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.

Weā€™d met at Saraā€™s friendsā€™ wedding in Toronto. But Sara hadnā€™t 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 donā€™t do too many winter weddings, so the prospect of getting snowy portraits was exciting.ā„ļø

(Also, Iā€™m 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€¦ NOTšŸ˜³

Our first Skype meeting went like this: I MISSED IT COMPLETELY. šŸ™ˆ

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. šŸ˜ 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 motherā€™s 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. Saraā€™s 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 whoā€™d 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 Saraā€™s 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 Iā€™m 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 weā€™re 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, itā€™s always bittersweet. I know Iā€™ve made a bond with the people Iā€™ve photographed, but the whole blur of joy and happiness Iā€™ve experienced is now coming to a close. I drive home, usually hyper and singing. (If you watch my IG stories, youā€™ll 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. ā€œYou shut your mouth when youā€™re talking to me!ā€ (the rest of the movie is blah, but Iā€™m usually asleep by thenā€¦) 

Wedding photography is a trip, and photographing Sara and Iainā€™s wedding was a very joyful and emotional one.  

Iā€™ve loved staying in touch with them on social media ā€“ they had a second wedding in the UK which looked amazing ā€“ and now theyā€™re closer to this neck of the woods once again!

I am really really happy that they chose me and trusted me.šŸ˜

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

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Helena ā¤ļø Julian: a downtown Toronto engagement

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Sarah and Oliver's Fall Wedding | Portsmouth Harbour, Kingston šŸŒˆ