You don’t normally see me post any rehearsal dinner or welcome dinner images. Let’s be real it’s not rehearsal that we’re actually photographing cause we’re gonna get the real deal later. It’s the group photos with all the collections of friends and candids galore. So to the couple and their friends it’s awesome to see these photos but to people who don’t know them well…. who cares about their candids…. right?

I can’t tell you how often I show up to a wedding and everyone is raving about the party the night before. And at times they’re rallying and pushing on but really they’re a bit exhausted. All the people they love came into town so they partied. Hard. Some pull through and the wedding is just as upbeat and exciting. And others, well, you can see the night before got the best of them.

Most of my couples are destination couples. Whether they’re coming here to beautiful Montana for their destination wedding or we’re all going somewhere else! So welcome dinners are very popular. Instead of having rehearsal dinner with just your family and bridal party they’re throwing welcome dinners for everyone who has come so far to celebrate with them. Which I honestly think is so freaking awesome! They can be events within themselves, and often, really are.

So this time I decided to post Alexis & Joshua’s wedding in 2 parts. Welcome dinner is part 1. I decided to do this for a few reasons. It was absolutely beautiful. On the lakeshore at Whitefish Lake Lodge. No need to say more on that, you’ll see. Next, A + J had a Jewish wedding. Saturday is the Sabbath so they weren’t going to do all the real important things on their wedding day. So Friday at their welcome dinner they signed the Ketubah. The ketubah is this beautiful written agreement or contract between each other. They did things their own way a little. They had their Ketubah created when they were in Israel a few weeks prior and it was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. Their fathers each signed, 2 of their groomsmen, 2 of their bridesmaids and then they did, making their marriage official. Because this is so important I didn’t want to leave the images out of their blogpost but, I didn’t want to just add images of them signing it either since it was an amazing event. So I thought I’d share them here, something I’ve never done. If you’ve ever considered or wondered what a rehearsal or welcome dinner coverage looks like, this is a small taste of it.

Their wedding was one of the greatest parties ever and the blogpost for that is quite long sooooo I’ll start here with their welcome dinner. Part 2 is their wedding and it’s coming right after this!!

XOXO,  J.

Huge shoutout to Habitat Events and Habitat Floral Studio for putting this amazing event together!!