I cannot look at their photos without replaying in my head, the song that Stephanie and Dave danced their first dance to – thus – you get to hear it too while seeing their photos and reading about their love story. You can easily pause it below:
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Agh, it was the most perfect of perfect days. A little crisp outside – but still so beautiful – with a couple and wedding party willing to bare the cold for the sake of photos. In true Life Writing Photography fashion, you are getting a TON of photos from their wedding – and even still, I feel like I am holding back.
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Thanks to Stephanie – I know a lot about their love story . . .
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Little did Stephanie know that while she was watching her brother play soccer for Morgantown High School, she was also watching her husband-to-be. She will tell you that she remembers his athleticism on the field. He will tell you that he remembers her, “Grant’s older sister,” in the bleachers, a little out of his realm. It wasn’t until almost 10 years later they would fall in love.
Stephanie and David both graduated from Morgantown High School, she in 1999 and he in 2001. They never bumped into each other in the hallways nor shared a class. Upon graduation, Stephanie attended West Virginia University while David committed what he calls, “the Morgantown sin” and headed to Virginia Tech to join the Hokie Nation with his good friend, and best man, Eric Dailey.
Stephanie graduated and began her career as a teacher at Bridgeport High School in 2003. While Stephanie was enjoying her first year of teaching, David was enjoying college life in Blacksburg, VA with Eric and groomsman Doug Banerjee.
After David graduated in 2006, he returned to Morgantown and began work for Petroplus and Associates. At this point, David was getting back in the Morgantown lifestyle and Stephanie was still teaching at Bridgeport High School and also completing work on her doctorate degree at WVU. She had recently moved back to Morgantown after living in Bridgeport for a few years.
So here they were, Stephanie and David, as their professional careers were blossoming, back in Morgantown.
He can’t tell you why he did it, but one day, the magic of Facebook prompted David to send Stephanie a message to meet up for a drink with friends. And now, their love story unfolds.
At Sports Page on an odd Tuesday night, Stephanie sat waiting, and waiting. David was late. She had just about given up and was heading out the door when in came David with his friend, and groomsman, Todd King. If you know Stephanie, you also know her patience for this sort of thing is not plentiful. David had a strike against him already. But, that strike soon erased as conversation started, seamlessly and unlabored.
It was like they had known each other for years. Well, they had, but never really talked. David will tell you that Stephanie beamed as she explained her work and her love for her students. Stephanie describes David’s words about his work as passionate and encouraging. They both to this day love that they found someone else who is so happy, dedicated, and enthralled with their chosen careers.
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Dancing soon ensued and before they knew it, it was 2:00 in the morning. As David walked Stephanie to her car, he asked with boyish charm, “May I kiss you?” She smiled and replied, “Nope, not until you take me on a real date.” A couple weekends later, on February 24, 2009, David picked up Stephanie for their “first date.”
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And the rest is history. They got engaged on top of Mount Washington in Pittsburgh on a cold November evening 2010 and got married in Morgantown on a cool November day in 2011.
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Enjoy wedding day photos of a couple who is very much in love with one another.
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Stephanie and Dave decided to do a first look, which first of all, was so tenderly sweet to see his reaction to her and second, totally freed us up to get some awesome outdoor couple and wedding party photos:
(the ones of Stephanie dancing are some of my favorite images of the whole day – her dress is simply gorgeous).
The crew in front of Woodburn Hall – a landmark building on WVU’s campus.
(Yes, we stopped traffic on High Street).
If you’ve seen their {teaser}, you’ve seen the above right photo – but I had to re-share it as it was one of my favorites of the day. Naturally sweet.
Their ceremony took place at Wesley United Methodist Church in downtown Morgantown, WV:
Wesley is a beautiful church but very orange! So – I really liked the way that the black and white images from the sanctuary turned out.
Then we headed to their reception at the Waterfront Hotel.
Narrowing down the photos to display from their first dance was probably the hardest part of this post. In all of the weddings that I have photographed, I have NEVER seen a better first dance. Stephanie, an incredibly talented dancer, taught Dave the entire dance from Dirty Dancing and they performed the whole thing in front of their wedding party.
Amazing!!
These and lot’s more in their slideshow:
