Josef & Nichole - Carbondale Illinois Wedding Photography - Pine Manor Southern Illinois

Prepare yourself for awesomeness….seriously.  I was overwhelmed by how many gorgeous details there were are this wedding.  Every room at Pine Manor had so many great spots to photograph.

So yeah...the bride designed the paisley design that is on the grooms ring!!  How awesome is that!!!??? :)

I was slightly obsessed with this bed!!

The beautiful Pine Manor….such a super cool location.

I LOVE FIRST LOOKS!!!!!!

Any advice for future brides and grooms?Nichole: Splurge on a wedding planner, at least for the day of, or have one delegated family member/ friend to act as a wedding planner. It seems like an unnecessary expense and you want to do it all yourself, but no matter how much planning and organizing you do beforehand there are soooo many details and soooo many things to do the day of. Luckily we had amazing family and friends who helped and made the image I had in my head come to life.Josef: Delegate. People like to be helpful, so let them and trust, once assigned, it will get done.

What was the most memorable part of your day?

Josef: All of it.Nichole: There were so many memorable moments that day it is hard to choose just one, but I would have to say the most memorable moment was meeting Josef at the altar (our version of an altar), taking his hands and looking into his eyes. That was when it became real that we were getting married. And the cakes…

and I was slightly obsessed with these cakes as well!! :)  :)  and they were DE-LISH! :)

I just love ceremonies that have little pieces of symbolism and tradition to them.  Nichole and Josef had a Iranian American ceremony.  Part of the Iranian tradition is to have a wonderful table set up called the Sofreh Aghd.  It is a beautiful spread of various different things like cakes, cookies, fruit, coins, and mirrors each of which symbolizes aspects of religion, life, and marriage.

another Iranian tradition is to drop honey into one anthers mouths representing a better or sweeter life together.

These favors for all of the guests were filled with a Persian candy called noghl.

Funniest moment of the day:

Josef: Nichole standing over the air conditioning vent to cool off.

The necklace was a gift from the Grooms Uncle in Iran and the ring was borrowed from his Grandmother from there as well :)

If you could do it all over again, would you change anything?

Nothing! Our wedding day was amazing and everything was more beautiful and romantic than we had ever imagined.

Where did you go on your honeymoon?We will be going to Hawaii in August/September.

What was your favorite photo moment?The first look.