Steph & Daniel's Summer Backyard Wedding

What a joy it has been to start our wedding season with this wedding, this couple, in this place…

We met Steph through one of our previously (and admittedly one of our favourite, sorry not sorry!) couples— Camille & Myles. Steph was actually Camille’s MOH, and we connected with her so much so that we hired us for her wedding, so to be able to photograph these two best friend’s weddings, is really an honour for us. Even more so that we got to end last year on such a high note with C&M and then start this year on another high note with this wonderful wedding.

Like so many others, these two are no strangers to COVID weddings and planning and re-planning their big day; the one constant they had though was knowing that when they moved into their home all those years ago, they were always going to have a backyard wedding so they spent time, and much of their own labour renovating, putting down fresh grass, and praying- praying!- for rain for lush, green, grass.

There’s a special kind of magic of getting married at home! Having everything in one location, no stress about leaving something behind because all of your things are already there, and just stumbling off into your own bed at the end of the night. And the most important aspect of an at home wedding: bringing together your most important people to your home, under your roof! As if your home isn’t already such a special place, being able to have these memories there too truly makes it much more sentimental!

Speaking of home, Steph and the girls got ready at home while Daniel and his son, and his guys got ready at Hockley Valley Resort just down the (very long) road. Typical of grooms getting ready everywhere it didn’t take long to do, we shoved ourselves into a corner beside the window and played around with ‘getting ready’ photos before heading back home.

The ceremony was in their huge, huge!, backyard. It was quick, sweet, and hit all the right high notes with Steph’s father walking her down the ‘aisle’ passed a sign that read “Dad, of all of the walks we have taken together, this is the one I will remember forever”, to their son being their ring bearer, to an excited and congratulatory greeting by Tika after everything was official!

view more photos below, click to enlarge & browse through

if you can’t already tell, their backyard is h u g e

So following the ceremony- when taking group photos & their formal portraits- separating ourselves from everyone else and making sure there weren’t people in the background of photos, was surprisingly easy. We took advantage of the quiet corners of the backyard and the super fun and bright red tap truck from THE WHEELED BREW (a bar in a vintage pickup truck). The biggest perk of these smaller get togethers is being able to connect with each of your guests one on one without feeling rushed to move onto the next group, and that’s exactly what happened through the rest of the evening. Lots of 1-1 connections, long conversations, emotional, I’m not crying you’re crying, speeches, followed by celebratory shots, dancing, and so much joyous laughter. It was really was a night to remember, especially after I left and from the road all you could see were silhouettes dancing the night away.