Weddingbee Blog

The biggest disappointment during our wedding planning is something I’m still trying to get over. If you’ve been following along, you may remember Mr. S and I met in college. I knew early on he was the one and envisioned getting married at our school’s chapel, Ochre Court. Ochre Court is the most significant mansion on the school’s campus and hosts not only the chapel, but also many of the school’s events. It’s where Mr S and I had our first dance and many other amazing memories during our four years of school. I knew it would be the place we said I do. At least I thought I did.

Prior to proposing, Mr. S looked into the requirements of getting married at the chapel. On top of being too pricey for us, they also maxed out at 150 guests. At that time we assumed our wedding would be attended by 300 guests—we’ve now gotten it down to a little under 200. But we knew a 150 maximum capacity was not doable. We tried to come up with different options, like having a smaller ceremony, but we didn’t like excluding anyone. I was really disappointed and I’m still not over it. I keep wishing some way we could get everyone to fit, but even if we could, they only have ceremonies when school is not in session, so that limits it to pretty much summer and winter break, and smaller breaks in between. So at this point, everything is booked and on a date that is during the school session, so it’s a definite no.

Since we can’t get married there, we decided to do our formal photos on campus. I was hoping to do them on the lawn behind Ochre Court. Then I saw a wedding with a photo session at Ochre Court on the Faith Dugan Photography blog. I knew we could take photos on the lawn, but I didn’t know it was an option to take photos inside Ochre, as well.

I was so excited to see Faith’s post. I’ve been so disappointed about not having our wedding there, but now I know we can at least take our photos on campus. It isn’t quite the same, but when I thought about it, this may actually be better. If we had the ceremony there it would be a bit more awkward to have our photos taken there after the ceremony, since all of our guests would be around. I’m a bit camera shy and having a huge audience would not help. Now we can leave the church and head over and get amazing shots like this couple did.

Here are photos of the couple inside Ochre Court. I think they are absolutely stunning!

This is where our college hosts the “snoball” semi-formal dance, which is where Mr. S and I had our first dance. The stairs actually lead to the admissions and alumni offices.

We also went to the Halloween dance and senior cocktail here. We’ve made so many great memories within these walls.

Outside of Ochre Court is a gorgeous lawn right on the Cliffwalk overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. I love the amazing photos Faith captures of this couple. I can’t wait to see what our photographer will do!

I’m in love with the wedding party shots. This is such a great location for both shots of us as a couple and larger group shots.

These photos make me so happy. When I’m feeling down about not getting married at Ochre, I know I can turn to these photos to cheer me up.

Did you have any major disappointments during planning? Did you find a silver lining?