River Valley Farm was host to Ashley and Isaac's wedding this past July. Even though I had photographed at this location twice before, this particular wedding was different in one significant way, it is where Isaac grew up. HIs parent's have been kind enough in the past to let only a few other couples use the venue so I was lucky enough to be a part of this wonderful location.
Even though I was already somewhat familiar with the farm, I was excited to see how they set everything up, and low and behold, the ceremony took place right in from of the barn, which was the absolute perfect location. Before the ceremony took place, I arrived as Ashley and Isaac were just finishing getting ready and waiting for the guests to arrive. After a few candids and portraits of some of the family members I set up in the back field for Ashley and Isaac's first look. Some of my favourite photos came from that part of the wedding day.
Right after the first look, Ashley and Isaac wanted to get some portraits done while the guests arrived. We took the dirt road to this amazing canola field. One of the great things about shooting weddings in Thunder Bay is that I get to see all these hidden spots that I never even knew existed. I could have easily spent 3 hours with Ashley and Isaac but we kept it short and sweet. Regardless, it was not hard coming away with some epic portraits. Before we made our way back to the farm, we stopped for a couple quick photos on the dirt road as well.
By the time we got back some of the guests were starting to arrive, so we took that time to get all the wedding part portraits out of the way. Just like my weddings in the past at the farm, the backdrop is one of the best in the city so it was no brainer to do the portraits using that. As usual, we did all the combinations but the entire wedding party was a blast and we even mixed in some fun photos as well.
Probably my favourite aspect of this particular wedding was all the candid photos I was able to capture. It was a rather large wedding with at least a couple hundred people and a lot of space to work with. It was really hard narrowing it down to the photos I chose below. As you would imagine, the ceremony was beautiful. There was live music performed by some friends of the family which just added to the whole experience.
The reception took place in the barn of course and it was just as beautiful as the outside ceremony. Just as every other wedding I had shot here, the decorations were amazing. Even though my day was done at 9pm, I was still there long enough to capture some of the speeches and some more candid moment amongst the guests, as well as the cake cutting.
I was so happy to spend a day photographing Ashley and Isaac during their wedding day. There were so many great moments throughout the day and I'm just thankful that they chose me to tell their story.
