It’s official… this wedding photographer is now MARRIED! In today’s episode, I’m sharing all the details of our wedding day. Listen in to hear about our incredible vendors, the unexpected surprises, and all of the moments that made this truly the best day of my life. 

On Quianna Marie Weekly, we’re chatting about business growing pains, finding genuine connections, and celebrating wins of all sizes through the lens of a photographer at heart. Sprinkled throughout stories and interviews with past clients, photographers and other business owners this podcast is designed to help you step into your purpose and to truly create a life you’re proud of, a life worth photographing and sharing.

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Review The Show Notes:

Welcome Night (4:25)

Our Valentines (9:54)

The Morning Of (10:58)

Taking Photos (13:46)

The Only Glitch (15:41)

Unexpected Moments (16:37)

The Ceremony (18:13)

The Reception (22:40)

Mentioned In This Episode:

Lucky 13 Quarterly Content Creation: quiannamarie.com/13

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Review the Transcript:

Oh my gosh. I am married!!! I’ve been praying for this day, and Mike doesn’t know this, but he’s been the wish for every candle I’ve blown out on my birthday for the last 30 years. I’m still experiencing a huge wedding, completely sober hangover, and could really use a massage, $35,000 and a nap that lasts three days.

But here we are, back to reality. But this time I’m married! I’m recording this episode just three days after our wedding and patiently waiting for sneak peeks, and I say, not so patiently waiting for sneak peeks. And by the time this airs, I’m sure we’ll have images from Brett and Brandy to share. But oh my gosh, I don’t even know where to begin with the best day of my life.

This podcast is a safe place for you and I to hang out, get to know each other, share our wildest dreams, book more photo shoots, and sell our offers without feeling salesy. As a promise to myself, when I started this podcast five years ago, I made it my mission to share my life and business, not for it just to be a diary of my life yapping away, but to truly help us all grow through every season of life and business.

This episode is gonna be a completely personal one to share my day, I mean our day, and how it was the most amazing weekend of our lives. If you’re a fan of the Twilight Series. It literally, it made me feel like when Renesme was born and all of the vampires from around the globe traveled to see Bella and Edward and their family.

It was such a surreal feeling to have our family and friends travel to see us, to be in one place at the same time, to celebrate with us. It was such a dream. As I was planning this day, I was all about the vibes. I wanted our day to feel like a nineties country backyard wedding, good food, good music, and a fun dance party.

Yes, I love the details, but I didn’t get caught up in the details in spending just to spend. Our biggest splurges were the photography with Brett and Brandy. Of course, I needed the best of the best to document our day. Caldwell’s Barbecue was another big ticket item for catering, and then a big DIY project of building our ceremony.

Benches quickly added up to be more than we anticipated. We even bought a trailer for those benches and unfortunately our calculations for storing them weren’t correct, and the trailer we had was too small, and so now we need to invest in an even larger, bigger, wider, longer, taller trailer. That could be an entirely a new episode to share that story another time.

We invested in Sunset Sips to pour our signature drinks at the bar all night long. Mike’s was the bearded Blackberry. Thanks chat, GBT for helping me coming up with those ideas. And uh, that was made with Crown Blackberry Whiskey and Lemonade, which was a huge hit. And mine was the Mary Me Margarita. Just a classic and delicious Margarita.

Brie with Sunset sips and her assistant. Lauren also offered Shirley Temples as the welcome drink with the cutest candy, heart stir sticks, and kept pouring those all night long. The Shirley Temples were delicious and it was something that everyone of all ages enjoyed, especially the littles. It was, it was so fun to see them welcome around and feeling fancy with their little Shirley Temples.

It was so cute. DJ was a legit, and we fricking love Dave Watkins, DJ D Dub. Oh my gosh. He kept that dance floor full all night and it literally felt like a middle school and high school dance party. It was so much fun. Banger after banger. I was legit howling and dancing on the dance floor all night long.

