Langdon Hall Micro Wedding

Overcoming changing their destination wedding plans, Lavinia and Michael rerouted their wedding plans and decided to host an intimate fall micro wedding at the stunning Langdon Hall. The wedding industry has had many buzzwords floating around throughout 2020 - micro wedding, intimate wedding and elopement top the list, but at their very core all these events are not unlike one another and ultimately represent a monumental occasion of intertwining the lives of two lovers who, especially this year, have overcome numerous obstacles and shared experiences to arrive to this day. Whatever you want to call this day, it was exemplarily in showcasing the elements of a wedding that truly matter; being with the people who matter most in your life and soaking in the start of a new journey with a life partner.

This micro wedding was special in the sense that the bride and groom decided to host a lunch after their ceremony, giving them an opportunity to mix and mingle with the small amount of guests in attendance and making the most of the beautiful fall October light throughout the wedding day. Langdon Hall isn’t without it fair share of beautiful areas and Lavinia and Michael wanted to take advantage of the beautiful grounds at their disposal, using the nearby pond surrounded by trees to share in their emotional first look.  What followed was a beautiful ceremony rich in tradition and subtle moments of love. Both the bride and groom exchanged emotional vows, the occasional moment of reaching out to simply touch their partner or hold their hand, all the many little things that elevated the ceremony to emotional heights that pulsated throughout the stunning rustic barn like room. Even the small dog in attendance (wearing a tux of course) seemed enchanted by it all.

The beautiful sight of the trees peppered with a mix of yellow, orange and red in the background combined with the hazy glow of the sunlight peaking through the clouds created a dreamlike environment for the bride and groom to roam around together and enjoy one another’s presence during their first moments as husband and wife. We took advantage of another of Langdon Hall’s stunning areas and stopped into their greenhouse to escape the cold and give Lavinia and Michael a more private and intimate setting to share a few quiet moments together. It was within those few moments that I truly got to see the passion that they both had, uninhibited emotion and genuine soulful caresses that occurred naturally as they embraced every moment away from the chaos of the outside world. 

The bride and groom returned to an exquisite five star lunch courtesy of Langdon Hall as they, their friends and family enjoyed the opportunity to have meaningful conversation and enjoy human contact during these wild and unprecedented times. Between courses the guests were treated with various speeches that ranged every spectrum of emotion; with Michaels three sisters dishing up the embarrassing stories of their youth and providing every ounce of nostalgia you could ask for, while Michael and Lavinia’s nephew and niece provided the sincerity of childhood innocence and bravery as they congratulated their aunt and uncle on their life milestone. One speech however that really stuck with me was the bride’s. Lavinia’s emotional speech was highlighted by her gratitude for her parent’s courage to immigrate to Canada from Romania, thanking them for creating a new opportunity for her to achieve her goals and dreams as an artist and designer. Coming from a family of immigrants myself, and now being fortunate enough to have a career as a photographer, I was immediately connected to Lavinia’s story and understood the emotional impact felt by her parents in that moment. It was amazing to see how comfortable every was sharing their emotions with one another, leaving nothing on the table, showing grace and love through ever moment.

The afternoon was capped off with the Jewish tradition of the Mezinka, another tradition carried on by Michael and his family which honours the parents who have just married off their last child. It was obvious that both Michael’s mother and father felt the impact that such celebrations are meant to have, incapable of hiding their overwhelming emotion as their families circled them with pride and gratitude. The Mezinka was followed by another long celebrated wedding tradition of the first dances, as the bride and groom shared in a few heartfelt moments during the dance as their embrace yet again seemingly stopped time.

Wedding, micro wedding, elopement, whatever you want to call it, it doesn’t ultimately matter, what does is that this day was full of emotion and truly highlighted the love felt between Michael and Lavinia as they made the most of their beautiful fall wedding to enjoy the little things in life and the things that matter most. At its core this wedding represented love in every way and it was an enriching experience to be there to document this wedding and further proof that my role as a wedding photographer is to equally capture moments and create images that connect those intangible and deeply rooted feelings. Truthfully, I couldn’t of capture what I captured without the utmost trust from the Lavinia and Michael, and to have crossed paths with them, I’m sincerely grateful.

Song of the Day

VENDORS
Venue/Catering: Langdon Hall
Stylist: Jessica - Toronto Beauty Group
Bride’s Dress: Ferra Sposa
Groom’s Suit: Tiger of Sweden
Florist: Wild Flowers
Cake: Cake Box

Micro Wedding on Film

It goes without saying that micro weddings, elopements, intimate weddings, or whatever you want to call them have been on the uptick in 2020 thanks to the pandemic. In an odd twist however, my journey as a wedding photographer seems to be hitting its biggest stride ever throughout this year and this has been one of my favourite years ever as a photographer and its thanks to brides and grooms like Emily and Cam.

