelit wedding was a coffee order, it would be a hot maple cinnamon latte with whole milk. Literally, fall in a cup. 

Their entire gallery feels like slipping into your softest sweater, grabbing a warm drink with your bestie, and watching the world slow down in the warmest, most romantic way—the kind of magic only a candlelit wedding in November can pull off.

Some weddings have golden hour. Grace and Spencer ARE golden hour.

Two humans who make everyone around them feel a little softer, a little calmer, a little more sure that love—real, steady, met-in-freshman-year-and-haven’t-been-apart-since love—is worth building an entire wedding timeline around. 

Add to that a candlelit wedding reception at Equestria West, the people who love them most, and a shared vision for nothing but stress-free vibes… and you get pure art. (No, seriously, have you SEEN their gallery?!)

Well here it is: your visual permission slip to lean into your chill and leave the door open for whatever your fall wedding day brings you (spoiler alert: soft light and belly laughs). 

Grace and Spencer: take it away.

Vendors | Venue: Equestria West/Bavaria Downs | Catering: D’Amico Hospitality | Bride’s Dress: The White Room | Groom’s Attire: Atmosfere

A Candlelit Wedding with Carefree Love That’s Caught, Never Curated

Grace and Spencer are, quite possibly, two of the chillest people you will ever meet. Like, we-just-love-to-be-with-other-and-do-whatever type chill. MY type of chill. 

Ask them what they were looking forward to most on their wedding day (I did) and they would have said “being married is number one but celebrating with our friends and family” (they did). 

They are the real deal. Just two humans who met freshman year of college, decided to keep picking each other forever, and somehow make everyone around them feel like it’s really that easy. 

They’ve got that calm, giddy love that makes every photo feel laid-back-romantic in a way you can’t force—you can only capture. Yeah, I’ve got the technical knowledge and an eye for the cinematic in-betweens, but the reason this gallery feels so warm and effortless is because that’s exactly who Grace and Spencer are. 

You can’t fake the way Grace is just the tiniest bit unhinged in the best possible way. Or how Spencer greets her goofy energy with a soft spoken, steady presence. He holds the space, she fills it, and somehow it all balances out exactly right.

You can see it in their photos: her leaning in laughing, him quietly holding it all down, and me feeling like the luckiest person on the planet because I get to capture it all for them. 

Tell me that’s not the coolest thing. (Or don’t, because it is.)

Let November in Minnesota Do What It Does Best

If you’ve ever wondered what November in Chaska, MN looks like when it’s doing the absolute most… take in Grace and Spencer’s wedding gallery and take notes.

The whole vibe was just golden.

The light hit that perfect, warm glow that photographers dream about. But honestly? Even if the sun hadn’t shown up, I swear their gallery would STILL be the very definition of a golden hour meets candlelit wedding.

Part of that is Grace and Spencer’s hopelessly in love-ness that could make the most mundane moment look straight out of a Hallmark movie. But so much more of it was the warmth of everyone around them. 

Looking through the pictures, you can feel the love coming from everyone. Grace’s first look with her brother and dad. The groomsmen hyping Spencer up in the way only close-knit friends can do. The bridal party on the patio sipping champagne and vibing like it’s already cocktail hour. 

And even when Grace and Spencer stole away for their portraits, standing in their own little sun-kissed universe like two people against the world, November basically said “I’ve got you.”

Golden hour or not, fall was their season. End of story.   

Fill Your Wedding With People Who Love Like You Do

You can tell a lot about someone by the way their people show up for them. And Grace and Spencer are two of the loveliest, sweetest humans you could want as friends and family members (adopt me, please?!).  

Every single guest there was all in and about them—hugging, crying, cheering like it was the best day ever (because it was).

Before the ceremony even started, everyone gathered for a toast (read: 15 toasts). Some shared a few unscripted words and the rest kept clinking glasses over and over, like they couldn’t get enough of it. By the fifteenth round, everyone was belly-laughing in that way that only happens when you’re with exactly who you’re meant to be with.

The ceremony itself was super simple and sweet, and still everyone cried. How could they not when you love each other the way they do, and your families are as obsessed with who you’re marrying as you are!

Spencer and Grace wanted nothing more than to celebrate with their people and just let the day happen.  They created space for it and their cocktail hour delivered: a montage of hugs, stories, and the kind of easy mingling that comes when everyone genuinely wants to hang out with each other. Nothing felt forced—not a greeting, not a smile, not a single photo (which we love).

Host a Candlelit Wedding Reception That Feels Like a Family Dinner

I love me a good candlelit wedding reception.

It’s simple, it’s elegant, and the ambient light at Equestria West with my particular style of film noir-esque photography is romantic beyond belief. Pair all that with Grace and Spencer’s soft, gentle kind of love and let’s just say… the sun may have set but golden hour was still kicking back with us.

That’s the thing about candlelight: it makes the simplest moment impossibly tender and a little more luminous. It makes you want to lay back and linger awhile, and that’s what their people did. Speeches flowed like stories being told over family dinner, guests dabbed their cheeks between laughter, and glasses barely touched the table. 

These are the natural moments of connection I live and breathe as a wedding photographer because they are also the ones you will cherish most: when the extensions are out and you’re rocking a cutie bun, bopping with your family like this was just a regular old Tuesday instead of the day you married your best friend.

You deserve to know that you don’t need 100 moving parts or a Pinterest board with 300 pins to make your wedding feel like a once-in-a-lifetime kind of magic. A candlelit wedding with people you love is more than enough.

Grace and Spencer’s candlelit wedding is honest-to-God proof that simplicity is underrated and love can look (and feel) exactly like a cozy November dinner party with your favorite people.

So do it. Ditch the big production for the quiet power of presence. Choose a space you love, fill it with candlelight and laughter, and let the day unfold, knowing that I will be there to capture it all.