It was a dream dancing with my friends from high school and their daughters, my nieces and nephews. All of my cousins, aunts and uncles was such a blast. This was a night I’ll remember for a lifetime. Not only did our DJ keep the dance vibes high all night, but the ceremony was literally perfection. As a wedding photographer, I can appreciate smooth transitions, no feedback from the mics, and literally everything was perfect from our sound.

We’re thankful for our tables and chairs rentals, the table guys AZ, and their flexibility to drop off the tables earlier on Friday so we can set up and use them for our welcome night as well. Oh my gosh, I have so much to tell you. Okay, so let’s start with the beginning. As Mike and I were planning our wedding weekend, I was adamant about hosting a welcome night.

Not just a rehearsal for our wedding party, but I really wanted to serve dinner and welcome our traveling guests. I legit wanted our entire guest list of family and friends traveling out of state or a long distance to join us for a welcome night. Mike, unfamiliar with Wedding Traditions also have I mentioned that Mike has only attended about four weddings in his lifetime.

Four, and I photographed over 400. Yeah, Mike was freaking out that I basically wanted to plan two weddings for our wedding. Right. All he could see were dollar signs and he didn’t think it was necessary. He honestly thought like, why are we doing this? This is so much like, like what do you mean? Like we’re planning a wedding, not an entire wedding weekend.

For me though, I didn’t want my family and friends, the ones that had to get on planes or endure long road trips to be here to see us for four hours and just give us a cheat kiss on our hectic wedding day. I wanted to hang out, catch up, celebrate and spend more time with our family and friends for her wedding weekend.

Thankfully, my mom hosted beyond Basil, the cutest and most delicious mobile pizza bar. They brought in big bowls of salad crostini, like mini bruschetta and lots of fire roasted pizza pies. Everything was delicious and so worth it. My mom, being my mom, even planned an entire charcuterie table with pasta.

Decor, a beautiful charcuterie spread created by tailored charcuterie. Shout out to my bestie tariff for picking it up on Friday for us. Thank you. And a veggie plate to share. It was exactly what we needed as little apps after the rehearsal to snack on while the pizza was cooking. I seriously love my mom so much for being the OG of planning parties and hosting.

She always knows what we need. As a nod to my Sicilian heritage, my mom even served cannoli with a huge variety of Italian cookies from the Sicilian butcher. Everything was the whole yummy and the perfect way to kick off our welcome night. One of my biggest dreams has been to host an event for my family where we all sit at one long table.

Mike and my family made it happen. I had a vision of twinkling lights floating above us under the night sky. Clinking glasses and toasting to our wedding and sharing a good meal. It was everything I’ve dreamed of and more. We also surprised my mom with a birthday banner, big 65 balloons, sparklers, and sang happy birthday to her.

This wedding weekend was such a labor of love and a big dream for my mom too. It was such a special moment to honor her and celebrate her birthday with literally everyone that would be there for her 65th birthday if we planned a party for her. Her birthday is on Groundhog’s Day, February 2nd, and we went to Lunch to celebrate, which was so lovely and so fun, but this, this took the cake.

She was Kim k ugly crying. So surprised and so happy. Also, I do wanna share because I’m super extra. I didn’t want anybody, like, especially my godmother, who’s my mom’s cousin, you know, my nanny and poppy, any family members or new family that Mike’s, you know, Mike’s family that’s coming into our family. I didn’t want anybody for one second to be like, really key.

Like, why don’t you tell us we were celebrating this? I would’ve brought a card. I would’ve brought a gift for her. So I was really intentional about creating this big banner that I literally ordered from Walgreens for like 35 bucks and I added family photos of us. I had big sign, happy 65th birthday, Renee, tons of cutie little photos.

And then I made sure to save enough room so everybody could just grab a Sharpie and sign it. So that way everybody felt like they had something sweet to share, a sweet message. And nobody felt left out like, like I didn’t get her a card. You know, like I just, I hate that feeling when things get surprised on me as a guest.

And sometimes you’re like, I didn’t know. I wish I would’ve known. So I was on it. Everyone pulled together to celebrate and to bring those wild ideas to life for me, and for that, I will be forever grateful. Luckily, Mike’s grandpa and lots of his family and friends that we didn’t think would be able to make it Friday night were able to join us.

