Speed Art Museum Wedding

Today I’m sharing a truly beautiful wedding I had the privilege of photographing this fall. Katie (she/her) and Ruben (he/him) curated a celebration that was elegant, artistic, and a whole lot of fun.

As a Louisville, Kentucky wedding photographer, I was beyond thrilled to capture the timeless beauty and romance of this day. The Speed Art Museum’s stunning architecture provided the most picturesque background, further enhancing the “classic meets modern” vibe. The play of light and shadow, the intricate details— everything was gorgeous.

Katie was radiant in her chic gown from Jenny Yoo and Ruben looked extremely dapper in his classic tuxedo.

For their ceremony, Katie and Ruben stood in the exact same spot where Katie's parents and grandparents exchanged their wedding vows. This really added an extra layer of sentimental magic to the whole event.

Katie and Ruben wanted their wedding to have an elegant and timeless feel, while still being true to themselves. The flowers, lovingly crafted by Botanica, were not just beautiful, but almost sculptural— the design added an elevated & artistic touch to their decor.

The festivities continued with a vibrant cocktail hour, where the melodies of a mariachi band filled the air, creating an atmosphere brimming with joy and excitement. During this time, I had the chance to capture candid moments of laughter and heartfelt embraces as family and friends were able to reconnect.

Each guest was greeted at their seat with a Please and Thank you cookie, a sweet gesture that perfectly encapsulated their warm and gracious personalities— while also celebrating a Louisville favorite! 

Best Kept Secret Live filled the reception with energy & excitement and kept the dance floor packed all night long. One of my last photos of the night was Katie & Ruben embracing beneath the shimmering disco ball— surrounded by all their family and friends.

I hope as you scroll through these images, you feel some of the warmth and joy that permeated Katie and Ruben's celebration. If you’re looking for a photographer to document your own wedding day, I would love to help you capture memories that reflect your unique personality and style! Contact me here or check out some of my other favorite Louisville wedding venues here.

These Louisville, Kentucky wedding vendors made the day possible:

Wedding Coordinator: Stephanie MacDonald with Planned Perfection // Reception Band: Best Kept Secret Live // Floral Design: Botanica // Catering: Wiltshire Pantry // Katie’s Wedding Gown: Jenny Yoo // Wedding Party Attire: Men's Warehouse & Birdy Grey // Rings: Donna Jewelry // Katie’s Makeup: Color in the Ville // Wedding Party Makeup: Southern Bridal Styles // Ceremony Location: Anchorage Presbyterian // Photography: Sarah Katherine Davis Photography // Venue: Speed Art Museum // Cookies: Please and Thank You // Videography: Joyce Barbour for Sarah Katherine Davis Photography

Eclectic & Colorful LGBTQ+ Wedding

Rebecca (she/her) & Charlotte (they/them) had a bold, colorful, and eclectic Queer wedding that brought all the vintage garden party vibes— along with lots of laughter and happy tears from their family and friends. I’ve shared some quotes from the couple about their favorite parts of the day, what they wore, and advice for other folks getting married throughout the post!

If you would like to celebrate some more LGBTQ+ joy, check out Jenny & Haley’s intimate wedding at Mellwood or Will & Nate’s pride month wedding at Hazelnut Farm! If you’re on the hunt for the perfect Louisville wedding venue for your wedding, you can also check out my favorite wedding venues here.

“Rebecca's dress was from Couture Closet in LaGrange, KY and by the brand White One (with alterations by Sew Creative Bridal). The dress was originally a floor-length gown, but she wanted tea-length and something more "vintage" inspired. Rebecca's shoes were an emerald green t-strap vintage-style pump for the ceremony and cocktail hour. For dancing, she changed into white low-top all-star Chucks. Rebecca wore vintage pearl earrings that belonged to her best friend's grandmother and a vintage diamond and gold bracelet that was an Asmuth family heirloom.”

“I enjoyed the first look with my dad, Terry. He is a very sentimental man, and I could tell how much joy he felt seeing me so happy.” - Rebecca

“I also loved having my dad tie my bow tie when I was getting ready. He and I have always favored bow ties for formal events and he taught me how to tie them.” - Charlotte

“Charlotte wore a custom deep purple suit and white collared shirt made by Bindle and Keep, a New York company known for their suits for queer folks. It's been Char's dream to own one of these suits. The shoes were brown monk straps, the bow tie was navy blue with paisley (a favorite tie pattern) and the socks were navy to match. They also loved their unusual pocket square of flowers, rather than a traditional boutonniere. Char kept calling it their pocket full of flowers."