About 2 weeks before their backyard wedding, Emily sent me a DM on Instagram, not unusual for many clients to find me on that platform but instead of reaching out to me on my 3B Photography account (@3bphotography) she found me through my editorial and commercial account (@brjann.bb / www.brjann.com) after noticing a portrait I took of a dear friend of mine that he shared on his stories. She mentioned that Cam and herself absolutely love the art of analog film photography and they want an anti-wedding photographer to capture their upcoming last minute change of plans wedding in Emily’s parents beautiful backyard just outside of London Ontario. They wanted their wedding capture exclusively 100% on analog film, music to my ears and an oddly common request I’ve been receiving from my couples of the past 2-3 years.  Not many wedding photographers still shoot film and even fewer will shoot entire weddings solely on film, but my entire career has revolved around shooting film, from my editorial and commercial work, to my documentary work, analog film has played a central and key role in my life as a photographer so this was something both familiar and exciting for me.

Although the work on that page seems far removed from the work I create for weddings, I was excited that someone wanted me to 100% lean into those editorial and nostalgic influences that draw me to create that work and it was going to be a fun day for me to photograph a wedding in the most authentic way I could imagine. I packed a countless amount of film, loaded my trust Leica with some black and white Kodak Tri-X film, loaded my medium format cameras with a variety of film, like my favourites including Portra 800, Fuji 400H, slide film like Provia 100F and some expired Fuji Superia film and I set off to document their day with a hint of editorial and photojournalism flair, two avenues of photography that have shaped my career and in which I now attempt to blur the lines in between one another when creating images.

Originally slated to exchange theirs vows and host their shindig at the Darling Mansion in downtown Toronto, Cam & Emily opted to shift the party to 2021 and keep the intimate element of their wedding in a more private setting with their immediate families, hosting their lighthearted & emotional ceremony beneath stunning trees in the backyard surrounded by their family.  The intimate setting of the wedding allowed for all the laughs and tears to be heard and felt, a day with uninterrupted laughter and reminiscing. The beautiful home had the perfect mid-century modern aesthetic that enhanced the atmosphere of the wedding / elopement to give it that timelessness element we often look back on with fondness. Watching the bride and groom get ready in different rooms of the house, being in such close proximity but yet distant, creates a unique energy that blends anxiety and excitement, the ultimate formula for me as a photographer to capture incredible unique and heartfelt moments like the ones of Emily seeing her mom and dad for the first time after putting her dress on and completing her anti-bride look, that she absolutely rocked.

Beyond the ceremony the micro wedding had some incredible food at everyone’s disposal, a heated pool that was taken advantage of by the kids and the perfect makeshift dance floor where the bride and groom shared a dance together before having everyone else join in on the fun. Of course, no at-home wedding is complete without the presence of a beloved pet, Tuna, Cam & Emily’s extremely cute dog that managed to sit still long enough for a photo or two before heading back into the wilderness to hunt squirrels. I’ve loved this current shift in hosting weddings at a family property, home is where we often create the most significant memories in our lives and marrying your partner is to embark on a new journey to create a new home together, whatever that may or may not mean to each person. I hope this trend continues into 2021, not because people have no alternative for their weddings, but because they want to create a genuine experience for themselves and their loved ones.

I won’t lie, getting to shoot with just film is basically all I ever want, it allows me to really tap into my creativity and challenge myself as a photographer, I couldn’t be more thankful and lucky that I get to work with such creatively inclined individuals who not only allow me to pursue these visions for their wedding photography, but actively encourage and demand it. Living in a digital age we’ve become dismissive of photography and art in general, the abundance of images has put a priority on quantity over quality and thoughtfulness, but this was an opportunity to create wedding photos that went beyond that and allowed me to create something legitimately tangible for the couple to walk away with. I hope they can look back at the negatives and slides from the roles of 35mm and 120 film that were used for their wedding day for many years to come. I’m obviously biased, but nothing beats the warmth of film, nothing can recreate the feeling of real grain on a photograph, all the little inconsistencies and flaws that make the images feel real,  a feeling that can’t be recreated with digital, a sincere nostalgic feeling that is unique to analog film.

Song of the Day

Houses - Lost Film

VENDORS
Location: Backyard near London
Bride’s Dress: Park & Fifth Co.

Toronto Backyard Micro Wedding

I could preface this entire post by saying how the bride and groom overcame all odds to get married during an international pandemic. I can probably say how Pat & Kate were on an outrageous emotional rollercoaster while planning their initial wedding in Montreal and facing every hurdle possible to finally make it out on the other end and host a truly inspiration backyard micro wedding in Toronto. Yah, I definitely could go on and on about those sort of things that every single bride and groom in 2020 has faced, but this wedding day is much more than a few buzzwords and hashtag opportunities for me.

When I began my career as a photographer over a decade ago I never stop to think or realize that I could someday use this passion and creative pursuit to enrich the lives of the people closest to me. Photography has always been a very personal thing to me which I why it’s so important for me to connect with the people I work with to help me bring that element of personal inspiration into the work I’m asked to create for others. This time around though, I didn’t have to reach very far to find that special something to attach me to the wedding.

