I slept in a dome house the night of Makenna and Joseph’s wedding. I need you to know that before anything else because it tells you exactly what kind of weekend this was.
Camp Journey Woods is a real, actual, working sleepaway camp tucked into a small South Texas town with not much around it and absolutely everything you need. Pine trees. A lake. A cafeteria full of decades worth of summers and first crushes and homesick letters and the particular magic that only exists at camp. When I pulled up I thought, whoever chose this place for a wedding completely understood the assignment.
And then I met Makenna and Joseph and I understood. These two are exactly the right people for this venue. The kind of couple that makes a place feel like it was always meant to be theirs.
Let me tell you about Makenna’s veil. Hand embroidered wildflowers in every color, blue and yellow and pink and green, scattered across the tulle like someone spent months sewing a meadow into it. Because someone did. It was one of the most personal, most gorgeous things I have ever photographed and it looked absolutely perfect against the pine trees and the lake light of Camp Journey Woods.
And then she put on her glitter cowboy boots and I just about lost my mind. Glitter. Cowboy. Boots. The perfect punctuation on a bride who knew exactly who she was walking down that aisle as.
The bridesmaids reacted to seeing her the way bridesmaids react when the bride is genuinely breathtaking. Mouths open, eyes full, hands over hearts. I got it all on camera and I will never stop being grateful for that moment.
The ceremony happened right at the edge of the lake as the sun was doing its absolute most. A wooden arch draped in white linen and Brenham Wildflowers Florist blooms framing that blue water behind them. Joseph in his cowboy hat, reading his vows, hands bound together in a handfasting ceremony that felt ancient and tender and completely them. The flower girl dumped her entire basket of petals in one magnificent go and honestly she was right for it. No half measures at this wedding.
After the ceremony we wandered the camp property as the golden hour light filtered through the trees and I kept stopping to just look around because I could not believe how beautiful it all was. Makenna laying in that embroidered veil spread out around her in the pine needles. The two of them wrapped up in each other in front of the big sunset reflecting lake. The kind of images that remind you why you do this work.
And then the reception happened in the cafeteria. The same cafeteria that has seen a thousand summers hours, a thousand first friendships, a thousand kids who didn’t want to go home at the end of August. Makenna and Joseph danced in it like it was always theirs. K&C Event Planning pulled the whole thing together beautifully, Brenham Wildflowers Florist brought the color, 38 Cakes brought the cake, and Tin Roof BBQ fed everyone the right way. It was warm and loud and full of people who love these two completely.
Makenna and Joseph, I hope every anniversary feels a little bit like the last night of camp. The kind of night where nobody wants it to end. Thank you for letting me be there for yours!
If you want photographs that actually feel like your day, the specific weird beautiful version of it that is completely yours and nobody else’s, come find me at xoxochelsea.com. I will sleep in a dome house for the right couple. Apparently!
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