We got to spend more time with them, share stories, and make more introductions with both sides of our family. Before the wedding, Mike and I kept exchanging smiles all night long, and I knew in my heart that he was so happy we hosted this welcome night. Any time to spend more time with his grandpa and any of our family is just, just so special.

One of the many things that I love about my husband, my husband, is that he handles should he takes care of business and does everything he can to help bring my visions to life. He kept coming up to me to check on me throughout the night to see if I needed anything, if I needed a drink, a jacket, if I was getting cold or, or like if the volume on music needed to be changed, anything.

This is how he treats me all the time, not just when there’s people around. And it was so fun to see my grandmother, my godmother, aunties and uncles. See Mike treat me that way and witness his attentiveness and his love for me. The welcome night was such a beautiful way to kick off the weekend. Oh, and we got lucky that day because it was literally raining that morning and sprinkling throughout the day.

I’ve been praying about this day in perfect weather for months, and we’re just so grateful. The sun came out and stopped raining for the duration of our welcome night, and it started sprinkling on our way home. How lucky are we? That night I was up until about 1:30 AM finishing our Valentine’s. Yes, I wrote Love Note Valentine’s for each of our guests and vendors.

I saw a TikTok where this bride wrote a love note to each of her guests, and ever since then I was determined to do that for our guest list too. I printed out a roster of our entire guest list and checked off everyone as I completed their letters. I swear I felt like a teacher again, grading papers. I don’t know why I do this and create more work for myself.

Honestly, I don’t even care how much time it took because the look on everyone’s faces reading the letters and sharing about them was priceless. I wrote a sweet message for everyone, and it helped me feel grounded and connected to each guest. I shared memories, shared what I admired about them, wishes for the future, and even some inside jokes.

What surprised me most about these letters was the memories and fun connections with everyone attending. It helped me anchor those moments and remember those core memories. If you’re planning an elopement or wedding guest list of any size, really, I highly recommend it. Everyone love them. The morning of our wedding, we woke up early and headed out to aunties, our venue to set up the tables, lay down the dance floor, and to start getting ready for the day.

No matter how much planning and prep you do, there’s always last minute projects and, oh shoot, I forgot that moments right that morning. I was panicking about finishing our seating chart, printing photos for our memorial table. Printing the bar menu for our bartenders. Literally everything I did that morning absolutely could have been done on a random Tuesday.

Like I don’t know why I waited till that morning to do it. I don’t know what I was thinking. I thought it would be a quick, easy task and it should have been done weeks, if not earlier that week before our wedding. This is your sign to work on your projects and get things done as early as possible. In my head, I wanted to sip on my coffee journal and put together my bouquet when in reality my mom made my bouquet and I wrote my vows that morning instead, our wedding morning was peaceful and relaxed.

So despite having a little bit of chaos, as I was quickly printing things and, you know, getting things ready for the sitting chart and all that kind of stuff, it was chill, right? And, and it was chill for me. But my best friend Sarah, handled the seating chart and sorting the letters to be put on every table.

Kayla was running around getting things done. My cousin, Nikki Eliana’s, mom stopped at Walgreens to pick up the seating chart poster and photos for me. Lauren, my sister-in-law, and Mike’s aunt and cousin, helped with the flowers. Everyone was busy in making things happen. It was such a dream to spend my wedding morning with Brett and Brandy and, oh gosh, it’s capturing all the details, making core memories with my nephew, Brody Braden, his baby brother was napping and all of the fun getting ready moments with Eliana.

I exchanged a first look with my brother Mike, and he escorted me to the first look with my mic. I couldn’t be happier that we decided to do a first look, to spend more time together and to take more photos. Mike cried. His beautiful blue eyes got teary-eyed and our first look was everything I’ve dreamed of.

The sun was bright at 1:00 PM in the desert, but there were a couple clouds in the sky that helped even out the lighting. It was just, it was just perfect. All week, Mike and I kept putting off getting him a jacket or a sports coat thing for the wedding. Well, let’s be honest, for the last three to six months we’ve been putting it off and never made the time to shop for his groom’s jacket.

