The Dragster Wedding
Start Your Engines, I mean Marriage!
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The Dragster Wedding
Just a little intimate wedding with your family and 700 of your closest racing buddies. What?! If you are going to invite 700 people to your wedding, you might as well pick a place and time when they will all be at the same place at the same time. That is what Lisa Schaffner and John Boes did when they decided to tie the knot.
My good photography buddy--Rob Miller--generally helps out his friend--Michael Davis--every year photographing the annual awards banquet for Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park in Norwalk, Ohio. This year the NHRA (National Hot Road Association) annual awards banquet was held at the Kalahari Resort, Sandusky, Ohio. My friend Rob asked if I wanted to go out with him to photograph it. I said sure, it will be fun and a good experience.
It was a cold, early Friday morning when my wife Dawn and I drove up to the local Starbucks to meet Rob, who was all ready inside getting his daily, sometimes hourly, fix of caffeine. We walked in and he had a nasty look on his face all ready. We asked why such a look, and he said he had to go all the way back home because he forgot his credit card. Good thing he stopped for coffee otherwise he would not have known.
We loaded up his truck with our gear and I kissed Dawn goodbye and Rob and I were off back to his house in a driving show. As we were driving I asked Rob about the itinerary and why we had to leave a day early let alone so early, and when he said something about a wedding, I interjected...what wedding?! “Oh, I didn’t tell you about the wedding?” Rob said. I replied: “I don’t think so.” Rob proceeded to tell me that Michael Davis was going to shoot a wedding tonight and then the banquet tomorrow. “Oh, that will be interesting” I said.
I asked Rob who was getting married and he said two of the racers, they figured it was a good time to get married while all of their friends were gathered in one place. That makes sense. I mean, you might as well combine the two events.
We show up at the Kalahari Resort, which happens to be a very large indoor water park. Good thing it was indoors, as the temp was 6 degrees Fahrenheit! As we walked to our rooms, we ran into the two lovebirds in the hallway outside of their room. We casually asked where the ceremony was going to be held, and they told us: “Well, we were just going to have it in the room, but so many people wanted to come that now we don’t know where it will be. The hotel said we could have it almost anywhere we wanted.” I looked at Michael and said that we can walk around and find the perfect spot for them.
We dropped off our stuff in our room, and started in search of a perfect location to have a wedding. We ended up selecting the grand staircase which curved around and had a waterfall at the center base of it. The theme of the Resort was African Safari, so there were many photogenic backdrops, but we wanted this to be a neutral backdrop and also accommodating a large crowd. The gray stone backdrop of the staircase did just that.
After the hotel set up the rows of chairs, us photographers; Rob, Michael, myself and now Levi Rhodebeck--Michael’s associate--took our positions and waited for everyone to show up. The bride was making her grand entrance at the top of the stairs and the groom and everyone else would be waiting downstairs.
The wedding was a nice little wedding, without much fanfare as this was both Lisa and John’s second marriage. When it was time for the formal shots, we gathered everyone up and got them in and out of their spots as efficiently as we could so they could get on with the reception. A funny moment came when I had the minister stand up with them, I no sooner got him in position and took one shot when he reached into his inside coat pocket and pulls out all of the marriage documents that needed to be signed. I just had to laugh, and take that shot as well!
Another funny moment came when I had the family and friends stand on the stairs and the bride and groom stand up on the ledge of the waterfall at the base of the stairs. I looked through my viewfinder and told Lisa to take a step back, she almost did before she realized what would have happened, then she and the rest of them just laughed!
I love the expression on Lisa’s face when she realized what I had told her to do!
After the formal pictures were taken, it was now off to the reception. Well, once we figured out where the reception was going to be held, that is. Apparently it came down to two locations, the grand fireplace or the lounge in the hotel. We ended up doing both.
John and Lisa cut the cake by the fireplace, well, when I say cake, I should say: “cupcake cake.” They had a tiered cake made up of cupcakes. They were pretty tasty I might add. When it came time to cut the cake, they asked me how they should do it, I told them that they should just take the knife and place it between two of the cupcakes as if they were cutting any other cake. Then, I told them, that we will take one cupcake off and you will actually cut that in half and that is what you will use to feed each other. It all worked out well. As a wedding photographer it is good to be able to make suggestions that puts the bride and groom at ease and allows you to get a good photograph.
I Just love this cake Topper!
I did have to tell them to turn the knife over so that the “sharp” edge was down! :-)
After the cupcake cutting, it was on to the lounge for the garter and bouquet toss. The photographers were told in advance that the bride would be throwing the bouquet but that no one would be catching it. The reason being was that she was going to tie some elastic to it and as the girls reached for it she would pull it back. I like weddings with “tricks.”
I think she “got” them!
The rest of the reception went on without any more “tricks” and all had a great time. In fact, I think the lounge had to stay open a little longer than normal to accommodate everyone. That was a good thing, except for the photographers who had to work the next day that is!