The Howard Steamboat Museum is located in a mansion built in 1894! Rebecca & Char used the historic brick facade as the background of their wedding ceremony. They used the carriage house (built in 1883) for their reception dinner, the 2.5 acres of lawn and gardens for cocktail hour, and the patio outside of the carriage house as the dance floor!

“We knew that we wanted our wedding at a historic property, as Rebecca is a historian and archivist. We were also hoping to give our money to a non-profit or smaller business. We also wanted a property that had ample indoor and outdoor space. We booked the venue pre-Covid and it ended up being the perfect venue, as all of our events took place outdoors, except dinner. We loved the gorgeous brick historic mansion on the property, as well as the deep wood and brick in the carriage house.” - Charlotte & Rebecca

When asked about their favorite wedding day moments, Charlotte & Rebecca said, “Both of us agree: OUR CEREMONY! It was something we were least looking forward to, so we wanted to keep it quite short. However, it ended up being the most meaningful, memorable part of the day, I think because we wrote it ourselves with our officiant's guidance. We loved incorporating nods to queer love in our ceremony script and also personalizing our vows to each other.”

“I had the handkerchief on hand to give Rebecca when she inevitably started crying during the vows and handing that to her was symbolic of how well we know one another.”

“Our officiant was our dear friend Abby Glogower! We knew Abby had officiated a few weddings before, including some for couples she had set up (though she didn't set us up!). We wanted our ceremony to be brief so we could get to the fun part: cocktails and dancing. We also wanted a fairly untraditional ceremony. So both of our parents walked each of us down the aisle, Char's siblings stood on their side, and Rebecca's two friends stood on her side. No one wore the exact same colors, either.

We wanted to do a brief reading that spoke to queer love, so after a lot of searching, we landed on a passage from bell hooks read by our dear friend, Avi, who has the most sonorous voice. We noticed many guests tearing up and laughing during our vows, which was perfect!”

I reached out to Charlotte & Rebecca to get a copy of what their officiant Abby read for their ceremony. Theirs is one of a handful that made me get misty-eyed over the years while working — it just really hit in a genuine and intentional way that I wanted to share with you all.

“In her 2000 book, All About Love, Kentucky’s own feminist theorist bell hooks wrote, “The word ‘love’ is most often defined as a noun, yet all the more astute theorists of love acknowledge that we would all love better if we used it as a verb.” 

Like many queer couples, Charlotte and Rebecca have confessed to me that they feel some ambivalence about marriage, a traditional, heteronormative institution. [Insert Abby’s joke about feminist marriages here] Charbecca see themselves not simply participating in the institution of marriage but remaking it anew, every day in small and big acts of queer love. All of us, straight and queer, could benefit from making our marriages and partnerships a little bit queerer. Letting go of traditional gendered roles frees us to love more fully and equitably. For LGBTQ people, marriage isn’t something inevitable, and many have struggled to envision their romantic future in a world where queer couplehood is less represented. Remember, it wasn’t even legal in all 50 states until just seven years ago! Queer marriage is still a young institution that people like Charbecca get to build and remake anew. How amazing is that? Talk about action and choices! 

So we gather here today to celebrate the queer love of Charlotte and Rebecca–our love for them of course, and their love for each other. Remembering again, that love is an ongoing action, a process without end. It has been renewed every day since these two amazing people met and recognized in each other a true friend and companion, a partner for navigating life’s challenges and joys, a complement to soften rough edges and make them whole, a horizon, a vista, a home, a future. And we’re really genuinely happy to be here to celebrate this love because we recognize it as the kind of love that is loving: ongoing, something that appears totally solid, but upon closer inspection is made up of so many endless small acts.”

“I also loved the moments immediately after our ceremony where both of our families were hugging, crying, and celebrating together before we went to the cocktail hour.” - Rebecca

They went for an eclectic & colorful vintage garden party vibe with their decor. Using bold jewel-toned vintage glasses and thrifted books as their centerpieces alongside whimsical spring florals, they created a strikingly unique and personal atmosphere.

“Our cake topper is one of our favorite pieces of decor. Rebecca thrifted it and her dear friend Norman painted the hair on the bride pink to match Rebecca's. Aside from cake, we knew had to have chocolate chip cookies - our favorite dessert! We found a local baker, Flour Trail Bakery, who made all of our desserts. The cookies were miso rye chocolate chip dusted with sea salt. Guests were telling us all night that they were the best cookies they've ever eaten - and we agreed!”

Charlotte and Rebecca had so many thoughtful touches for their guests at the reception! Their sticker bar was filled with *so many* great stickers! My camera bag now has a really cute Queer rainbow sticker as well as one with a custom illustration of Rebecca & Char—which makes me happy every time I open my bag. For their seating chart, each name card had “for richer, for poorer” in script on the back of an envelope. When opened, their guests found a scratch-off ticket inside! This was such a fun idea— all of their friends and family (myself included) really enjoyed these thoughtful touches that also acted as perfect conversation starters.