I sent a Hail Mary text that morning to Tara asking her to bring as many of Ryan’s jackets, her husband Ryan. Um, if he, if she could bring as many of those jackets as possible to hope and pray, Mike could squeeze into one of them. Tara is a lifesaver, superhero, best friend, and she miraculously got Mike’s measurements and purchased a jacket for him.

He didn’t have it for the first look, but it was there for the ceremony, and I was so, so happy. Talk about good friends coming in, clutch to save the day. Thank you, Tara. We love you so much. We got to take photos with the square body. It’s the Chevy truck that Mike drove in high school and some of our wedding party picks.

We did that before the ceremony. I’m so grateful that we were done by 3:00 PM so I could go upstairs to rest, freshen up and hide from everyone as everyone started to arrive. Watching our family and friends come through the gate and walk up. I was in love, so I was upstairs in Auntie’s bedroom getting ready, and I could look over the front of the house and just see everybody kind of trickling in.

Oh my gosh. Everyone got the memo to dress in Western cocktail vibes. There were vests with bolo ties, flowy dresses with boots, and lots of cowboy hats. Everyone looked sharp and I mean like everyone looked good. We have like the most good looking friends in the family. I’m not even joking. One of the things that was on my must list for the wedding was to have a photo backdrop for photos, sort of like a cruise welcome photo, right?

Have you ever seen those? I wanted every guest, couples and families to take photos in front of the backdrop in lieu of a photo booth. I remember going to one of my mom’s friend’s weddings as a little girl, and we took a family photo with all four of us before the ceremony, and I knew then only at about seven years old.

I wanted this for my future wedding and here we are, huge shout out to Dylan, Dr. School Photography for capturing the most epic portraits and also sticking around to capture a ton of candid and sweet moments during our cocktail hour ceremony and sunset photos. We couldn’t have asked for a better friend and talented photographer to capture these moments for us.

He nailed the Western e Yellowstone vibe, photos I was dreaming of, and I can’t wait to share more. Literally looking at those photos, they just, they just make me cry, like they’re just, they’re just so beautiful and timeless and classic. And to see our family and friends get in front of the camera like that and be celebrated and documented just makes my photographer heart so happy.

The date felt slow motion, like a whirlwind. At the same time. Thankfully my brother Mike made breakfast burritos for us and I sipped on my ice coffee with Eliana. Kayla, who was more like a sister to me, made sure that Eliana and I had our Starbucks with bride and made up honor written on it. Eliana, who was literally me 30 years ago, was a little sad that Made of Honor was written on the white label.

So like, you know when you make your mobile order or you actually just order a coffee, it was on that white like sticker that was on the cup and it said, made of honor There. But on the actual cup, it was Sharpie and it just said, congrats. So it said bride on mine with a whole bunch of hearts, and it was so sweet and decorated.

And then on Eliana’s it just said, congrats. And she was really hoping for it to say made of honor on it. And it just broke my heart that she was a little disappointed in that. But it’s okay. And honestly, if that was the only glitch of our day so far, we were in good shape. Our day was filled with sweet moments.

I wasn’t expecting like having a moment with my sister-in-law, Lauren brother’s wife, before the ceremony to cry. Happy tears that today is finally here and that we get to raise babies together. Moments captured with my aunt Cindy and Mike’s Uncle David, sharing a side hug and having a sentimental moment.

My mom crying, happy tears, getting my veil on. And the first look with brother while he’s wearing his brand new black cowboy hat and his eagle and American flag belt buckle. My dress fit like a glove, actually. It was a little big and I was okay with that. It zipped up right up perfectly and I felt so beautiful.

I did my own hair and my own makeup. Luckily, I didn’t have a blemish on my face. I was so worried about getting that one Zi on my eyebrow or on my chin. I was just so afraid of that to pop up when I’m stressed. I’m not even kidding. I felt like bringing a, a whole thing of Windex, thinking of my my big fat Greek wedding, right?

