Intimate Lake House Wedding

 

Being a Calgary wedding photographer is such a privilege. I love getting to make new friendships. Ellena and Kevin. What can I say? Their wedding was the perfect end to a beautiful wedding season. I was looking forward to their wedding all year. These are two of the sweetest people you’ll meet and I feel as though I’ve made two new lovely friends. Kevin is so relaxed, sweet and laid back (except for the party during the wedding..those east coasters know how to party!) and Ellena is so thoughtful and caring. (She even answered my new mom texts when I was fretting if my newborn was sick, and offered plenty of amazing Disney advice!) Though the weather wasn’t exactly co-operative the day of their wedding, they toughed it out like champs and we had an amazing time.

If you’d like to read about how they met, and their engagement story (grab the kleenex) you can check out their engagement session!

I am so thrilled to share their beautiful day with you here! Read more from the newlyweds below.

 

The Wedding Day

Our wedding day was perfect, magical, and everything we could have hoped for! It even had subtle touches of Disney everywhere. When we first did our venue tour, I remember walking in and being in awe of how beautiful it was with the light shining across the lake (Kevin says I had the “I have to have this” look on my face). The Lake House was the perfect fit for our fall wedding, rustic yet romantic. Kevin and I also wanted to make sure the food and drinks were top-notch (especially feeding 110 Italian and Irish families members)! My favorite color is red so I was excited to incorporate deep, rich burgundy hues with gold, copper, wood, and cream accents. We were so excited to invite Kevin’s family from the East Coast to Calgary and even though we took a weather gamble with the end of October (I think we experienced all four seasons at one point!) it turned out to be a beautiful, sunny day with the perfect amount of gentle snowfall. As a fun pre-wedding activity we took first dance lessons, which were a blast! It made for fun date nights and we were so excited to share our hard work with everyone. We had so much fun the week leading up to the wedding entertaining family. Overall it was a whirlwind of a day filled with just the best people in our lives.  It was so great to celebrate with everyone, we felt so loved.

 

Kevin’s Top moments:

• Hotel room with my groomsmen was so much fun getting ready with my two brothers and two best friends. Chris ran out to grab a case of beer for the boys to share and we just sat around sharing stories.
• When I opened my groom’s gift from Ellena, the cufflinks were perfect and the heartfelt note was the sweetest thing.
• Groomsman opening their gifts (but of course I bought myself a matching “groom” flask haha).
• The “first look”, I don’t think I’ll ever forget that moment. Ellena looked absolutely beautiful.  I knew very early on I wanted to spend the rest of my life with this woman, but in that moment I knew I had made the best decision of my life.
• Getting to smooch my bride to be in the cold (she really was a trooper out there).
• Walking my mom down the aisle.
• The look I got from Lou when he handed me Ellena’s hand (it was all in good fun, but I knew the gesture from him was heartfelt and the day was having a large impact on his emotions).
• Just staring into Ellena’s eyes during the whole ceremony – honestly that 20 minutes is a bit of a blur, I was very focused on my bride-to-be.
• Aaron’s speech really brought me back haha, he dug deep for that one.  I think for him that’s when he knew I’d be around for a little while.  He’s one of those friends in life you make the effort to keep around.

 

 Ellena’s Top moments:

• Getting ready wedding photos with my bridesmaids who are all stunning people inside and out. It took me ages to write thank-you cards because I don’t know where I would be without their love and friendship.
• Having my mom help me into my dress and my dad first got to see me in it (truly every girl’s dream that moment!)
• Playing loud music in the limo on the way to the first look – I was so nervous!
• Walking down the aisle towards Kevin. I was so happy we did the first look, but during the ceremony, it all hit me – today I get to marry my best friend, my prince charming, and the love of my life. He is the most handsome, wonderful, kind man and I’m just so glad he picked me.
• The speeches were amazing. I have the best parents, in-laws, and the sweetest Maid of Honor (Hilary).
• The slideshow that my aunt spent ages working on! We had so many ‘good’ photos, haha but really it was so lovely to get to relive amazing memories and share them with our families.
• Pepsi and JC as Emcees – they killed it!  They were very clever.
• Dancing with my dad – I wasn’t expecting him to be so emotional!
• Having a few dances with Kevin at the end of the night and reminiscing the day, it felt like we were the only 2 people in the room.

Check out this post for a beautiful Industrial Commons Wedding in Calgary!