Our Perfect Day: Location 2- St. Elmo's Steakhouse

A couple things before we dive into pictures from my FAVORITE location! :-)

I asked in yesterday's post what was missing from our group shots?!? If you do not recall this, go here. Answer: Our flowers. Things were moving so quickly the day of the wedding that I didn't even realize that all of our bouquets and bouts weren't present. But you know what?!? I look back and am happy that I did not have my bouquet and he didn't have his bout for the location pictures. Here are my reasons why:

• Have we seen the train on my dress and the fact that I did not bustle it for pre-ceremony pictures?!? Do you really think that I needed to add juggling a bouquet to the mix? Might have been disastrous! I was able to move as freely as possibly (considering my train) without worrying about lugging something else with me.
• Our flowers were so fresh and pretty for the ceremony! Let's face it- walking around, getting in and out of limos, packing in together as close as feasibly possible, and lack of water while doing all of this is going to hurt those lovelies and there could potentially be some causalities! I have seen some bouquets in pretty bad condition prior to the ceremony and don't even get me started on the bouts (sorry guys, you typically don't make a conscious effort to protect those). My bouquet was a vision of perfection (go ahead and call me biased) because I didn't have a ton of time with it prior to the ceremony......a very good thing.
• It was something different. Flowers are typically present in all the group pictures. While I do love this and maybe wish that I had a few more pictures with the lovelies, I totally love our pictures without the flowers. It definitely mixed things up because I do have pictures with the flowers and I have lots of pictures without. Of course this is all personal preference.
• Did I mention that I loved not having something else to lug around?!? Seriously! AH-MAZING! lol

Okay, enough about the MIA flowers. Don't worry, the flowers were at the SRC hydrating and awaiting our arrival.

Our second location was St. Elmo's Steakhouse. St. Elmo's is known nationally and even internationally for their shrimp cocktail. Yes, it is that good! When I was picking locations for pictures I wanted to go extreme opposites so that I would get a variety, ie- outdoor canal vs indoor bar. Plus, the weather forecast wasn't looking too optimistic for outdoor shots.

We arrived at St. Elmo's as their doors opened.

Thank goodness they have a LARGE bar! It also helped that we got there right when they opened. Pretty sure that our bridal party took up 75% of the bar! :-)

Paloma and I 'cheers-ing' my last beer as a Thomas. Yes ladies, that was my maiden name. :-)

We couldn't take pictures at a bar without ordering a round of drinks for our bridal party now could we?!? Hubs and I LOVED this part of the day because we were able to relax with our bridal party while getting fun pictures! HIGHLY recommend doing something like this!

AWWWWW!!!! He is so sweet!

Did I mention that we were able to get some fun pictures?!? The male persuasion definitely LOVED this stop. Granted, I think they managed to goof off all day! :-)

One of the guys in our bridal party knew a girl working at St. Elmo's. He shot her a smile and sweet talked her into allowing Hubs and I to go down to the wine cellar to capture some AWESOME pictures! Thanks Scottie for sweet talking the employees! :-)

Love the chandalier!

This was right outside of the wine cellar.

The wait staff was so incredibly sweet! They made sure that traffic stopped in all directions so that we could get the pictures that we wanted. They were all congratulating us. I loved St. Elmo's before but now I really love them!

CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS?!? They were nice enough to let Rich stand behind the bar so that we could do a toast. This may not sound like a big deal but it was considering they are not allowed to let patrons behind the bar. Another reason I heart them!

While the bridal party was still at St. Elmo's, Hubs and I snuck outside to get a few pictures together.

Boys will be boys! lol

Sidenote- I have some great color pictures but unfortunately the file size is too large to upload which is why you have been seeing a lot of black and white pictures. Does anyone know how to compress the file size?

Recommendations:

• Pick contrasting picture locations. I love the variety of pictures we were able to get by shooting outside at the canal and inside a bar/steakhouse.
• Choose places that have meaning to you. The canal really didn't have a lot of meaning to us but St. Elmo's did! Hubs and I love St. Elmo's! I can still remember poor Hubs tagging along with my mom, dad, and 4-5 of my girlfriends from college for my 21st birthday dinner at the steakhouse. Two months later we officially started dating! :-)
• Call ahead to locations because if you give them advance notice they may attempt to cater to you and your bridal party. I called ahead to St. Elmo's to inquire about taking pictures there. While they couldn't let us in prior to open the lady did suggest that we arrive right when they open. They knew we were coming so they asked other patrons to sit at the other end of the bar so that we could get our pictures.
• If you have time for a couple locations have a fun stop along the way! Our entire bridal party said that St. Elmo's was their favorite stop. We relaxed, had some drinks and goofed off. The pictures from St. Elmo's are my favorite but I think a major reason for that was the amount of fun we had while there.
• Have back up plans in case of weather. We REALLY lucked out! It was a little overcast during our first site and canal pictures but then it started raining while we were at St. Elmo's. We were supposed to make one more stop before we went to the SRC but due to rain we had to cancel that stop. Instead we took more pictures at the SRC which worked out perfect!
  

All professional pictures are by Angela Talley Photography. Please give due credit when posting any pictures. Thanks!

Up next: Scottish Rite Cathedral- Pre-ceremony

Previously Posted:
Location 1- The Canal
First Site, Part II
First Site, Part I
Gifts
Getting Dressed and a Special Visitor
The Dress and Accessories
The Hair and Makeup
Rise and Shine!
Post Rehearsal Dinner
Rehearsal Dinner
Rehearsal