Winter wedding at the Renaissance, Kingstonā¤ļø Sara and Iain & a tale of wintery love
Somewhere between our first email, and their epic wintry wedding, I fell in love with Sara and Iain & their love story.
Weād met at Saraās friendsā wedding in Toronto. But Sara hadnāt wanted to disturb me then, she said. So she emailed me a month or two later, having seen the photographs I took.
She told me hers would be a February wedding and I was immediately intrigued. I donāt do too many winter weddings, so the prospect of getting snowy portraits was exciting.āļø
(Also, Iām forever looking for chances to fall in love with Canadian winter, which people tell me is the bestā¦)
Anyway, I just had a feeling we were right for each other.
Great first impression, Viaraā¦ NOTš³
Our first Skype meeting went like this: I MISSED IT COMPLETELY. š
As someone who prides myself on being reliableā¦ this was a total faux pas. I was downtown Kingston, watching my kids get their haircuts when I realized I was supposed to be Skyping with Sara and Iain (they were in London, UK; because Iain is from there).
Luckily they were forgiving of my calendar syncing fiascos, and we met just a couple of hours later, and had a nice chat. I think it was at this meeting they mentioned that feeding chickadees in the forest was a part of the wedding plan.
We met again in person in the dreary months of winter. They were so cute. š We discussed the logistics of going to feed chickadees in the middle of winter IN A WEDDING GOWN and hair & makeup.
It was all pretty cool-sounding to me.
The wedding day arrived!
It was cold but not as bad as February *could* have dished up. It was also sunny, therefore beautiful.
Sara got ready at her motherās house downtown. She went upstairs to get her dress on and Iain showed up. He waited downstairs, and I grabbed a photo of his face when he first saw her coming down the stairs. Priceless.
Then we went to Lemoine Point for a walk, fed chickadees, walked on the frozen waters of Lake Ontario at City Park, found some rotten potatoes laid out neatly in a line at the MacKenzie Pavillionā¦ rode a cast iron lion. Saraās stepdad kindly chauffeured us all around town for our adventures.
Sara had to wear a garbage bag over her dress on the way there to keep it from getting dirty from the city grit and saltā¦
Just the usual stuff.
There was some decent chill time in between as well (Iain went to lunch at the Redhouse with his UK family whoād arrived shortly before).
Finally, we headed to the Renaissance Event Venue, for the ceremony was about to begin.
The rest of the day was picture-perfect, from the beautiful ceremony at which Saraās uncles sang songs and played guitar, to the dinner ā complete with Shakespearean and punny table charts, and finally, the dancing.
Kids on the dance-floor
One of the things I remember about this wedding was how many young people (kids and teens) there were on the dance-floor. It warmed my heart and creative spirits to see this. I felt even more sad to leave at the end of the night than usual.
Let me explain: as a wedding photographer, I get to experience the absolute highest highs right alongside people on their wedding day.
Because Iām an emo kind of person, I start to feel pretty connected to the people I photograph. I put a lot of my own emotions in taking the photographs. I think this emotional energy helps me to take the photographs I do. ESPECIALLY on the dance-floor.
So when I see the kids, dancing and overcoming shyness or whatever, it makes my heart burst. It reminds me my own kids, and in those moments, I feel that weāre all the same ā we are all just beautiful humans trying our best to enjoy this life, growing through its pains and revelling in its joys.
When I leave a wedding at the end of the evening, itās always bittersweet. I know Iāve made a bond with the people Iāve photographed, but the whole blur of joy and happiness Iāve experienced is now coming to a close. I drive home, usually hyper and singing. (If you watch my IG stories, youāll know all too wellā¦).
[And then I watch Wedding Crashers. The first 15 minutes of that movie are like the best 15 minutes of any movie in the history of movies. āYou shut your mouth when youāre talking to me!ā (the rest of the movie is blah, but Iām usually asleep by thenā¦)
Wedding photography is a trip, and photographing Sara and Iainās wedding was a very joyful and emotional one.
Iāve loved staying in touch with them on social media ā they had a second wedding in the UK which looked amazing ā and now theyāre closer to this neck of the woods once again!
I am really really happy that they chose me and trusted me.š
I hope the photographs will show some aspects of this epic day.
[If you want to see the slideshow I made with music, scroll to the bottom of the photos and click the youtube link]
If you want to see even more photos, check out the slideshow below (and turn on the sound!!) ā¤ļø
As always, if you enjoyed the read or the photos, please leave me a message in the comments below. I love hearing your feedback ā¤ļø