Fulton, MO Wedding: Brady & Callie

Callie was the cute soror­ity girl who played soc­cer and got invited to all the par­ties. I was the girl down the hall try­ing find a way to cover up my dreaded “fresh­man fif­teen”. I don’t remem­ber how we finally struck up a con­ver­sa­tion, but the minute we became friends, col­lege became every­thing I dreamed it would be. Late nights filled with girl talk, lots of laugh­ter, and trips to McDonald’s at 2am. Yes, I real­ize that didn’t help the “fresh­man fif­teen” prob­lem, but I was hav­ing way too much fun to say no. Nei­ther of us returned the fol­low­ing year, but that had no effect on our friend­ship. Cal­lie was the kind of friend I knew I’d have for a lifetime.

Over the years, whether in dif­fer­ent parts of the coun­try or in dif­fer­ent parts of the world, Cal­lie and I have con­tin­ued to walk through life together. We have car­ried each oth­ers bur­dens and rejoiced in each oth­ers suc­cess. Need­less to say, when Cal­lie told me she was engaged, I couldn’t wait to cel­e­brate this next chap­ter of her life. Lit­tle did I know that I’d be cel­e­brat­ing up close and per­sonal as one of her brides­maids and with Vitaliy as her wed­ding pho­tog­ra­pher. I felt com­pletely hon­ored to be such a spe­cial part of her wed­ding day. I will never for­get what it felt like when they opened the doors and out walked Cal­lie as a bride. An absolutely stun­ning bride!

In that moment, every­thing changed. When I talked with Cal­lie this past year, I could see how Brady’s love was chang­ing her into an even bet­ter per­son than she already was. But as I watched them say their vows and put on their rings, I finally was able to see it with my own eyes. I can’t wait to walk through a com­pletely new phase of life with Cal­lie. She is going to be an incred­i­ble wife, and from what I could tell in the short time I spent with Brady, he is going to be an incred­i­ble husband.

Brady and Cal­lie — never stop encour­ag­ing each other to be bet­ter peo­ple than you were the day before. Con­tinue to love each other more than you did yes­ter­day. And make sure that each day is filled with a healthy dose of laugh­ter together. Vitaliy and I are so stinkin’ happy for the two of you! My only require­ment for the future of our friend­ship is that we get to vaca­tion together. Con­grat­u­la­tions! We love you guys!

~Vitaliy and Candace

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You can also view Brady and Callie’s wed­ding slideshow.

I’ve always thought that Cal­lie has the pret­ti­est smile.

Cal­lie is an artist of all kinds includ­ing pho­tog­ra­phy. She actu­ally took the image you see above in our header. So they opted for a “First Look” so that we’d have plenty of pic­ture tak­ing time.

Brady and Cal­lie were mar­ried on the cam­pus of West­min­ster Col­lege in Ful­ton, MO. It is a gor­geous cam­pus and the church is unbe­liev­ably beau­ti­ful. The light was perfect!

I’m pretty sure this is my favorite of the day.

We took them out­side for some pic­tures and a storm was blow­ing in. Most brides would be in a panic, not Cal­lie. She is always opti­mistic and never lets any­thing get her down. Espe­cially not on her wed­ding day!

And this was a seri­ous storm! Check out that church! If I have my story right, this is the old­est church in Amer­ica. It was built in Eng­land, but taken apart and brought to Amer­ica and rebuilt. Breath­tak­ing inside and outside.

But it was a good Mid­west storm and blew right through the town. We were back out­side in no time for more pictures.

Oh, this moment! It tugs at the heart every time.

Mr. and Mrs!

We had a few extra min­utes for some pic­tures in the gar­den. I’m so happy because these are some of my favorites! Brady was workin’ it all day for the camera.

Ok, then again, so was Callie!

Do I look like this when Vitaliy caresses my face? I can only hope.

And this is pre­cisely why these two peo­ple will be an incred­i­ble hus­band and wife team — they love to serve. They cut and served their cake to all the guests. Their rea­son, “We want to start our mar­riage off serv­ing others.”

I’ll end with this pic­ture of their first dance as hus­band and wife.