My girl Brenda, with terracotta brows did my eyebrows, and I’m literally so happy with how my face and hair turned out, right? Like everything cooperated perfectly. And I just, I just felt beautiful. And, and that’s the thing for me is I felt like me, like I looked in the mirror and I felt like me, I didn’t have makeup caked on, I didn’t have overly lined lips and huge eyelashes.

Like I just, I felt elegantly perfectly me. At the end of the night, Mike’s sister even told me that she loved me, and I’ll remember that forever. So many happy memories. While we were planning our ceremony, my uncle Todd asked us a ton of questions about our relationship, how we knew we were the one. And one thing that I really wanted to honor was my dad.

I had this big idea to ask the men in my life, and especially my family and my closest friends to stand when the phrase came up and who gives this bride away today? I wanted them all to stand up proudly and say we do in their deep voices. I collected them at the welcome night. And I kind of just kind of grabbed them like, Hey, come with me, come with me.

And of course, my mom being so nosy, like, what’s going on? I’m like, just stay there please. Right. Like, we had something, we were working on something, so hold on. So I, I grabbed each of their hands and had them follow me into another part of the yard and I told them my big plans and they were all so emotional and proud and honored to stand up for me.

So apparently they made their own little plans. And instead, during the ceremony when he asked the question to Who gives this bride away, all of the men in my family walked up to the altar. Like they literally started rushing us. Like not, they weren’t running, but they were walking slowly and they formed this like horseshoe half circle behind us, like behind the arbor, and proudly stood there as a symbol of giving me away.

The way Uncle Todd worded everything to share that even though my dad was missing each of these men, was a constant reminder of protection, support, and encouragement for not only me, but my brother Mikey, and my mom Renee. There wasn’t a dry eye in the desert. Then they each handed me a token as an expression of their love and commitment.

I love that the message wasn’t that they were giving me away, but that Mike, my husband, was now a part of my family and in addition to these men that still love me unconditionally and will continue to support me and always be there for me. I love surprises, and I usually catch on quickly, but this wasn’t one that I was expecting at all.

It was so beautiful and so emotional. Our ceremony was the perfect length. I, I think, I, I think it was, I wanted it to feel substantial enough to be worth all the time and efforts of building our benches. I didn’t wanna just gather everyone and sit down for 10 minutes. For me, the ceremony is literally the reason we’re celebrating the rest is just a big party.

We exchanged our vows and we even did a beautiful time capsule ceremony and collected letters from our parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles to be placed in a wooden box to be sealed up and nailed shut until our 10 year wedding anniversary. My brother Mikey, made it from wood, from his wedding and etched in Hughes in big letters on the front.

I want that to be a daily reminder that we leave on our mantle or on a dresser in our room. Also, I wanted to share that while Uncle Todd was over a couple weeks ago, finalizing our ceremony formalities, we talked about the wooden box and how we wanted to incorporate that into our ceremony. Uncle Todd asked if we had a hammer we wanted to use, and we kind of shrugged.

Uh, we haven’t really thought about that. And Uncle Todd said, okay, don’t worry about it. I have an idea. I wanna try to find a roofing hammer like your dad had. He said, I forgot the name of it, or I just, I just know that the handle is blue, but I’ll find one. I’ll either find one in the garage or I’ll go pick up a new one for you.

My mic, he stood up and he says, hold on. I think I might have something. He comes back from our garage and places the hammer on the kitchen table in front of my uncle. That’s the one. Uncle Todd said. That’s the type of hammer Roger used every day in his roofing business. The chills, right? There are so many synchronicities about Mike, our families, and the details of the wedding that came together perfectly.

Everyone got along so well. There was love in the air, and it was one hell of a party. The florals and bud vases on the table were simple. I totally missed the opportunity to print a banner table, runner of heirloom family wedding photos for a sweetheart table. You know me, I have run my really big ideas, but here’s the thing.

It was only me that realized it was missing. That’s the thing about wedding planning to remember. When you have everything in your head and all these wild ideas, only you know about them. Your guests are simply happy to drink, hang out, and have a good time. They don’t know what’s missing, so don’t stress about it.

