My biggest wedding of the year recently took place a couple weeks ago in Kenora, and boy was it a fun one. I don’t always get to do a wedding out of town but when I do it’s always a good time. Mainly because it’s exciting being in a different city with locations I most likely have never photographed at before. I find this definitely keeps the photos spontaneous. For Evelyn and Jim’s wedding it was a 2 day event and it really did fly by considering how much time I spent taking photos of them.
We arrived in Kenora on the Friday, checked into our hotel which was right on the water and got settled in. After grabbing some dinner and walking around we headed back to the hotel and eventually took a shuttle to the bbq. The BBQ was simply a way to celebrate before the wedding and for everyone to spend some time together in a relaxed atmosphere. It was at a beautiful house on the Lake just on the outskirts of town. The food was awesome and I was also able to get a few really great photos. It was then back to the hotel to get a good nights rest because Saturday would be a very long, but fun day.
Once noon rolled around I made my way to Jim’s house to take photos of everyone getting ready. This is often my favourite part of the wedding and usually results in some of the most candid and sincere photos of the day. I spent most of my time with Evelyn and all the girls upstairs. One of the highlights for me regarding the getting ready photos was being able to spend some time with there vintage Mustang and using it for some detail shots of the rings and shoes. It’s not often that I am able to have such a wonderful prop to use as a backdrop. After about 4.5 hours at the house I quickly rushed back to the hotel, showered and then was out the door to do some portraits by the water. Luckily the wedding itself was taking place a few minutes from the hotel on the waterfront.
I met everyone down by the waterfront and we spent some time getting some group photos as well as some more individual one of Evelyn and Jim. It was then time to head to the cruise ship where the wedding was taking place.
Once everyone boarded the ship we took to the open water. This was my first time on this particular cruise and it was extremely beautiful. Kenora has so many spectacular cottages on the water and I got a chance to see a lot of them. The weather was perfect so that helped as well. About 15 minutes after we left the dock it was time to get the ceremony on the way. All the guests were seated on the top level and Evelyn was ready to begin her walk up the stairs. Her father walked her ‘up’ the aisle and then it began. There is something to be said for having a wedding on the roof of a cruise boat with beautiful scenery all around you. It was quite picturesque. Everyone then congratulated them and was time to go downstairs for the reception.
The dinner too place on the main deck. I was amazed they were able to fit that many people in there but it worked great. Once the speeches were done and everyone ate we made our way back to shore for a quick stopover. Any guests that didn’t want to stay, particularly kids, had the option to leave. We then set sail one more time and that is when the dancing and fun continued. They had a DJ set up who was playing some great tunes and everyone was really enjoying themselves. Of course I was able to capture some more fun photos of people dancing and talking etc.
Before I knew it, it was time to dock one last time. That ended the night for me but some of the wedding party and guests made their way to Evelyn and Jim’s houseboat docked at the hotel. So the kept the party going a bit longer. This was probably one of the most unique weddings I have photographed in a long time. All the different locations I saw and people I met made it one to remember. As I do with all my weddings, I would like to say a big thank you to Jim and Evelyn for inviting me to be a part of their wedding day.
