We photographed Molly’s sister Jamie’s wedding at Aldo Leopold a couple of years back, which is how Molly found us. Doing a second wedding inside one family is one of the better things that happens in this job. You already know the sisters, you already know who’s going to cry, and by the time the day arrives you’re not photographing strangers.
There are four Rentscher sisters and they’d tell you Molly is the kind one. That’s a hard title to earn in a family where everybody’s warm, and she carries it without seeming to notice. She laughs at herself constantly. Nate is the same temperature, easy to talk to, unbothered, the sort of person who makes a wedding day feel like it’s going to be fine no matter what.
The photos below run from the first look in James Madison Park through the ceremony inside Gates of Heaven, portraits in the garden beside it, and the rooftop reception at MMoCA above State Street.
The ceremony at Gates of Heaven
We’d never shot at Gates of Heaven before and we’d been wanting to.
The building went up in 1863 and spent its first century on West Washington Avenue, where it was a synagogue, then a funeral parlor, a tea room, a beauty shop, a veterinarian’s office, and a dentist’s office. In 1971 a group of Madison residents saved it from demolition and moved the whole stone building across town to James Madison Park. It took most of a day and people stood on the sidewalks to watch. It’s the eighth-oldest surviving synagogue building in the United States, and it’s been on the National Register since 1970.
What that history gets you is a room that doesn’t need anything done to it. Wood floors, arched windows throwing light across everything, an ornate altar piece at the front, and a small balcony upstairs where a few guests can sit and look down on the whole ceremony. It’s not big. It’s built for exactly the wedding Molly and Nate had, which was 75 people who all know each other.
The family ran most of it. Ben, married to Molly’s oldest sister Kelly, officiated. Scott, married to Jamie, gave a reading. Junebug came down the aisle as ring bearer and Solomon, a year and a half old, handled flowers with the commitment you’d expect.
The best thing they did was the candles. Molly and Nate lit a unity candle, then lit their own, then lit the candles of the guests sitting at the end of each row, and those guests turned and lit the next person’s, and it went down the rows until the whole room was holding light. Scott read while it burned. Then everyone blew them out and only the couple’s candles and the unity candle were still going. That unity candle burns for a hundred hours and they’re lighting it every anniversary until it’s gone.
Afterward they stepped away by themselves for a minute to read what they’d each had engraved inside the other’s ring. Neither of them knew what it said until then.
Nate wore an dark emerald green suit. Molly wore a blue floral dress and her family’s pearls.
The park outside is busy on a Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, but the building sits in its own corner with a small garden tucked beside it, and we had that entirely to ourselves for portraits.
The reception at MMoCA
Then a short walk to the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art and up to the rooftop. MMoCA is one of the four venues in our guide to Madison wedding venues that stay indoors without losing the light.
We’ve shot at MMoCA a handful of times, mostly engagement sessions, and the glass exterior is some of the best architecture in the city. What we hadn’t done is a full reception up top, and the rooftop is the reason to book it. You’re above State Street looking down, with the Orpheum sign right there and the Capitol at the end of the block. Tables outside on the terrace, more space inside, and guests moving between the two all night.
It’s modern and it’s surrounded by old, and the mix is what makes it photograph well. Clean lines, glass, and then trees down on the street below and a hundred years of buildings on every side. There’s a real ceiling on the guest count, so it doesn’t work for everybody. For a wedding this size it’s close to perfect.
They served barbecue. There was a build-your-own sparkling drink bar with fruit and syrups that the kids treated as the main event of the evening, constructing increasingly elaborate things all night.
A family of ducklings had set up in a corner of the patio and kept making appearances. Every single time, the guests stopped what they were doing.
The cake came from The Baked Lab and it was the best one we’ve photographed in a while. Meringue pouring over the side, flowers worked into it, tall and strange and very good. Molly’s family pays attention to food and it showed.
Cake cutting landed right in golden hour, which is a thing you can’t plan and everyone should try to. The light came across the rooftop sideways and turned the whole thing gold. Some of the best cake light we’ve ever had.
Later we took them down to State Street for a few frames with the Capitol behind them. Quiet evening, almost nobody out, just the two of them standing in the middle of the street. Then back upstairs, where the sun went down and everyone danced under the string lights.
Thanks, Molly and Nate. This one’s going to stick with us.
Planner: Zing Boom Tararrel Events
Ceremony: Gates of Heaven, James Madison Park
Reception: Madison Museum of Contemporary Art
Catering: Beef Butter BBQ
Cake: The Baked Lab
Florals: Daffodil Parker
Hair: Culture Couture Salon · Makeup: Shannon Pesta
Dress: Sachin & Babi
Bridesmaids: Jenny Yoo
Rings: Catbird
Groom’s suit: The Black Tux ·
Invitations: Minted
