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Congrats to Mark and Whitney!  They were married recently at the River of Life church here in Lethbridge.  Mark is from London and several people from his family and his friends flew out from England to be here on his wedding day, which was very cool.  Oh, and the speeches were hilarious!  It’s hard to beat the British sense of humour when it comes to reception speeches.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.  The day started for us at the hair salon with Whitney and her bridesmaids—and her eight flower girls!  Yes, eight!  I’ve never seen so many at a wedding.  They were all very cute.  :)

Their wedding ceremony was quiet and authentic, starting with worship music—that bit wasn’t quiet!—and including our first ever foot-washing ceremony.  Well, not ours, per se; Mark demonstrated his love of Whitney and willingness to serve her needs by washing her feet.  It was, like the rest of the service, a sincere and open showing of their love.

The reception at the Galt museum was amazing!  The tables were decorated with large ice sculptures and the cake was incredible.  It was a very elegant occasion for sure.  And, of course, there is the great view through the huge windows all around the room.  Check out the images toward the end of the slideshow below to see what I mean.  The speeches were both heart-felt and funny.  We have so many photos of people laughing at the speeches toasting the groom, poor Mark.  Whitney’s dad—also named Mark—and Mark the groom gave two touching speeches at the end.  It was an honour to shoot their wedding and we wish Mark and Whitney the best in their marriage. You can see a short slideshow of their wedding below.

Do you know what makes the difference between a good wedding and a not-so-good wedding?  It’s not the venue.  It’s not the weather or the catering or the dress or any of that stuff; it’s the people.  And Brock and Janna’s wedding was awesome!

Ok, so their venue and other stuff was nice, too, but that’s just a bonus.  :)

We first met the happy couple last year at another wedding where we were the photographers and they were in the wedding party as bridesmaid and groomsman.  That was a cool wedding as well (we have another wedding to blog with a couple from that wedding too) and it’s always good to see familiar faces.  When they booked us Brock told me that they had basically planned the day around the photos to make sure that they got the best coverage they could.  Sounds good to me!  It is fantastic to work with people who are so excited about their photos.  They were excited about their wedding day, about each other, about the photos, about their guests—how could we go wrong?  :)  Actually, what was funny was that Brock and I came up with a bunch of the same ideas.  He’d say, “Hey, Mark, I thought we could do this idea.”  And I’d look at him and reply, “I was going to suggest that!”

It was a beautiful, bright sunny day up in Rocky Mountain House for the day of their wedding.  Which reminds me; Brock, do you realise how long it takes to Photoshop away sunglasses tan from several hundred images?  That will be, like, a million bucks.  Leave it in a black duffle bag on the step and I’ll get to work.  ;)  Anyways, the guys played golf in the morning and Brock shot 70—that’s 2 under par!  (Clearly it was going to be a very special day).  Brock and Janna both worked at Pine Hills golf club and they really love the place and had chosen it for their wedding day.  It is a beautiful course.  

The guys got ready at the club house while Janna and the girls headed out to a cabin by the lake.  That was a beautiful place, too!  It’s very peaceful there.  Janna had included her brother, Brett, in her wedding party as a bridesman.  We’ve seen people do that a few times before and usually they get mildly teased by the groomsmen during the day.  This wedding was no exception, but Brett took it well.

The wedding ceremony took place on the tenth hole, if I remember correctly, and it was a fun and moving ceremony.  Tears and laughter came freely from everyone.  Sherri and I wish them all the best and I’m looking forward to building the album from this wedding! 

Corrick and Katherine were married in Waterton on a beautiful Alberta day.  It was amazing how well the weather and other things worked out for us; we had breeze when we wanted it and no breeze when it would have been a problem.  

This was a sort of destination wedding.  :)  That is, it was a destination wedding for many of the guests, who flew in from England and New Zealand to be with Corrick and Katherine.  Sometimes it seemed like Sherri was the only person with a regular Canadian accent!  

Corrick and Katherine were both wonderful people, happy and not afraid to express their feelings.  We have lots of photos of them with their emotions written clearly on their faces and there were tears from both of them before the end of the day.  When I was taking photos of Corrick right after he was ready I asked to do one of him looking serious.  ”Don’t smile”, I said.  ”Just look at me with a relaxed, neutral expression”.  Corrick looked up and grinned.  ”Umm, can you try for a more serious expression?  Not smiling this time.”  Corrick looked down and composed himself.  Then he looked up at me and you will see his not-smiling, serious expression in the images below.  ;)

They had awesome wedding rings, too!  The rings were custom made for them by the same company that made the actual rings for The Lord of the Rings movies in New Zealand.  There were many other cool things throughout the day that reflected their unique personalities. 

The atmosphere of the day was full of celebration and the reception was one of the less formal ones we’ve been to, in the sense that it felt as though everyone in the whole room was involved and not just sitting and listening from a distance.  

Sherri and I wish the happy couple all the best and I’m hoping that now that Corrick is living closer to Katherine’s parents, Bert will one day perfect his English accent.

With Sean, Miranda and their cute daughter, Ellie!

Before I go on I’m just going to quickly say that I’ve been naughty for not updating the blog regularly, but I’ll be playing catch up this week and will have more posts than usual.  Now back to the main post!

This family were a wonderful bunch, easy to work with, fun and relaxed in front of the camera.  Actually, a bit of a secret is that you don’t have to be someone who is relaxed in front of cameras.  If you are relaxed with each other, that is the main thing, and the images take themselves.  And that’s how it was with Miranda and Sean.  They clearly loved being with each other and their love and openness comes out so well in the session.

After a few quick photos in their house we went to Nicholas Sheran lake on the west side of Lethbridge for the rest of the session.  The weather was good and everything was nice and green.

Ellie was a really good-natured kid and extremely patient during the session.  Well, other than when we tried to get a shot of them lying down.  She didn’t want to lie down for anyone!  Lol!  It’s funny how different kids have such clearly differing personalities.  Obviously adults do, too, but with kids it’s so clear (adults rarely cry when you ask them to pose a certain way).  Ellie was happiest when she was doing something.  As long as she had her hands full or was reading, playing or being tossed in the air, she was bright and full of smiles.  Just don’t ask her to sit still for too long!  To be honest, I can relate to that.  ;)