Overcoming changing their destination wedding plans, Lavinia and Michael rerouted their wedding plans and decided to host an intimate fall micro wedding at the stunning Langdon Hall. The wedding industry has had many buzzwords floating around throughout 2020 - micro wedding, intimate wedding and elopement top the list, but at their very core all these events are not unlike one another and ultimately represent a monumental occasion of intertwining the lives of two lovers who, especially this year, have overcome numerous obstacles and shared experiences to arrive to this day. Whatever you want to call this day, it was exemplarily in showcasing the elements of a wedding that truly matter; being with the people who matter most in your life and soaking in the start of a new journey with a life partner.
This micro wedding was special in the sense that the bride and groom decided to host a lunch after their ceremony, giving them an opportunity to mix and mingle with the small amount of guests in attendance and making the most of the beautiful fall October light throughout the wedding day. Langdon Hall isn’t without it fair share of beautiful areas and Lavinia and Michael wanted to take advantage of the beautiful grounds at their disposal, using the nearby pond surrounded by trees to share in their emotional first look. What followed was a beautiful ceremony rich in tradition and subtle moments of love. Both the bride and groom exchanged emotional vows, the occasional moment of reaching out to simply touch their partner or hold their hand, all the many little things that elevated the ceremony to emotional heights that pulsated throughout the stunning rustic barn like room. Even the small dog in attendance (wearing a tux of course) seemed enchanted by it all.
The beautiful sight of the trees peppered with a mix of yellow, orange and red in the background combined with the hazy glow of the sunlight peaking through the clouds created a dreamlike environment for the bride and groom to roam around together and enjoy one another’s presence during their first moments as husband and wife. We took advantage of another of Langdon Hall’s stunning areas and stopped into their greenhouse to escape the cold and give Lavinia and Michael a more private and intimate setting to share a few quiet moments together. It was within those few moments that I truly got to see the passion that they both had, uninhibited emotion and genuine soulful caresses that occurred naturally as they embraced every moment away from the chaos of the outside world.
The bride and groom returned to an exquisite five star lunch courtesy of Langdon Hall as they, their friends and family enjoyed the opportunity to have meaningful conversation and enjoy human contact during these wild and unprecedented times. Between courses the guests were treated with various speeches that ranged every spectrum of emotion; with Michaels three sisters dishing up the embarrassing stories of their youth and providing every ounce of nostalgia you could ask for, while Michael and Lavinia’s nephew and niece provided the sincerity of childhood innocence and bravery as they congratulated their aunt and uncle on their life milestone. One speech however that really stuck with me was the bride’s. Lavinia’s emotional speech was highlighted by her gratitude for her parent’s courage to immigrate to Canada from Romania, thanking them for creating a new opportunity for her to achieve her goals and dreams as an artist and designer. Coming from a family of immigrants myself, and now being fortunate enough to have a career as a photographer, I was immediately connected to Lavinia’s story and understood the emotional impact felt by her parents in that moment. It was amazing to see how comfortable every was sharing their emotions with one another, leaving nothing on the table, showing grace and love through ever moment.
The afternoon was capped off with the Jewish tradition of the Mezinka, another tradition carried on by Michael and his family which honours the parents who have just married off their last child. It was obvious that both Michael’s mother and father felt the impact that such celebrations are meant to have, incapable of hiding their overwhelming emotion as their families circled them with pride and gratitude. The Mezinka was followed by another long celebrated wedding tradition of the first dances, as the bride and groom shared in a few heartfelt moments during the dance as their embrace yet again seemingly stopped time.
Wedding, micro wedding, elopement, whatever you want to call it, it doesn’t ultimately matter, what does is that this day was full of emotion and truly highlighted the love felt between Michael and Lavinia as they made the most of their beautiful fall wedding to enjoy the little things in life and the things that matter most. At its core this wedding represented love in every way and it was an enriching experience to be there to document this wedding and further proof that my role as a wedding photographer is to equally capture moments and create images that connect those intangible and deeply rooted feelings. Truthfully, I couldn’t of capture what I captured without the utmost trust from the Lavinia and Michael, and to have crossed paths with them, I’m sincerely grateful.
Song of the Day
