A Back-Yard Summer Elopement With Stunning Floral Arrangements | Leah and Kwesi's Afternoon Ceremony in Yarker, Ontario
How are you most similar?
“We share a love for connecting with people, yet are both fairly introverted. We each have a small group of close friends and do our best to connect to others (but rely on extraverted people to help make those connections).”
I'm excited to bring you the story Leah and Kwesi, an adorable and kind-hearted couple, and their afternoon summer elopement.
(Kwesi is such an awesome name. When she first said his name, I jotted it down phonetically, as Quacey, before I asked for a correction :P Leah told me that he once had someone at Starbucks write "Weston"... haha.)
You might have first read about this wedding in our Highlights 2021 blog here.
But now I’m going to go into all the delicious details, so read on!
The first thing I need to mention about this beautiful elopement in a backyard is Yarker, is the floral arrangements.
The reason I bring this up is because they were made by a friend of the family (wish I could remember her name!). I know she no longer works as a florist, but these arrangements were absolutely spectacular.
In fact I couldn't really get enough of taking photos of these arrangements, so I just kept going around taking pictures of the flowers for at least 10 minutes after I arrived.
This was okay, because Leah was getting ready at that time, and I don't think she wanted too too much coverage of that portion of her wedding. In fact, she had first told me, it was going to be a “simple backyard wedding”, and she really was just looking for “a photographer who will shoot some shots during the ceremony and some post ceremony couple and family photos.”
I’m happy to respect anyone’s wishes if they tell me they don’t really want getting ready photographs.
There are numerous reasons why people might decide against getting ready coverage. I’m not into the hard sell on this one :) Thought I usually bring it up during consultation, and show people examples of how wonderful these moments can be…. And for Leah, i ended up snapping a few such photographs of her getting ready a little bit later.
When I arrived, she was already in her beautiful mid-length white wedding dress.
It looked like the most comfortable summer dress.
Meanwhile, Kwesi was outside making sure all the last touches looked just right.
He was dressed in a three-piece suit, poor chap.
Now, the reason I say “poor chap”, is because this was one of the hot summer days. The wedding was on July 25th, and the heat was pretty gnarly.🥵
(Anyway Kwesi was a trooper the entire day. Oh, but he did shed that top coat as soon as he could after the ceremony.)
Pretty soon the guests started to arrive. At that point I popped back into the house to see what Leah was up to.
She was just getting last little finishing touches on her hair, with small blue flowers as decorations.
It’s nearly time for the ceremony as Leah gets small blue flowers put in her hair
Leah was beaming.
She gave her mom a big warm hug, and hung out with Dad while waiting for the remainder of the guests to arrive.
This was not a big wedding, so we weren’t expecting a lot of guests. Oh, but some of the guests were fashionably late. Oops!
PRO TIP: if you know family members tend to be on the late side, tell them to arrive for the ceremony at least 30 minutes earlier than you think they will get there. Because you never know.
While everyone was waiting for the latecomers, I took a few photographs of the dinner set up, in a white tent a little way away from the ceremony tent.
I think these details were absolutely gorgeous. One of my favourite things were the drops of condensation on the bottle of wine at the table. It was a hot day! You can tell 😁
Finally everyone arrived and sat themselves down at the ceremony tent.
After a tight hug from Leah’s brother, Leah was ready to walk down the aisle with her dad.
And here are the guests, finally seated and waiting with bated breath.
I took a few images of Leah and her father walking down the “aisle”. Really, the aisle was a spacious and lush green path from the house to the back of the gorgeous “backyard”. (which in itself was an acreage).
It looked really beautiful, and I had a hard time choosing which of these photographs to keep in her gallery. She got one of these printed.
The outdoor ceremony was beautifully positioned, nestled close to some tall dark green pines. In the foreground, there was a simple and elegant arbour with florals on either side.
The ceremony itself was short… which was good for Kwesi because the heat was really threatening to get the best out of him. He had a smile on his face the whole time, though.
At some point Kwesi’s mom handed him a rag to wipe his face with so that he could sign the papers about dripping sweat all over them. That’s what moms are for! ❤️
And these are the kinds of things you do for love.
I try to give couples lots of space during the ceremony. I used to be a bit more obnoxious about this, standing really close to the couple. But that doesn’t make too much sense.
You get in the way of the guests’s view, and it is possible to capture great moments of the ceremony without standing right next to the marriers :P
I promise.
You simply have to use a longer lens, that’s all. And then you can get images like this.
Some of the things I look for in each ceremony was how the couple react to each other. Their smiles, or tears, if that happens.
It’s important to capture the whole gamut of their emotional expression. Because that is how we have photographs that can be felt, rather than just seen.
Photographs that can be experienced and relived.
(which is a different between a candid photo and a good candid photo. A candid photo is a photo of a moment. Any moment. A good candid photo captures meaningful moments: peak emotion, smiles, tears, etc).
Here are some examples:
Another thing I look for is to layer the unfolding scene - to include some photographs that tell of who else was there, and how they were reacting.
A little like these two images:
They exchanged rings, they kissed, they signed the papers… and then they were ready to embark on their married life together.
The photos below are edited in black and white, because I wanted to draw the eye to the simple moments; rather than making the colour distract from the important aspects of the scene.
I hope that makes sense….😜
Alright! They were now officially hitched!
They walked up the aisle while guests through little tiny coloured petals of flowers at them.
This is a pretty go friendly way to go if you ask me.
