Rolling Hill Venue Wedding Photographer | Mark and Daniela’s Rainy August Day in Monroe, NC

Some wedding days go exactly the way they looked on the timeline. Mark and Daniela’s was not one of them, and honestly that is exactly why I love it so much. I got to be their Rolling Hill Venue wedding photographer on the first of August, and between the heat, a thunderstorm that rolled in halfway through their ceremony, and a cake that genuinely fought back, this day gave me some of my favorite images I have taken all year.

Let me back up, because their story started before the wedding did.

It started with a surprise proposal in March

Mark reached out to me last March about planning a surprise proposal. We picked Daniel Stowe, went over the logistics, and I hid myself away and waited for them to walk into frame. She said yes (obviously), and we rolled right into an engagement session in the gardens afterward. It was such a good afternoon.

Then they went home and planned an entire wedding in five months.

Five months. I have had couples take five months just to decide on a venue. Mark and Daniela booked Rolling Hill Venue in Monroe, picked a date, and made it happen, and a huge part of that was Daniela’s best friend Millie. Millie is a wedding planner by trade, and she was also the maid of honor. So she spent the entire day planning, coordinating, standing up at the front in a bridesmaid dress, and (spoiler) holding an umbrella over her best friend’s head during the ceremony. I do not know how she did it. She deserved a nap and a very large drink.

Getting ready at Rolling Hill Venue

The bridal suite at Rolling Hill has this soft white shiplap, a big gold mirror, and a leather couch that photographs beautifully, which is a nice thing to have when you are getting ready in August in North Carolina and everyone is trying to stay cool.

Daniela’s mom helped her with her earrings. Her bridesmaids helped her into the gown, which was a strapless lace ballgown with a corset bodice, detachable lace sleeves, and a long lace edged veil that I could not stop photographing. We hung the dress on the brick arches outside for a few frames before she put it on. Mark got ready with his guys, and his little blue cufflinks matched his suit perfectly.

The color palette was so pretty. Mark in slate blue with warm brown shoes, the bridesmaids in mixed pastels (sage, blush, powder blue, soft butter yellow), and the parents in light blue and gray. It all worked together without looking matchy.

The flowers that almost did not happen

Here is the part of the day I want engaged couples to actually read.

The florist forgot two things. Daniela’s dad had no floral pocket square and her mom had no corsage. Nobody caught it until we were already deep into the day.

So my second photographer and I went around the reception space, pulled a few blooms out of the centerpieces, and made them ourselves. I keep ribbon and string in my bag for detail photos, so we used that to tie the corsage together and secure it on her mom’s wrist. It took maybe ten minutes and it is the kind of thing that never makes it into a gallery, but her parents got to walk into that ceremony looking exactly the way they were supposed to.

I say this a lot, but I mean it. Your Rolling Hill Venue wedding photographer should be doing more than standing behind a camera. If something falls apart on your wedding day, you want the person documenting it to also be somebody who will just quietly fix it.

A Spanish ceremony, a thunderstorm, and one very good umbrella

Their ceremony was fully in Spanish, as was a lot of the day, since Mark and Daniela and both of their families are Spanish speaking. It was scheduled for an hour, outdoors, in front of the brick arches, which the florist had covered in blue delphinium, white hydrangea, peach roses, and daisies, with candles lining the whole base of it. Truly one of the prettiest ceremony setups I have shot.

Right as the processional started, we heard thunder.

Daniela came down the aisle on her dad’s arm. They took their seats at the arch. The officiant kept going. About halfway through, it started to sprinkle. Then it just opened up.

Most of the guests moved under the covered area of the reception space, where they could still see everything. Someone handed the couple and the officiant umbrellas, and Millie stepped in to hold one over Mark and Daniela. The umbrella she grabbed was black, so I ran, swapped it for a clear one, and ran back. That one swap made a world of difference in the photos. Instead of a dark shape over their heads, you can see the rain, you can see their faces, you can see the arch behind them.

They finished their vows in the rain and kissed under a clear umbrella with water running off the edges, and it is genuinely one of my favorite photos of the whole year.

The groomsmen crammed themselves under one blue umbrella and were laughing so hard about it that I got a whole series of frames of just that.

Family photos in (basically) a steam room

We did family formals and wedding party photos under the covered area while the rain kept going. The humidity after that storm was unreal. My lens was hazing over between shots and the air itself had a soft glow to it, so a lot of those images have this dreamy quality that I could not have created on purpose if I tried.

Once it let up we snuck back out to the brick arch for romantic photos. Daniela’s bouquet (blush and peach roses, orange ranunculus, daisies, wrapped in pink ribbon) against the wet brick and the green behind it was gorgeous. They also brought heart shaped sunglasses, which came out for a few frames, because these two are genuinely fun.

The cake that broke a knife

The reception moved inside, into the white hall with the wood beams, the chandeliers, and the stone fireplace.

Their cake was a tiered white cake with painted wildflowers on it, which I photographed a hundred times before anybody touched it. Then Mark and Daniela went to cut it, and it did not budge. They pushed harder. Still nothing.

They broke the knife.

I was laughing so hard I was worried about camera shake, and I still walked away with the best cake cutting photos I have ever taken. Their faces in that sequence are perfect. That is the thing about hiring a Rolling Hill Venue wedding photographer who is actually paying attention to the room. The unplanned moments are almost always the best ones, and you only get them if somebody is watching.

Games, dances, and a sparkler exit

Daniela changed into a short white lace dress with red heels for the reception, and then things got loud.

They did the shoe game first. Then they did a musical chairs and scavenger hunt hybrid, where guests had to run and find random items and get back to their chair before the music stopped. Sunglasses, scarves, somebody’s shoe. It was chaos and everybody was into it.

The first dance was sweet and slow. During the parent dances, Daniela started with her dad and then switched to her mom halfway through, which got me. Guests grabbed glow sticks. There was a Polaroid guest book on the table that filled up all night with photos people took of each other.

We stole them away for a few night portraits outside, under the wooden pergola with the chandelier hanging in it and back at the brick arch with the candles still glowing, and then everybody lined up with sparklers to send them off.

I sent them almost two hundred sneak peeks. I normally send about a hundred. I just could not narrow it down.

Thinking about Rolling Hill Venue for your wedding?

If you are planning a wedding at Rolling Hill Venue in Monroe, here are the things I would tell you as somebody who has shot there.

The brick arches are the visual anchor of the whole property, and they hold up beautifully in every kind of light, including rain and including after dark with candles. The covered reception area is a real rain plan, not a technicality, so an outdoor ceremony here is less of a gamble than it feels like when you are staring at a forecast. If you are getting married in July or August, build in more time than you think you need for portraits, and put a clear umbrella in your day of kit. Just do it. You will either never open it or you will get the best photos of your day out of it.

And if you are still looking for a Rolling Hill Venue wedding photographer, I would love to hear about your day. I photograph weddings all over Monroe, Union County, Charlotte, and the rest of the Carolinas, and I take a limited number of weddings each year so I can be fully present at every single one. Rain plan included.

See their surprise proposal at Daniel Stowe Conservancy!