Becker Farms Wedding

Filed in weddings shot by Ayres Photography on March 26, 2019 at

Becker Farms has been one of our favorite venues to photograph for over 8 years. At this point, it feels like an old friend that we love to see and catch up with when we can. We know the grounds, we know where all of the “good photo spots” are, and we love the staff. We always have the best time at BF, but somehow, couples like Jenna and Adam make it even better. :)

Their day started at the cute little cabins on the property. Ben and I split up and photographed the guys and girls separately before heading to the ceremony site. J and A didn’t want to do a first look, but they did hold hands around a corner and pray together before the ceremony, which was a super sweet moment that I loved capturing. Their ceremony was so beautiful and heartfelt, and the weather was perfect for portraits. We used all of the best locations that Becker Farms has to offer, and finished off the evening by sneaking out for a few sunset portraits in the orchard. I honestly couldn’t have dreamed up a more perfect day!

Jenna and Adam were kind enough to share a very detailed version of their love story for this post, so be sure to read as you scroll! Their words really bring the post to life!

Jenna: “We met at the end of our sophomore year in college. We are both students at Asbury University in Wilmore, Kentucky. (Adam grew up in Wilmore). Asbury University has a tradition that every sophomore class puts together a sophomore musical. That year, the director (my roommate, best friend, and maid of honor) decided on High School Musical. Adam was cast as Ryan Evans and I was cast as Kelsie Nielson. We were not friends during the musical, but after the musical ended, we slowly started to talk more and more. The summer after our sophomore year, I stayed in Wilmore and Adam and I started to talk a lot more and hang out almost every day, but we were very adamant that we were not dating. The closer it got to the end of summer, the more we both knew that we would end up dating. We went on our first official date on August 20, 2016, just one week after school started!“

Adam: “On August 21st, 2017, there was a solar eclipse that came through the area that we live in. It was a complete eclipse in some areas, and was supposed to be pretty significant where we were living. So, everyone went crazy, buying eclipse glasses and getting super excited for whatever this was!

Jenna knew that I was planning a proposal, she’d even worked out of me that I’d bought a ring, but she had no idea that by this point and was just trying to figure out when the right time to propose was going to be. One day, I watched a video that said that a solar eclipse is supposed to look like a diamond ring, where there’s just a band of light around the moon and one spot that’s flaring like a diamond. Later, when I was thinking about when and how to propose, that video came back to my mind and I knew what I wanted to do!

So, on eclipse day, we went out to the barn where Jenna‘s horse Jessie lives. We went to a back field by ourselves and got situated on a fence to watch the eclipse happen. Jenna didn’t know it, but I was doing my best not to face my back to her, because there was a box in my back pocket…We watched the eclipse together, and it was thoroughly underwhelming! It turns out, being a couple hours north of the full eclipse meant that, while most of the sun got covered, it didn’t even get close to dark. Jenna was pretty disappointed, and my diamond ring analogy was seeming like quite the stretch now, but I still knew this was the moment I wanted.

We hopped off of the fence, and I said, ‘We watched a video that said that a solar eclipse looks like a diamond ring, but since we didn’t see a diamond ring in the eclipse, would you like to see a real one?’ I got down on my knee, and pulled the ring out of my pocket. I told Jenna that I love her more than anyone I’ve ever known and that I love sharing life together. I told her that I want to spend the rest of my life with her, and said, ‘Jenna Grace Filipiak, will you marry me?’ Jenna has always (rightly) called me a cheeseball, and this may have been my cheesiest moment. But she still said yes!“

Adam: “We balance each other so well. Jenna is a bit impulsive while I am a bit too hesitant to act, but we work together very well. I make way too many assumptions, but Jenna helps me to see the world without as much bias. Jenna experiences very quick emotional changes, but I am able to generally be stable and a safe place for her. We both bring out the best in each other and we both like ourselves when we’re with the other person. There’s so much that makes us want to spend our lives together, but the biggest thing is that we both love each other too much to want to be anywhere else.“

Adam: “Jenna is not the person that I thought I was looking for, and I don’t think I’m the man she was looking for, but I think we’d both agree that we’re exactly the person that we both needed. We are able to express anything and everything to each other, whether it’s a difficult opinion or a raw emotion, and we know that we will never be judged for those things. We make each other laugh, even though Jenna claims she’s not funny and makes sure that I don’t ever think I’m too funny…We’re both passionate about family and are extremely excited to be a spouse to each other and being a mother and father in the future.“

Jenna: “Adam and have mostly shared values. We both value a relationship with God. We both want to follow the direction that He has for our lives and honor Him in everything that we do. Thankfully, God has given us similar directions and we feel affirmed that He will use our relationship for something good! We also highly value family. We come from very different families, but we see value in those differences. We plan to start a family of our own someday, and we want it to be very obvious that family comes first. Adam wants to be a pastor, and this job can be very demanding, but we have talked a lot about the importance of family and our kids knowing how loved they are and how much their parents love each other.”

Adam: “We love to talk about what’s going on in our lives and about our future together. Cooking together is a lot of fun, too! If we get a chance to go out and have the money to do anything, we like to go out to eat, play with puppies at the pet store, to the movies, or (when it’s warm) to be outside! We’ve kayaked together, ridden horses together, and had picnics. What I’ve found is that it doesn’t always really matter what we’re doing; the big thing is that we really enjoy spending time together and finding our next adventure!“

Jenna: “We value each other. Our relationship isn’t an easy one. We try to talk about everything and have really open communication. One isn’t higher than or better than the other, we are equal. I can see that Adam values my emotional safety. He always tells me that he wants to be a safe place for me. Whenever I am hurting, he always wraps me tight in his arms and I know that he is a safe place for me to work out my emotions. He says that I value him by taking care of him when he needs me to. I see his pain when he doesn’t see it yet and I make sure that he takes care of himself. He loves to give, but the moments where he needs to be weak and I take care of him are extremely important for him.“

Jenna: “We really enjoy eating out together – more than our college budgets can often afford. Having a place where we can dress up just a little, share a nice meal together, and talk about life is so much fun! Then, to get to do something fun like bowling, going to a movie, or playing games at an arcade makes the night even more fun! To cap it off, it’d definitely be a warm enough night that we could go outside and walk around town, maybe find a fun coffee shop or park, and enjoy whatever we come across together. And then, even though it’s not out on the town, that night would probably end by getting to come home, curl up together, and relax until bedtime.“