Leah and Kwesi were absolutely beaming at this point (although Kwesi I think was probably also fantasising about throwing off that suit coat and cooling down a little bit. In fact, you can see him reaching for his button in that last photo below.)
After that everybody mingled and laughed during cocktails before dinner.
I didn't stay for dinner, but I made sure to stick around long enough to take some photos of the families and friends having a great time.
And we did some group photos, too.
Group photos don't have to take very long. In fact, because of the heat we made these happen in just a few minutes. Among those, I love to take candid photos of other people photographing the family. I think those are super fun :)
After that we took an opportunity for Leah and Kwesi to connect (or reconnect) - just the two of them, after the ceremony.
They shared a drink together on the deck, and we took some couple shots in front of the big pine trees as a backdrop.
It's important for you to make time with your partner on your wedding day, even if it's an intimate and “simple” (meaning not too many people) elopement like like this one was.
I think that those few minutes of being able to connect with your partner just after your ceremony are really important.
Why?
Because weddings can get pretty hustle-bustly, even if they only have a few guests.
Just finding that down time is really sweet.
Another thing we made time for it was to take a photograph of Kwesi with his grandmother.
Now, she has mobility issues, like many of our beloved elderly family members. I didn't want to make her walk around lawn in the heat. So I just had Kwesi sit right next to her underneath the white tent, in the shade. That way they both could stay a little bit cooler, and he could still have this beautiful photo with his grandmother as a keepsake.
Leah and her girls took some funny photos together.
First, they all tried to lift her up. She was almost sure that they wouldn't drop her. Almost. But they were laughing so hard, that it could have happened! haha.
Next, Leah threw the bouquet.
And those photos are hilarious. When people stand in line to catch the bouquet, there's this thing that happens. No matter who catches the bouquet, everyone ends up laughing. It's impossible not to.
It's like that show “Last one laughing”, or whatever that show is… you know the one - there’s a bunch of Australian comedians trying to make each other laugh. One of them strips down to nothing and takes a bath in warm orange soda…
Anyway, when the bouquet gets tossed… You just can't help but laugh after trying so hard to catch it, and ultimately failing or succeeding.
I took some photographs of the cakes too.
They were handmade. I can't remember who made them, but they were beautifully decorated with flowers and just seemed so fitting on this wedding day.
The couple cut the cake joyfully.
This took no more than 30 seconds.
All of these semi-posed photographs don't actually have to take very long. They don't have to be the emphasis of your whole event. That emphasis should be on the candids. Which is what I did next
Candid photographs are a mixed bag.
It’s super easy to go around shooting candid photos of people just doing nothing much at all.
In fact I see this happening all over the place in the documentary wedding industry. Lots of beginner photographers start taking candids, but don’t understand the fundamentals of a good candid composition.
What you have to do is really challenge yourself to see the moment. And it’s difficult work. So I see a lot of photographs of nothing much happening at all. I used to take photographs like this myself.
There's such a difference in micro expressions that happens over the span of second or millisecond, even.
If you don't keep shooting, you might actually miss the peak moment.
In which case, the photo you end up keeping won't tell the optimal story of a person's expression or emotion in the moment.
One of my favourite photos that is a candid was of a father throwing his little girl up in the air with two groups of people standing in the background and in the foreground doing their own thing.
I sat there for about 5 minutes capturing photographs of this particular event happening.
I took photo after photo.
It was a bit hard to decide which photo to finally include in the gallery, but I finally settled on this one.
I think it tells the story perfectly. The foreground group are smiling and chatting and fully visible. The background group convey a feeling of distance. And of course the girl is right in the air away from her father's arms.
For me this is a big moment.
I actually followed this girl around quite a bit this wedding because she was just too cute. I took a bunch of photos of her.
One of my favourite moments was this one of Kwesi’s mom, holding a can of Coke.
The colour of that can of Coke popped against the vintage-looking colours of her dress.
Another detail I loved capturing: Leah’s shoes in the grass with her blue painted toenails. I adore how the back of her wedding dress here gently brushes up over the green grass.
This was a really gorgeous afternoon wedding.
I love how Leah and Kwesi made it completely unique, not only by having it in Leah’s parents backyard in Yarker, but also including details that were really important to them, and not really splurging on things that were unnecessary to them.
They aren't the type of people who are into lavish lavish expenditures just for the sake of It.
I get the sense that they included everything that was important and nothing that was frivolous and their wedding day.
And I think that's really the best.
We often tend to get swept up with wedding trends and what other people are doing.
But if you can keep true to yourself and your partner, and what's important to you oh, then you can really have the perfect wedding.
There's no right or wrong here.
You don't need a fancy venue unless that's really truly important to you both.
In this case a backyard worked beautifully.
It was also great because this way the ceremony and dinner were both outside, allowing people to stay safe during the pandemic.
Leah and Kwesi are a lovely couple, and they show us, just like the rest of the couples I photographed last year, how you can still make the most wonderful wedding happen, no matter the circumstances no matter the lockdowns, no matter what.
The ultimate goal of each wedding should be to do things your own way.
Just stay true to yourself. You line your planning a wedding, ask yourself what really matters to you.
Don't worry about anyone else.
I it’s easier said than done, but believe me.
You won't regret it.
And now I leave you with a few photographs of Leah and Kwesi’s guests having a good time before dinner.
If you’re planning a back-yard elopement, let’s chat!
They can be absolutely beautiful and memorable, and unique, even in mid-summer when the heat beats down. (or maybe ESPECIALLY then).