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Clay McCall

@claymccool

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My magnum opus, I fear. A field full of dinner. Long wooden tables stretching across the grass, everything aglow in warm August light. Those who know me know this is the great ambition of my life. Beloved rascals gathered around a table. Something good to eat, time to linger, nowhere to be. A feast for those we cherish. And still, all these familiar hands. Lula Café, where I used to work, feeding us so beautifully. Lizzie and Mel, my comrades from working other people’s weddings, helping me bring my own into being. So many parts of my life finding their way to this table. Not pictured are Dana, Kendall, Hunter, and Clay’s parents standing up to give their speeches and doing considerable things to our hearts. Still carrying those words around and likely will be for some time. Endless gratitude to everyone who holds a place in our lives and at our table. Our cups overfloweth ——— Thank you for having us, @campwandawega 💌 Photo: @_ash_dye_ + @zoeellaa Food: @lulacafe Planning: @asuwishweddings @mel0dierose Bridal camp set: @ronnybass_ Menus + Signage: @catdroool
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Super 8 stills from three dreamy days celebrating two earth angels These were the kind of days you wish you could bottle up and return to whenever you need a little reminder of how beautiful life can be! The first time I picked up a Super 8 camera was in 2017, on a road trip from Illinois to Washington when Lola moved her life out west. A little foreshadowing of what would soon be my fate in the years to come. I think that trip taught me a lot about how I wanted to move through the world: to stay curious, keep discovering new places, and, most importantly, cherish the love and care of the friends who walk alongside you and the ones you meet along the way Lola has been a sweet friend and through line for much of my life, and it felt only right to be there, camera in hand, smiling through the tears, watching her begin this next chapter with Clay. The care they show each other only ripples outwards and we are all lucky having witnessed it There’s nothing more heart warming and healing than watching the friends you love be deeply supported, held and cherished in all the ways they’ve always deserved 💌 Processed and scanned by @cinelabboston
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My turn to gush over this 3 day dream!! Lola & Clay, I can’t thank you enough for trusting me with such a special week. I hope you felt all the love everyone has for you both 💘 it was truly something special . . . Team of a lifetime: Venue: @campwandawega Camp Catering: @yejinyoon Wedding day catering: @lulacafeevents Hair: @debpetrielli Photo: @_ash_dye_ & @zoeellaa Floral: @nerinefloral Cake: @1_800_cakes Officiant/Barista: @othermorgan Signage: @catdroool Dress(s): @ronnybass_ Rentals: @eventessentialsmadison Planner Associate: @mel0dierose Planner: @asuwishweddings 💘
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A medically inadvisable amount of love! The beauty of the day was that nearly every person who worked to put together our wedding was already someone in our lives. Our vendors were our friends. The only true stranger may have been the man who delivered the bathroom trailer. Everywhere, the work of someone we loved. Our friend Morgan married us. She is one of the rare friends Clay and I share in the truest sense—a full and separate friendship with each of us. She can hang out with me or go off scheming with Clay, and neither feels like the auxiliary friendship. She wrote a ceremony so tender and true that there wasn’t a dry eye in the woods. Morgan! What a gift to be known by you. Sinéad did the flowers with her wild, intuitive taste. More beautiful than I knew to ask for. Our dear friends Lauren and Will filled their car with every last stem and drove them out to Wisconsin. Precious cargo. What an errand of love. My best friend Dana made my wedding gown. MY BEST FRIEND MADE MY WEDDING GOWN! We spend most days beside each other making clothes for other people, so doing this together felt like the most beautiful meeting of our friendship and our work. My brilliant friend. What an enormous thing you gave me. Ash, who has been making photos with me for years, photographed it all on film. Zoe and I met ten years ago when we both lived in Bellingham, Washington, and she flew in to shoot alongside her. They caught the whole living thing. Every last drop of it! What they can do with light and a fraction of a second is staggering. For now, the ceremony. Endless thanks to come. All these hands! All this talent and care! We have been fed, ferried, cheered on, cried over, and loved into this life. ——— Photo: @_ash_dye_ + @zoeellaa + @cryway_ Floral: @nerinefloral Gown: @ronnybass_
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summer fun and joy and whimsy ☀️ #fujifilm #x100v #chicago #europe #travel
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Lola and Clay got married last month at the camp of our dreams, and I think we’re all still basking in the joy of it. She wore Ronny Bass, and as ethereal as she looks in these photos… I promise watching her float around in the late August breeze, surrounded by so many folks that love her, was even greater still. We created an entire capsule collection for the series of very special days. I love each ensemble all the same, but (through misty eyes) I’ll start out here by sharing her gown. Her gown, her gown, her gown. Folks… to work in collaboration with the such an intuitively styled person is simply thrilling. She’s decisive as hell, and while our visions of the other pieces were clear seasons ahead of time… this gown was dreamed up in pieces… on a walk with wine on a warm June day, sketched out as we sat in the park, carefully finessed at each fitting, all to end up in a state that just takes my breath away. Structured, satin sleeves. A bodice that fits like a glove. A ruched waist line that waterfalls into two layers of chiffon, ending with the proudest seam of my life. This gown represents some of my wildest dreams as a designer, and truly shows me what I’m capable of. And gosh… what a pleasure it is to feel that way about something I made for my sweet, brilliant, best friend. I said it in my speech, but I’ll say it here again - Lola makes things feel possible. For me, she makes at least 10 things feel possible today. And the truth is I didn’t know how to make a dress like this when we first dreamed it up….but she made that feel possible too. This project was a gift, a treasure, a bright sunny day - that I’ll think about for years to come, and truly learned so much from. 1,000 years ahead for you two. Thank you, so much, for letting me be a part of it. Excelsior, baby! #RONNYBASS Photos by @_ash_dye_ and @zoeellaa 💌
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Lola and Clay got married last month at the camp of our dreams, and I will remember it for the rest of my life. They gathered us for three perfect days outside, and shared a beautiful, earnest look into the life they’ve so carefully built together. What a gift you two gave each of us. What a gift you are to each other. ____ I was quite honored to get up there and speak on all the qualities that make Lola such an integral, irreplaceable part of my life. The girl simply holds me to this earth, and even if she wasn't getting married - it would be about damn time to say thanks. The truth is I have never met anyone quite like Lola. Who so fervently dives into every dream with me. Who can cradle the mystical with the mundane, and so clearly visualize a future - without missing a single beat of today. Lola makes things feel possible. For me, she makes at least ten things feel possible a day. She is a good man in a storm. She is brilliant. She is has the most refined, intuitive taste I've ever come across... and somehow, I swindled her into running a business with me :, ) I am lucky enough to spend time with Lola almost every day, and not a single one has passed since I've known her that I've felt she's been phoning it in. The dedication she pours into creating this wild and precious life is admirable, Contagious, And most of all, brave. Clay, What a treasure it has been to find that those are qualities you so earnestly share with her. _____ When I think of you both, I think of joy. I think of hard work. I think of laughter that throws your head back. And the little things that you both know are really the big things. I think of the deep, shared curiosity of those around you that fosters some of the richest community I've ever come to know. I think of how happy I am to be a part of it. At the end of the day - when I think of you both, I just feel grateful. For every joke we’ve shared, and for a big bright future ahead. Cheers! To the beautiful couple. You two are in cahoots, hand-in-hand. And somehow, we’re all better for it.
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A small few of my favorite before and after moments of Clay and Lola’s big beautiful multi day campground wedding. I’ve been making photos with Lola for years, what a gift to share this week with them and everyone they love. All of us sweaty covered in sand and lake water, breaking bread in the morning, dancing til dawn. Sweet hot burning love!!
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We’re married 💌 We took everyone we love to summer camp and, for a few impossible days, got to see the evidence of our whole life reflected back at us. 