Our wedding day was everything I dreamed of and more the happy tears, the love the memories. I couldn’t be happier with how everything turned out. The reception was so fun, and one thing I’m so happy I did was roll out Jello shops for Mike’s birthday. My husband’s birthday is February 15th, the day after Valentine’s Day, and I wanted to celebrate him too.

So we rolled out those sparkler fireworks, the ones we used for mom the night before, and it felt like bottle service. There were sparks flying and we passed out strawberry jello shots on the dance floor while the songs shot, shot, shot, shot, shot, shot everybody. Oh my gosh. It was such a vibe. The songs were blasting and everybody had a good time.

I did a quick costume change into a fun cocktail dress to move around and dance more easily. Oh, and I also wanna share that big shout out to, uh, my friend Callie, who is our best man, Patrick. It’s his wife, Kali. And, uh, she saved the day because my bustle actually broke. And she was able to zip tie it to my butt.

It was so cute. So like she came to help me and she kind of like, she took a peek behind my dress to like see what she was working with and she’s like, okay, I’ll be right back. And Mike yells at her as she’s like walking to the truck, like make sure it’s either white or clear. ’cause she had mentioned a zip tie and she’s like, I’m on it.

And so she comes back and like Jimmy Riggs, this like bustle on me. She whips out this like knife cuts it like, oh my gosh. It was just, it was so Kali and it was so us in that moment of just like handling it, making it work, and. That is a memory that I will never wanna forget. And so, yeah. So after the quick change came, we whipped out the heart-shaped glasses after cake.

And by the way, our cake was a $28 heart-shaped cake from Walmart. And thankfully, Mike’s Aunt Josephine cut up the sheet cake from Costco. Easy. P. Everything about our wedding day felt intentional and memorable. We ended the night with an after party at our house and it was chill. It was easy, it was fun.

We were just hanging out by the fire and eating nachos with that Que Bueno cheese. Okay, so you know the best nacho cheese that they serve at baseball snack shacks. Of course, we needed that drizzled over our leftover pulled pork and brisket from our wedding dinner. Mike was a little bummed that the mechanical bull wasn’t as big of a hit as he expected.

Some of our friends jumped on it, but we spent most of our time sharing stories and catching up by the fire. All of it is a dream, and I’m so thankful to be married to my best friend. This next season will be full of new opportunities, new family traditions, and living life together. Now we get to plan our honeymoon.

I’ve been a wedding photographer for over 20 years, and I can honestly say this was the wedding of a lifetime for me, and I hope each of my brides feel the same way about their days. That’s what it’s all about. We can’t wait to host future Valentine’s anniversary parties. And I told Mike for our big milestone years, like five year, 10, 15, 20 plus, right?

Like all those big years. I wanna host a huge, huge dance party and fun celebration to bring everyone together for Valentine’s Day. It’s gonna be our new like wedding holiday or like our family birthday. I just can’t wait. Now that the wedding is over, be prepared to be sick of all the wedding content coming soon.

I can’t wait to share more. I’m looking forward to booking more branding sessions, renting out our ceremony, benches and popup wedding rentals, and hopefully I’m praying, hopefully starting our family. Everything I have I owe to my family, my friends, and my camera photography has helped my business thrive throughout every season, and the best is yet to come.

Thank you so much for sharing this business journey with me and being here every step of the way. I’m forever grateful for your friendship and support. Can’t wait for the next Lucky 13. Coming up soon, you’re gonna wanna join us and if you’re listening to this later, no worries. But make sure to join the wait list so you are well aware and you get first dibs on Future Lucky 13 shoots. Hopefully I see you there!

Love you forever and ever,

The New Mrs. Hughes

Oh, I’m so excited!!!! Okay, keep on dancing, baby. Okay, love you. Bye.

That’s a wrap on another episode of Kiana Marie Weekly. Thank you so much for your listenership and support. You can find the resources and show notes for this episode and more at QuiannaMarie.com/podcast

I’d be honored if you’d show your support by leaving a review and rating on your favorite podcast app. Until next time, keep on on dancing.

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