Rainy Wedding at Bradford Estate | Melissa & Chris

October 20, 2023

Last weekend, I photographed Chris and Melissa’s Fall Rustic wedding! This has been the year of rain and last weekend was no exception when I photographed their Rainy Wedding at Bradford Estate. One thing I absolutely love about their venue is that there is so many covered locations, we still managed to get so many stunning portraits, looking back at their photos, you’d never know it was raining! One of my favorite parts of the day were all their rustic details, since Fall is their favorite time of year, the decor was filled with white pumpkins, greenery and touches of gold.

Melissa and Chris had originally met without knowing on May 9th, 2012 on the Melissa’s 21st birthday at Deko. Melissa had a wardrobe malfunction and like the gentleman that Chris is, he gave her his undershirt! Two years later in the Summer of 2014 Melissa was at Bar A with friends and Chris’s cousin Brian reached out letting her know he was coming with his cousin to hang out. Melissa and Chris ended up hanging out after that because they realized they went to the same gym. One night they were exchanging old stories and 21st birthday’s came up, her story caught his attention and he screamed out “I was that guy that gave you the shirt!” and the rest is history! Fun Fact: Melissa still has the shirt 🙂

Their first official date was in September of 2014 at Houlihan’s, they had already been hanging out before that and had been going to the gym together so they decided to just grab dinner.

Melissa knew Chris was the one when he surprised her with a puppy for Christmas. Chris had lost his first dog a few months into their relationship, and it broke him. He didn’t know if he could ever get another one but knew she wanted one. In December of 2016, he had wrapped a little collar in a box and she had to open ten other bigger boxes that were inside of each other until she got to the smallest box. She knew if he was willing to get a dog together then he was in it for the long run!

Chris knew Melissa was the one when she jokingly talked back to his dad at the dinner table over Chinese food! Chris’ family always had a routine when they ordered Chinese and Melissa came in and shook things up! Everybody looked at her when she made the comment to his dad and when he laughed Chris knew that she was the one.

Engaged on 09/06/2022, the proposal from Melissa: “The proposal happened in our house just the two of us with our dog Moose and cat Dalwhinnie next to me. He walked in with a bottle of champagne and said we are celebrating tonight. I was confused as to what we were celebrating but then he got down on one knee and proposed right in our living room.”

When Melissa and Chris weren’t planning their Bradford Estate wedding, they love decorating for the holidays together. They love celebrating all the holidays and just love to decorate for all of them, especially Halloween and Christmas! They bought their first home together three years ago and love renovating it together. Now married, they are most excited to start a family right away. They have been together for nine years and we are ready to have children and raise them in the house that they have built together.

Their advice for couple’s currently planning their weddings is to not let anything stress you out! This day is all about celebrating the love you have for each other, and everyone else’s opinions shouldn’t matter. This is your day and you need to make sure you follow your heart. Melissa and Chris couldn’t wait to just celebrate their love with all their friends and family surrounding them.

These two are heading to Sandals Dunn’s River Falls in Jamaica for their honeymoon! Thank you to Melisa and Chris for choosing me to photograph your rainy wedding at Bradford Estate!