With so many choices, where in the world should you have your Kansas City wedding? We have some experience with many, many churches in the area. There are many good ones - more than five we can tell you about. But for brevity’s sake we picked five. These were chosen based on a variety of criteria including but not limited to beauty of sanctuary and church grounds, amenities for the bridal party and the overall quality of experience there. Last but not least was the church’s lack of fussiness towards photographers. That’s a big deal in our book.

• Asbury United Methodist Church 75th & Nall in Prairie Village, KS 913-432-5573 We’re suckers for wedding ceremony sites with great light. Boy, does Asbury have it! It’s not as close to downtown reception venues as other churches but the distance is manageable. The upstairs dressing areas are spacious with magnificent circular windows that provide plenty of light to help with make-up. The windows provide some fun portrait possibilities for your photographer, too.

• Broadway United Methodist Church 406 W. 74th St. Kansas City, MO 64114 816-363-4084 When we shot our first wedding at Broadway we were amazed at the enormous sanctuary. From the exterior it just doesn’t seem possible this church could have such an expansive sanctuary. Not only is it huge but it is beautiful with a wonderful bright white interior that makes it seem even larger than it is. The church coordinator was a delight to work with and sought to make everyone’s experience - including the photographer’s experience - worthwhile.

• Redemptorist Parish 3333 Broadway St., Kansas City, MO 64111 816-561-3771 We do a great many Catholic weddings every year (hmmm…. future blog post about our favorite Catholic churches? Stay tuned.) Redemptorist is the show stopper. This space brings a ton of Kansas City history to your event. It is centrally located in Midtown Kansas City, making this site convenient to the downtown reception venues that are so popular. The church features ample room for the bride and her retinue to get ready in the next door church offices. We’re not sure the grooms and groomsmen have the same niceties. The church administration are good to work with and have common sense and reasonable restrictions for photographers during the ceremony.

• St. John’s United Methodist Church 6900 Ward Parkway, Kansas City, MO 64113 816-523-6788 This place is pretty much a closely related sister to Asbury United Methodist Church in Prairie Village. Good light, spacious amenities and a great location that is an easy ride to the Country Club Plaza and downtown Kansas City. There’s a garden area just to the north of the church ripe with picture potential. The church is surrounded by plenty of colorful foliage during Spring, Summer and Fall.

  Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish 4503 Frederick Blvd. St Joseph, MO 64506 816-232-2847 O.K., so it’s not in Kansas City. So what? Great stained glass, lots of space and a wonderful, wood-carved altar are big positives at this church. With those wide hallways, the post-wedding exit won’t make your guests feel like sardines. We like churches with gardens, too. Our Lady of Guadalupe has ‘em.

This couple’s reception rocked out, enough said.

So much of your wedding is so fleeting. The cake is devoured, the first kiss is done and the music fades. Within minutes of the couple’s departure the ceremony and reception halls are dressed down. Within days a bouquet of flowers can be just a hint of its former glory.

Wouldn’t it be nice to preserve some of those pretty things? Someone like Loreen Hospodar of Reenie Rose can really help. Loreen is an artist who paints wonderful oil on canvas paintings of bridal bouquets.

Loreen has spent her life connected to the art world. She is a graduate of Grand Valley State University in Michigan where she graduated with a Fine Arts degree in illustration. Loreen now lives and creates her artwork in Chicago but serves brides and grooms nationwide.

Check out this wedding artist’s website and blog.

I have recenly completed a gallery of images featuring the wonderful Arrowhead Yacht Club in Greenwood, Mo. I’ve lived in Kansas City for the great majority of my life but I didn’t know about this beautiful community nestled around Arrowhead Lake south of Lee’s Summit. The yacht club is a spectacular location for a wedding. The club overlooks the lake with a wonderful sloping hill crowned with trees right next to the water. It’s awesome.

1. Think you have seen some ugly cakes? Check out Cake Wrecks. I have to say the second one is stupendously bad.

2.On another note much more asethetic note, this couple used a very cool wedding theme using pixelated images and flowers to create a distinctive look.

3.Lastly this is a pretty neat proposal video.

Are you worried about questionable style choices for your wedding? Don’t fret. Wanna good laugh? Check these wedding pics out. Enjoy!

“Passion, though a bad regulator, is a powerful spring.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

“We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.”

Thornton Wilder

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

“I find that the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving: To reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it, but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor -”

Oliver Wendell Holmes

O.K., I have seen some “Thriller” moments at a couple of my weddings, they were both solo efforts. This was a wedding I did not shoot but found on YouTube. If you can get five or six groomsmen brave enough to do something like these guys, you and they deserve a standing ovation: