{jennica&matthew} eloped! – 10.15.11

It’s certainly been an eventful day. Earlier I volunteered to speak at basically a ‘career’ talk at Eastern CRC with many young people and now I’m finishing up a (very well anticipated) blog post!

I met Jennica about two weeks before she decided to elope with her fiance Matt. She had all sorts of fun plans for her wedding which was supposed to happen earlier that year, but the date had to change for a couple of different reasons. Unfortunately the photographer she had booked was no longer available to shoot for them which makes me happy because otherwise I would have never met these two wonderful people! Right as we split from our first meeting there was mention that there may be a wedding quicker than anticipated (which of course if I’m available on that day is totally fine with me!) And sure enough three days later I get an email with details for an elopement! I was pretty much beyond excited because I had NEVER shot or have been to any sort of elopement. I was probably almost just as excited as these two (but of course not as excited, nobody can be that excited if they’re not the ones getting married!) driving down to Caledonia Lakeside Park on a very beautiful yet very blustery fall day. Fortunately the wind had died down from that morning not disturbing the ceremony too much. 

Of course, a few friends couldn’t resist fishing first!

The place they decided in this park was really pretty. It was almost hard to find because it had one small pathway to a larger clearing with a beautiful Maple tree that overlooked the lake and their closest friends and their families who attended either stood or brought lawn chairs. What was interesting about shooting an elopement was I had to capture the details in the people more than the details of the surrounding. Since there were very little distractions it made for a very beautiful and very intimate ceremony :D

As soon as we all saw Jennica walk down the ‘aisle’ you could feel their love in the air. You could just tell without the music, without the flowers, without the church that something very special was about to happen.

She had her fathers image on her bouquet for his memory. I thought this was really sweet, and I really wished I had thought of this for my own wedding. It’s such a beautiful homage.

So as people were packing up we got a few formals of Matt and Jennica with their family before they dissipated. And thankfully I was able to snag them for a good 30-45 minutes for some gorgeous photos of just the two of them. It was super hard to get them to put on serious faces! But that’s okay – Huge excited smiles are always better anyway :D

And that last picture is the reason I never put my camera’s away till I get to my car. Looooove it!

Although it was cold, it was extremely fun! I’m so happy for the two of them, and I’m really looking forward to shooting their reception this coming July! Congrats you two!

And in case if you were wondering – James from Bradley Productions was also there shooting their wedding video!  You can view the hilite video on their blog here :)

March.29.2012 | Categories: {weddings} | Tags: elopement, intimate ceremony, lawn chairs, maple tree | Leave a comment