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Venue: Hay-McKinney Mansion & Gardens / Western Reserve Historical Society
Catering: A Taste of Excellence
Florals & Decor: Amour Floral & Decor
Linens: L'Nique Specialty Linen
Cake: Corbo's Bakery, Little Italy
DJ & Entertainment: Lovely Night Entertainment
Videography: 4th Ave Films
Photography: Delaney Yoha Photo, with second photographer Kayla
Officiant: Pastor Jim Wilkes
Hair & Beauty: Rachel Z. DiGiovanni
Rentals & Lighting: Aable Rents + Colortone Lighting
Musician: Jack Thompson, Saxophonist
Content Creation: B-Roll Content Creation
the vendor team
Ava & Josh's wedding day reminded me that the best wedding days don't have to unfold perfectly to be extraordinary.
Sometimes the timeline gets tight. Sometimes dinner runs late. Sometimes golden hour turns into nighttime. Sometimes you have to make a plan, throw the plan out, and make a new one.
And sometimes those unexpected moments become the photographs you end up loving the most.
Ava & Josh wanted to be present. They wanted beautiful photographs. They wanted their families around them. They wanted to celebrate their marriage and their faith. And they wanted to throw one hell of a party.
They did all of it.
From the quiet anticipation behind the glass doors of the Hanna Courtyard Garden to the last song on the dance floor, their wedding day was full of the kind of moments that make me love this job so much.
Ava & Josh — thank you for trusting me to document it all.
And thank you for giving me one of the most incredible dance floors I've ever had the privilege of photographing. 🤍
A Day That Was Completely Theirs
Eventually, the night had to come to an end.
Ava & Josh ended their wedding day with a sparkler send-off surrounded by their friends and family before climbing into a convertible getaway car.
And who got to drive them away?
Josh's little brother.
It was the perfect final scene to a day that somehow managed to be intimate, emotional, hectic, hilarious, romantic, and wildly fun all at once.
One last ride.
The dance floor.
I genuinely don't know if I have ever photographed a reception quite like this one. After the speeches, first dance, dinner, and portraits, everyone was ready to let loose — and they absolutely did.
There was dancing. There was a conga line. There was singing at the top of everyone's lungs. There were people completely losing themselves in the moment.
And after spending the entire day moving from one part of the Cleveland History Center to another, watching the timeline, making sure we captured everything, and finding creative solutions whenever something changed, the dance floor felt like the perfect exhale.
This was the part of the day where nobody cared what time it was anymore. They were just there. And honestly, that is one of my favorite things about photographing weddings. The photographs I love most aren't always the perfectly composed ones.
Sometimes they're the ones where someone's hair is flying everywhere. Where everyone is laughing. Where the groom is making an absolutely ridiculous face during a speech. Where someone is halfway through a dance move that makes absolutely no sense.
Where you can look at a photograph years later and immediately remember exactly how that moment felt.
Josh gave us plenty of those moments throughout the day. His reactions to the speeches alone were worth documenting. Between the giant smiles, the two thumbs up, and the occasional completely bewildered “What??!”, he kept everyone laughing.
And then, once the dance floor opened? He and Ava were completely in it.
And Then Came the Dance Floor
After dinner, we pulled Ava & Josh and their bridal party back out for portraits. By this point, the sun had mostly disappeared. So instead of trying to force a traditional golden-hour portrait session into a timeline that simply didn't have the time for it, we embraced what the day was giving us.
Flash. At night.
And honestly? I am so glad we did. These ended up being some of my favorite photographs from their entire wedding day.
There is something about nighttime flash photography that feels completely different from a traditional sunset portrait. It's bold, editorial, a little nostalgic, and incredibly energetic. It also felt so fitting for Ava & Josh because their wedding day had already become something completely unique.
These weren't photographs we could have made earlier in the day. They belonged to that moment. The night had officially begun, dinner was over, and the two of them were ready to celebrate.
So we leaned into it.
A Nighttime Portrait Session I Didn't See Coming
After family portraits, Ava & Josh were able to enjoy a little bit of cocktail hour while we finished preparing the reception details. It was one of those small windows of time that I think becomes incredibly important on a wedding day. Because their day had been busy. There had been getting ready, portraits, the ceremony, family photographs, moving from one space to another, and a timeline that didn't leave much room for stopping.
So getting to watch them actually take a breath and enjoy their guests was special. Being present was something that mattered to Ava & Josh from the beginning, and I think that showed throughout their wedding day. They wanted beautiful photographs, absolutely — but they also wanted to experience their wedding with the people they love. And they did just that.
Ava & Josh chose to get married in the Hanna Courtyard Garden, surrounded by their family and friends. One of my favorite details of their ceremony was that they chose to keep the bride and groom completely separate beforehand because they wanted an aisle reveal. And it was so worth it.
Before the doors opened, Josh could actually see Ava standing behind the glass. He noticed her. And suddenly, after all of the rushing around earlier in the day, there was this quiet little moment of anticipation between them.
Josh's dad, Pastor Jim Wilkes, officiated their ceremony and officially married the two of them. It was such a meaningful way to bring their families and their faith into the center of the day. Afterward, Ava & Josh took a few minutes just for themselves & their bridal party before we dove into family portraits.
And family was clearly important to them.
They wanted photographs with the people they love — not just because they were on the formal shot list, but because these were the people they wanted beside them as they began this next chapter.
A Ceremony in the Hanna Courtyard Garden
When we arrived at the Cleveland History Center around 2:45 PM, it was officially crunch time.
The Cleveland History Center is absolutely stunning, but if you've never photographed a wedding there before, let me tell you: there are a lot of places to go. Between the different historic spaces, gardens, getting-ready rooms, museum exibits and reception areas, we were moving all day long.
The guys were getting ready near the vintage cars inside the museum while the girls were upstairs in the Hay-McKinney Mansion. Ava wasn't feeling her best when we arrived, so the goal quickly became getting everyone where they needed to be while still creating space for the moments that mattered.
And somehow, we did it.
We photographed the details, the girls together, the guys together, and all of the little in-between moments before the ceremony. I photographed Ava's details outside near the stairs of the Hanna Courtyard Garden, where she would soon walk down the aisle. The entire day felt like it was moving at a hundred miles an hour. But then everything slowed down.
There are wedding days that unfold exactly as planned, and then there are wedding days that ask you to slow down, adapt, and simply be present for whatever happens next.
Ava & Josh’s wedding day was a little bit of both.
Their August 29th wedding at the Cleveland History Center was full of beautiful details, meaningful moments, a little bit of beautiful chaos, and more joy than I could have asked for. From their intimate ceremony in the Hanna Courtyard Garden to their incredible reception inside the Hay-McKinney Mansion, every part of their day felt deeply connected to the people they love most.
And by the end of the night, after a very full day and a very full dance floor, I don't think any of us wanted the party to end.