Big Backyard White Tent Wedding | Denise & Kevin's Glorious Summer Wedding Celebration
How did you two meet?
“Plenty of Fish - For our first date, we met at McDonald's in downtown Kingston and watched shooting stars 🤩”
Denise and Kevin are awesome, and I’ve already gushed about them and how cute they are together over here on their engagement blog.
But today’s blog post is all about their wedding.
Their gorgeous, GLORIOUS, backyard wedding, right in the back of their lush property, very near to where I live, in the West of Kingston. (Well, technically, just outside of Kingston, in the beautiful and rural Loyalist County).
(They live so close to me, in fact, that at the end of the wedding, when I headed home and parked my car in my driveway, I could still hear the distant thumpin of the music from the tail-end of their wedding… and I had to swallow down a major case of FOMO haha.)
Casey, Viara, and Kaylan (left to right), having a great time!
The team this day consisted of three wedding photographers! Me, Kaylan, and Casey. It was a full team effort on this wedding, because we didn’t want to miss a thing!
With a wedding party of their size (not HUGE, but not tiny either, four people on each side (four bridesmaids and four groomsmen), there’s always a LOT going on during the getting ready.
And we took thousands of photographs between the three of us. It was a LOONG process to sort them out afterwards, but so very worth it!
We started with the getting ready photos.
Getting ready photos at weddings are 100% worth it. Lots of folks aren’t sure if they want to get photos of the getting ready portion. It does make the package longer and therefore more expensive, after all. That’s totally fair.
But on the other hand - the getting ready portion of the day is quite unique, and so if you’re already all in with the wedding in every other way - why not splurge a little and get it properly documented? No pressure tho. 😅
So what happened at this wedding during the getting ready portion in the morning?
Well, there was everyone trying to get their hair and makeup done.
There was popping bubbly and mixing delicious mimosas.
There was petting of the very cute dogs… Denise and Kevin have two gorgeous pups - Kali and Mav, and they featured a lot in their wedding gallery. It’s one of the awesome things about having a wedding on your own property: you can include all your fur babies!
In the meantime, there’s the caterers in the kitchen, trying to get a massive meal for over 100 guests ready! There’s people hustling and bustling. There is so much commotion inside and out!
And over at the boys’ place, there’s ties being tied, classic cars being adored, some posing going on…
Mornings the day of the wedding are BUSY.
But it’s awesome when we arrive early enough that we can get settled, get everyone comfortable and used to us photographing them…
When people are comfortable with you photographing them, they do really cute things without being self-conscious in front of the camera. Like this adorable moment between Denise and her mom. Aww. 😍
And even snap a few detail shots.
This photographs should be titled: how many bridesmaids does it take to put on a wedding dress? The answer is: ALL of them! Because they love you! Plus mom! ❤️
Here’s Denise peeking through the window to see if the boys have arrived at the ceremony yet.
Stunning Backyard Wedding Ceremony
Once everyone arrived and got seated for the ceremony, me and my wonderful two 2nd shooters were getting all angles, jetting around like ninjas, not interrupting, but making sure we captured EVERY gorgeous moment.
Firstly, I always love to have one big shot of the entire ceremony. I want to see all the wedding party standing on both sides of the couple.
Then, I like to get shots of each of the partners, looking at each other, hopefully smiling or even shedding a tear.
One of my favourite moments during Denise and Kevin’s ceremony was when she reached up to pat his cheek. AWWW.
After the ceremony, they walked up the aisle to be greeted by BUBBLES! (bubbles are on trend this summer!)
Both Casey and I were standing there to greet the couple and grab the bubble shots, but Casey’s photograph wins the day in this one.
Denise and Kevin happily walk up the aisle after their ceremony. (Photo by Casey Jonas)
After the ceremony, we made time for family photos, because it was important to the couple.
Well, not before Denise and Kevin took their amazing classic orange vehicle for a spin.
They weren’t going to have both sides of the family gathered together like that for a long time… and we found a little bit of shade, popped on a little flash, and created family group shots that they can print or send to folks at Christmas, or just cherish for themselves for decades.
Oh, and then we stepped inside for a traditional Chinese tea ceremony.
I’ve been lucky enough to capture two such tea ceremonies this summer.
The important thing to me is to capture that reverence that the younger folks have for their elders.
The gift exchanges, but also the love exchanged. In this simple act of giving someone tea… and receiving well-wishes for your marriage in return. There’s something so simply and beautiful about this ceremony. And I’m learning where to be and how to document it without disrupting this intimate exchange.
Before everyone sat down for dinner, we took a BIG group shot of everyone there.
And with three photographers on site, you’d best believe we got THREE different angles!
During dinner and speeches, my aim is to capture whatever is going on. There are no rules, really. I want to make sure that I shine the spotlight on the speakers during speeches, but also - I want to see the reactions. So as long as we get both of those things, how it’s done is less important. I will sneak and move around pretty much the entire time, trying to get the best angles and compositions.
And afterwards, when the first dances start, I’m trying to cover them in an EPIC way.
This means that I first of all want to isolate the couple for a few shots. BUt then I also want to show the crowd of loving guests behind them. I want to recreate the atmosphere and give them a few to choose from.
For Denise and her dad’s dance, I shot between two candles. I liked the effect, so I kept on photographing from that spot, crouched low at one of the nearby tables. I don’t even really think Denise knew where I was during that time, because she was fully immersed in the moment.
I switched tack for Kevin’s dance with his mom, because I didn’t want to give them all the same shots :)
After the ceremony, we went and did a few couple’s shots in their forest.
It was nice to get away for a little bit, from the hustle and bustle, and for Denise and Kevin to have a quiet intimate moment (with two paparazzi photographers following them, of course 😅)
The couple have their first dance (officially) by themselves, with their pup Mav close by.
Oh, and later, towards the end of the night, there was a chance to do a little quirky nighttime shot in another vintage car. It even snagged me an award by the Wedding Photojournalist Association :)
Highlights & Personal Favourite Photos
I have so many favourite moments from this wedding. How to pick just a few?
I loved the little monkey face Denise made when she was getting ready.
Over with the boys, Kaylan got some amazing shots of the classic cars (plus a little mini car, and a very cute kiddo running around with the big boys).
I love when her dad sprayed her with mosquito repellant, because the bugs were real back in the forest where we wanted to do couples’ photos.
Denise’s grandparents were undoubtedly my muses that day. There is a photograph of him having a little nap before the ceremony, that I just adore. And another one, of Denise’s grandmother on the dancefloor, busting a move…
I left this wedding with my heart entirely full. There was so much joy, so many happy guests, so much cake and food and laughter and dancing and good times.
And the photobooth was a super nice touch 😊 Kaylan and I made full use of it!
Kaylan and Viara at the end of the night, making use of the photobooth.
Amazing Vendors who made this day beautiful:
Dress: Lovebird Bridal (IG - @lovebirdbridal)
Denise's shoes - Heelboy (IG - @heelboy)
Flowers: Denise (the bride) herself, with peonies and other flowers from her father's gardens!
Denise's hair - @jillmacdonald.hair
Makeup - Sara Vidal @sarbearmua
Officiant - Ceremonies Unlimited - @ceremoniesunlimited
Cake and desserts - good friend of the couple, Kayla Wood - @killacupcakes_
Late night snack - bride's family restaurant Chinese Palace Restaurant (FB - @ChinesePalaceKingston )
Photobooth: @snap_a_pose_photobooth
Second photographer: Kaylan Wadsworth
Third photographer Casey Jonas @leighjfilmsandphotography
Assistant editor @m.didyk