“Charlotte’s sister Sophia's toast was so perfect and we love the photos of us bent over laughing during her speech.” - C&R

From a photography perspective, I loved that their more intimate guest count allowed me to really get some great candid images of their family and friends as they listened to the toasts and watched the dances!

“Ending the night with "WAP," as I had insisted our DJ do, was a highlight, too.” - Charlotte

“Our advice to other couples: Have a very official exit - we decided to forgo a traditional exit and ended up being at the venue for an hour after the wedding ended. Although we had cleaners, everyone was asking us questions and we just wanted to go to our honeymoon suite!! If you do an official exit, you can make sure you're off-site and leave the clean-up for other people. Be creative with your food choices - no one wants a dry steak anyway! We opted for a casual taco bar from Fistful of Tacos and the guests loved it! Forgo traditional wedding favors - we had a "sticker bar" loaded up with all kinds of stickers: cats, lgbtq+, sweets, books, etc. The guests loved being able to pick and choose and even wore them throughout the night.”

These Kentucky wedding vendors made the day possible:

Wedding Coordinator: Darien Dickerson-Green // Wedding DJ: HAY DJ // Florist: Pure Pollen Flowers // Caterer: Fistful of Tacos // Rebecca’s Wedding Gown: Couture Closet // Char's Wedding Suit: Bindle and Keep // Wedding Bands: Merkley Kendrick Jewelers // Engagement Ring: Boone and Sons // Dessert: Flour Trail Bakery // Hair: Fran Abney, Under the Dryer // Bartender: In the Mix // Invitations: Brouss Art // Photography: Sarah Katherine Davis Photography // Venue: Howard Steamboat Museum

Elegant & Energetic Kentucky Castle Wedding

The Kentucky Castle had always been one of those mysterious places for me— you know the kind. I had driven by it countless times and rubbernecked at the towers trying to imagine what was inside. Is the interior historic or modern? Is it used for renaissance fairs, weddings, or is it some weird members-only club situation? Why is the driveway so long and why is it always locked? Are there tunnels underneath and if so where do they lead? Obviously, I never googled any of this because it would ruin the fun, but I was excited to finally get to see inside when photographing Shakia & Mitch’s wedding! By now you’ve figured out it’s a beautiful wedding venue, but that’s all I’m going to tell you so we can all keep the mystery alive.

Where to start with Shakia & Mitch? Shakia (she/her) creates breathtaking, ethereal artwork and loves kayaking & gardening. Mitch (he/him) loves hiking, being outdoors, and traveling. As a couple, they have that beautiful balance of goofiness combined with thoughtfulness that makes them so easy to talk to and be around. Their wedding was elegant & romantic, but more importantly, it was ridiculously fun. From exploring the castle grounds for their first look, to their emotional ceremony, to everyone going hard on the dance floor, it was a day to remember.

If you’re on the hunt for more unique Kentucky wedding venues check out this treehouse elopement, this beer garden wedding, or this tiny wedding pizza party. I also have comprehensive list of my favorite Louisville wedding venues here. As always I’ve shared the list of talented vendors involved at the bottom of the post!

“Moments before our ceremony my husband surprised me with what is now known as the best gift I’ve ever gotten. I endured two major emotional waves during its unveiling.

Wave one: the light cry.

- I have a small but mighty business as an oil painter

- super sweet that he'd indulge my love of art by commissioning a photo of us 

- some components of the painting are from our engagement session, trip to Italy, and grounds of our wedding

Wave two: the "I cried so hard I needed to take a nap." 

- As I peeled the wrapping back I started to notice it was an oil painting in my favorite style. Curious, I took a look at the artist's signature and that's when everything took a turn.

- A scribble to most looked like the work of the artist I admire the most...an artist I've easily spent 100+ hours listening to, watching, and studying. There was no way. I knew my vision was sketchy from tears and champagne.

- I grabbed another note that I had yet to open. It was a personal letter of encouragement signed by none other than my idol Jose Trujillo. I will cherish this gift forever.” - Shakia

These Kentucky wedding vendors made the day possible:

Coordination & Florals: Alicia Collins with Great Expectations KY // DJ: Wild Mountain Music // Caterer: Lundy's Catering // Videographer: Bruce Karcher // Gown: I Do Bridal KY // Cake: Tinker's Cake Shop // Photography: Sarah Katherine Davis Photography // Ceremony Venue: The Kentucky Castle // Reception Venue: The Carrick House