Friends who knew us before we knew each other. Those who watched us fall in love. People we met along the way and promptly folded in. All of them swimming and sharing meals and crying and dancing and hauling things across camp. Wandering around with wet hair and drinks in hand. Loving us within an inch of our lives.

I fear I may never recover. The great luck of my life is that Clay and I share an ideology of what a good life is.

I don’t always feel hopeful about the future. A lot of days, it’s hard to muster much hope for the world. But I know, amid the dire and daily news, we’ll cut out a beautiful corner of the world for ourselves. One where we know the names of the trees we walk by every day. Where we’ll stop to watch a barn swallow sweep over a dewy meadow. A home full of good knives and people coming through the door. Every day with you is a reminder that the dream of my life is to simply lie down by a slow river. 
 It’s not something waiting for us after we accomplish enough, or earn enough. It’s right here, happening all around us. My sweetheart of this earth! My very good life! To miles and miles and memories with you. photos by the angel herself @_ash_dye_
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I ♥️ Wi(sconsin) Spa(in)
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Long awaited wedding week for Lola and Clay ❤️‍🔥🎞️ A little throwback clippy from their engagement party in the dunes with catering by @txatxaclub #super8 #8mm #chicagofilmphotographer #super8wedding #chicagowedding
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JuNE 2026 - Drove out to Colorado to bring Max home, spent the day at a wolf sanctuary and enjoying the beauty of Greenhorn Valley, can’t imagine it now with the fires. Max drove a marathon Colorado to Chicago 20 hours, Dj’ing the best tunes - we had a steak dinner in Nebraska for my 44th birthday - came home and threw a rager coach house party for Kasia. Sara and I practiced our cursive - and I fell in the Chicago River… never abandoned my ship. Baby girl turned 18 and left for Costa Rica, we harvested buckets of raspberries, we saw tons of music, and I kinda rode my bike. Here’s to 44-still-a-whore. I love you.
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