Bryn and Patrick got married on July 20th next to the pavilion at Norskedalen, under a cottonwood tree, with the Bekkum Homestead and the creek behind them. It was humid the way southwest Wisconsin gets in late July. Everything was green.
I shot this one solo, which is rare for us. It also turned into an accidental reunion. Patrick went to my high school, and his younger sister was in my class, neither of which I knew going in. Bryn and Patrick live close by, so Norskedalen was an easy choice for them. They were getting married somewhere they already knew, and that shows up in the pictures.
The whole day ran on yard games. Croquet and bags out on the grass, kids cutting straight through the middle of every conversation, snacks going all afternoon. Bryn and Patrick have two young kids, and both of them were having the time of their lives from the first hour on.
There was no wedding party. Just the two of them, their kids standing in as flower girl and ring bearer, Bryn’s dad walking her down the aisle, and Patrick’s brother officiating. Bryn made all the flowers herself, and her daughter’s crown pulled from the same stems as Patrick’s boutonniere, his vest and floral tie, and Bryn’s bouquet. Nature is what she resonates with most, she told me, and that was the whole design brief: let the environment carry the day instead of layering things on top of it.
Patrick built the arch. Fabric and paper lanterns hung from the pavilion ceiling, curtains lined the open-air sides, and palms draped in chiffon marked the aisle. Even the charcuterie was homemade, local meats and farm vegetables set out for guests to graze on all day.
There wasn’t much for me to set up or direct, which is how we prefer to work anyway. (More on what to expect when you have a candid wedding photographer, if you’re weighing that.)
Then came the end of the day, which at Norskedalen is the part I wait for. The light drops low, cuts sideways through the trees on the valley floor, and stretches everything out gold. This was a textbook version of it.
Photographs from Bryn and Patrick’s summer wedding at Norskedalen Nature and Heritage Center in Coon Valley, Wisconsin: the ceremony under the cottonwood tree beside the Bekkum Homestead, croquet and bags on the lawn, their two kids running the day, local food, simple summer florals, and low evening light coming through the valley trees.
Why we keep coming back to Norskedalen
We photograph at Norskedalen once or twice a year, more often than anywhere else we work. By now it should feel used up. It doesn’t.
Part of that is how much is packed into the grounds. Old houses moved in from around the Driftless, wood carvings, hand-lettered signs going green with moss, the ponds, the creek, small details tucked into corners of the property. Every visit I find something I hadn’t noticed before. The creek reshapes itself after big floods, the seasons swap the color out entirely, and light in a valley this narrow lands differently depending on the month and the hour.
A few of the other weddings we’ve photographed here are still up. There’s Brian and Anne’s wedding in the valley, and Diego and Rebecca’s Norskedalen wedding, all from a while back now. If you want to see how different the valley looks come September, there’s also a wedding here with a private waterfall first look.
If you’re still deciding where to get married in Wisconsin, we put together a full guide to Norskedalen, covering the ceremony and reception spaces, the history, and what it’s actually like to plan a wedding here. It’s about twenty-five minutes southeast of La Crosse, close enough that guests can get there easily, far enough that it doesn’t feel like it’s near anything.
Bryn and Patrick, thanks for having me out there, and for the high school detour. Congratulations to you both.
