As much as I love words, one of my very favorite things about a wedding day is unspoken stuff, and oddly enough, sometimes it’s even the things I don’t get a chance to photograph. Allow me to clarify.

Amanda and Clint began their wedding day with breakfast together on the porch of the guest house of Walnut Grove Farm. Jan, the farm’s owner and long time friend of Amanda’s family, made bread pudding, which they ate that foggy morning together before parting ways to get ready. Amanda beamed as she recounted it for me later, and the quiet and calm and perfection that encapsulated her description of that experience made me strangely happy that I hadn’t been there to document it. (I may firmly believe in documentation, but I also believe that sometimes we all need moments that belong solely to us – this was one of those.)

Amanda and Clint are two people with an essence about them, which was reflected immediately in watching them with their friends during the getting ready process. Amanda is collected and thoughtful and maintains this intoxicating mix of slightly unpolished grace, which may be the best kind of grace of all – she carries herself in a way that feels effortless yet poised, and then will follow it with a high five, a goofy dance move, and the wittiest banter. She and her girls spent the morning drinking mimosas and helping each other with hair and makeup in the guest house, and it was about as perfectly personal as getting ready can be. She had organized a scavenger hunt for Clint to get his gift from her that morning (with the help of his groomsmen); the guys joined in on the fun and helped Clint along the way, while he happily played along and laughed at his future wife’s plays on words within each clue. The guys got ready at Zach’s house, which is equally important to Clint – he lived with Zach in past years, and found himself putting on his shirt and fastening his wedding day suspenders in his old bedroom. Clint’s personality is equally as infectious as Amanda’s – he’s just as thoughtful and enthusiastic and charismatic, and these qualities spread across the home as the guys scavenger hunted and tied their bow ties and had such a great time together in the process.

There are so many more things I could tell you all about their wedding day, because there is something quite special about these two, and everyone who was present at their wedding knows it, too. Their wedding vows, which they wrote themselves, expressed the things they love about one another, and how they promised to forever work to live up to one another’s greatness. And as beautiful as their words were, the expressions on Clint and Amanda’s faces when they’re around each other say just as much – they light up to the point of nearly glowing, and their eyes are filled with an understanding and admiration and respect that goes beyond what my words can describe. And as I looked around at their friends and loved ones and listened to their conversations and toasts, I realized that they looked at Amanda and Clint with another version of this expression – because Amanda and Clint are the kind of people whose kindness and goodness fill a room, whose mere conversation makes others’ hearts feel full and loved, and who make those of us who know them simply feel fortunate to be in their midst.

Venue + Flowers: Walnut Grove Farm
Dessert: Uncle Billy’s Bakery
Dress: Cloud Nine Bridal
Catering: Hy Vee & Two Tomatoes