This wedding at The Palazzo Grande is a day I will never forget. I worked this day as a second photographer under Ruthie Isaacson, a Colorado wedding photographer that traveled to Michigan for this wedding. Ruthie specializes in Catholic weddings and hired me on as her second for the day after finding me on Instagram. I didn’t get to attend the full wedding reception for this event but still had the best experience!
Catholic Wedding Ceremony in Hamtramck
Catholic weddings feature an entire Mass, which can take about an hour to hour and a half, with a lot of traditions. There are quite a few photographers out there, like Ruthie, that specialize in Catholic weddings because of all the special parts of it. I actually grew up Catholic, so I was already familiar with the Mass. Before becoming a full time photographer I actually worked as a teaching assistant at a private, Catholic school where we attended Mass three times a week.
The wedding mass was held in a beautiful church, St. Florian Church, located in Hamtramck Michigan. I spent a lot of time just taking in the beauty of the stained glass and architecture when I first arrived. My former church was not anywhere as stunning as this one. This church is Polish and had many fliers, bibles, and even part of the Mass in Polish. While I don’t speak Polish, I was able to keep up with the traditions because it stays the same across services. The organ player did a beautiful job playing music throughout service. One of the priests also spoke entirely in Polish- it seemed that some parts of the service were dual language while other parts were exclusively Polish or exclusively English. It was interesting to experience!
After the ceremony, we had very limited time for photos up near the alter. We quickly captured family portraits, something that I organize instead of taking photos of as a second photographer. As soon as we were done, lights inside were being turned off ushering us out so Adoration could begin. I was able to get a few photos of the couple leaving the church, which turned out fantastic.
Portraits Outside The Palazzo Grande
The Palazzo Grande had been a venue I had never heard of before this wedding day. I was absolutely stunned when I walked in the front doors. The Palazzo is large enough to host multiple wedding receptions at once but it’s easy to tell (as a guest) which part of the building you should be in. The chandeliers are beautiful and really painted an elegant picture when you first walk in. They even have a self playing piano that they allowed us to use for photos!
We had quite a bit of time before we could get into the reception space for this wedding at The Palazzo Grande, so we took wedding party portraits outside. Luckily, the girls all had matching furs that kept them warm in the chilly November air. With the winter season starting, furs were a very elegant touch to this day. I worked with the groomsmen for their portraits and we had fun. We tossed Zach around and really tried to make each other laugh as much as possible. They were a great bunch to work with!
After portraits, we still had a lot of time before the reception began. We were able to use the lobby to do even more couple portraits. We used the grand staircase and piano. Guests finally started to arrive and we tucked Emily and Zach away until their grand reception entrance. The reception space was beautiful. The table decor was simple with greenery and candles. At the center of the dance floor was their cake, which they decided they would cut into right after the grand entrance. I loved the vintage heart shaped cake! It was super cute and they were all smiles as they cut into it together.
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