Pat has been a close friend of mine for 10 years now, having met back in our College / University days when I still lived in Ottawa. Over the years Pat’s apartment became the cornerstone of our circle of friends, not unlike Jerry Seinfeld’s apartment and role, he was the glued that brought us all together and blended his various worlds into a common place for everyone to be included, where we would throw on American Football’s album on his record player while eating McDonald’s (or Pizza) before watching re-runs of Third Rock From The Sun and laughing our asses off to the Seinfeld theme song. Fast forward a few years and I end up moving to Toronto, and every time I visited friends and family back home in Ottawa I would inevitably hangout with Pat and I would constantly rave about how I made the best decision of my life moving to the big city. Pat would always respond to me by saying “Yah, I can totally see myself moving there, for my career and my lifestyle. It’s such a great city”. A year and a half later, Pat was sleeping on the floor of my apartment for an entire month while he searched for a new job and went to endless interviews, eventually landing a great opportunity that allowed him to not only move to Toronto, but end up living down the road from me.

As our lives went on I kept hearing about this girl he was seeing (Kate) and how great she was, that she loved pop-punk and concerts as much as he did. He wasn’t lying, Kate was as sweet, kind and cool as he made her out to be and she quickly endeared herself to Pat’s group of friends and stuck around in a serious way, eventually moving in together and adopting their cute Beagle Steven. Although I love Pat and think he’s great, I need to take moment to recognize Kate. Working as front line nurse at a hospital here in Toronto, she had to deal with added stress and anxiety while planning and re-planning her own wedding. It takes a special type of person to be so selfless and put their own lives at risk for the sake of helping others for often little or no gratitude. It’s an amazing feeling to know a dear friend of mine has found a life-companion of that caliber and quite frankly, can tolerate his nerdy obsession with obscure pop-punk and emo music.

Now, I’m not taking any sort of credit for Pat and Kate ending up together or meeting, but I can’t help but be slapped in the face by the crazy series of events that lead to Pat and Kate getting married. I never would have imagined my own decision to move to the city would end up being an influencer in the lives of my own friends and family, but here we are, rewritten history, things changed despite the complicated beginning to all of this. 

Initially Pat and Kate were going to get married in Montreal, Pat’s hometown and a close location to Kate’s hometown near Ottawa. I was going to attend their wedding as a guest along with our other friends because Pat couldn’t imagine asking me to work instead of enjoying myself and living the experience of his wedding to the fullest. Ironically, when things shifted to a backyard micro wedding here in Toronto, I not only got that experience, but I also got so much more out of the day. The micro wedding and elopement was strictly immediate family only, something that wasn’t an easy choice for bride and groom considering just how vast their circles really are. With the sudden change of plans Pat and Kate turned to Ryanne and I and humbled us with the request of photographing their wedding, and in turn, being their only non-family guests at the wedding. Having the opportunity to not only attend their wedding but be directly involved in documenting it was something I was beyond grateful for.

The wedding was perfect from beginning to end. Using a family member’s backyard, they held their intimate ceremony beneath a willow tree in an adjacent park as the summer sun beamed through the leaves. The reception and dinner were held in the backyard, decorated with romantic string lights, quaint and kitschy tomato cans to hold the minimal and beautiful flowers and a “personal bar” at every table, personally curated by the bride and groom to help adhere to social distancing practices. Their dog Steven was also a guest of honour, walking the aisle and even hanging out throughout the entire festivities, but as you’ll see, he didn’t last as long as some of us. The coolest element of the dinner was how it was made. It was actually an ole’ fashioned pizza party. The backyard featured a stone oven, so naturally the entire dinner course featured a variety of amazing homemade pizzas (even for dessert!). Pizza and beer, I couldn’t imagine a more perfect combo for this wedding.

The speeches were few, but emotional and heartfelt. There’s something special about being in such an intimate setting with your closest, it brings out emotion and nostalgia that can’t be reproduced in larger gatherings. Watching Pat and Kate’s first dance (to a pop-punk song naturally) was beautiful and emotional. I was transported back to my early 20’s in Ottawa, hitting up Zaphod’s with my pals and singing along to lyrics as we lived out our care-free years. To say I felt a rush of nostalgia throughout this wedding is an understatement.

I guess, all this to say, it’s weird and amazing that my career as a wedding photographer has allowed me to give back to the people who have been so vital at various moments of my life. I can’t thank Kate & Pat enough for allowing us the opportunity to witness their marriage and to trust us completely in capturing it for them and their families. 

I’ll look back on this day fondly for the rest of my life and one day I’ll feel that rush of nostalgia again as I look through these images. I’ll remember taking shots with the bride and groom, remember us all dancing awkwardly, I’ll remember the look in Pat and Kate’s eyes as the sun set beyond the pink clouds, but more importantly, I’ll remember how I felt that day and appreciate the moments I got to experience with some lifelong friends.

Songs of the Day

VENDORS
Location: Backyard in Woodbridge
Stylist: Bride Chilla Yoga + Hair
Makeup: Kyrsten Bryant Makeup
Bride’s Dress: Vogue Sposa
Designer: Anais Anette
Groom’s Suit: Jack Victor