A Wedding and a Festival in Downtown Lake Charles Equals Memories

Meet Jeremy and Shelby Abbott. They decided it was time to get married, yes, on purpose. The wedding day was set, the reception was to be at Heist in beautiful downtown Lake Charles. Suddenly, up pops the annual Chuck Fest, a quickly growing festival that shuts down all of downtown Lake Charles and has live music, amazing food, and local vendors selling art.

According to Photographer Maggie Bradshaw with Maggie Bradshaw Photography, the bride was in an obvious panic about the wedding venue being LITERALLY behind the main stage on Ryan St. They reached out to the Chuck Fest group and explained the situation. Chuck Fest agreed to stop all music and noise for the ceremony, which is absolutely amazing. As the MC, I had the first time experience of explaining to the crowd that had gathered that we had to be quiet for about 30 min for the wedding. That was truly a first.

30min later, we get the "all clear", and off we go with Lane Mack taking the stage. Everything seems to be carrying on as normal, that was until the bride and groom come out of the venue. The new couple walks out and begins dancing to the band. As the band finishes the song, Lane gets on the microphone,

"Are we about to play your first dance as Bride and Groom?"

They nod, and off the band goes. The couple begins to slow dance as the crowd looks on. This being SWLA, a wedding, and they're dancing, it only felt right to announce it to be their money dance! Suddenly, onlookers begin walking up to the newlyweds sliding in money and dancing with them as the band plays on. Maggie, the photographer, never skipped a beat as she just kept shooting.

Now, dear reader, I LOVE making memories and having stories to tell. I ran down to Maggie and said

"After this song, get ready, this is gonna be good"

I grabbed the microphone and called out to the groom, and asked if he had ever dipped his blushing bride? He replied with a no and headshake.

"Well, there's a first time for everything. Chuck Fest on the count of 3, this man is going to dip his beautiful bride that almost had her wedding ruined by a music festival, and you need to go absolutely crazy!"

The result? What might be one of the most amazing pictures I have personally ever seen. To know this couple might have had their special day ruined because of something out of their control, but you sometimes just have to embrace it. In doing so, you realize that even total strangers will be there to support you, and slide dollar bills down your dress.