Ryan + Christa Blackstone Wedding

My friends, this wedding day was powerful and so touching. I knew Christa through mutual friends and from our work at John Brown University, but didn’t get to know her well until we met about what it would look like to be her wedding photographer. The best way I know how to describe them: Ryan and Christa will make you feel like they are your best friends within 5 minutes of chatting. As independent people, they are passionate about their faith and love for the people God has placed in their lives, but TOGETHER, my word, they are a dream team. The love and sparks between them was so evident all day. I can’t wait to walk you through the day from my point of view!

I started the afternoon with Christa, while Stephen joined Ryan and his guys. I walked in right as the girls were finishing getting ready. All of us at the house were in awe of Christa when we saw her all dressed up. She looked STUNNING. She even got to FaceTime a sweet friend and honorary bridesmaid from afar (Elizabeth) before she and I drove over to meet up with Ryan.

The guys got ready in a flash, and beat Christa and I over to the property where the couple was going to have their first look. Why? Because we needed a tall vehicle to go through a creek and tall fields to get there (and someone who was willing to honk a couple cows out of the way). Considering we were in a car, we were thankful the guys had the right vehicles to drive us over so we didn’t have to walk. 🙂

Then it was first look time!! Ryan and Christa were so so happy to see each other.

Ryan smiled the whole time Christa was getting her photos done. He is so in love!

Once the first look was done, the rest of the wedding party joined us for photos. This whole group was tight knit and so fun; they made the day a delight!

Trusting the guys with the bouquets: bad idea (don’t worry Hannah, no bouquet arrangements were harmed in the making of this photo). 😉

Sweet sisters!

The last “official” housemate and roommate photo with the maids of honor. Aren’t they lovely?!

We took one more wedding party at the church, this time with the awesome flower girls and ring bearer.

Before the ceremony, a Sunday school room was filled with family, close friends, and the wedding party, so they could bless Christa and Ryan in their marriage. This photo doesn’t do justice to how powerful this moment was; it was beautiful.

Ceremony time!

A quick kiss before taking his daughter down the aisle.

Lindy lead everyone in corporate worship to “How Deep the Father’s Love For Us”.

Time to join the reception! There was cake cutting, wonderful toasts by the maids of honor and best man, and lots and lots of dancing.

The father of the bride had a German toasting glass. You can look up the legend of the glass here, but the idea is that the father in the legend would not let his daughter marry a man out of her class unless he could create a glass where both he and she could drink from it at the same time. Good news: Ryan and Christa successfully drank their punch from the glass. 🙂

Of course, we had to get a JBU “family” photo while we were there!

In fact, there were a lot of fun and funny photos taken during the reception. 🙂

The first dances were great. Christa had a darling dance with her daddy, then Ryan danced with his mom and his sister for his dance. Ryan and Christa danced to Ed Sheeran’s “Thinking Out Loud”, where they may or may not have danced some of the routine from the actual music video.