Newlands Wedding

From the way Andrea described her Newlands wedding day vision, I knew it would be an amazingly memorable celebration. The priority? Get married to her best friend and have beautiful portraits in a mountain view location.

Spoiler: she accomplished both those goals. 😉

Wedding preparations were calm, gentle, graceful, and elegant. Just like Andrea.

She even had time to play her piano before heading off to the ceremony!

(She’s a talented musician, so it was both meaningful and beautiful!)

In a pandemic wedding planning twist, I didn’t get to actually meet Aaron until after the ceremony but had a few moments to observe him as he anticipated his bride’s arrival. The excitement was substantial and the joy was palpable. He chatted with his groomsman, waved to guests, tossed a grin toward the Zoom screen, and eagerly waited for Andrea’s arrival.

A Newlands wedding is a visually beautiful wedding. Especially when celebrating in the conservatory — I love the reflective floors and abundant natural light! But more than that, Aaron & Andrea’s wedding was a emotionally beautiful wedding. They sang favourite worship songs, heard from both their pastors, were surrounded by dear ones (both physically and virtually!), and chose triumphant music to add to the emotion-filled moments.

Zoom has been an important piece for many of my 2020 brides but Aaron & Andrea took Zoom to a whole new level of excellence: TWO screens, multiple camera angles, and almost a hundred devices logged on for the ceremony. They wanted to be able to turn around and look at the faces of their family and friends during the ceremony, to ensure they felt the love and presence of all these important people.

Pitt Lake wedding portraits was the perfect interlude to their wedding day. A stunning sun-filled November afternoon spent exploring one mountainscape at a time is basically my definition of a perfect time.

While every love story is beauty-filled in its own way, I was especially infatuated with their tale of longtime friendship — “nothing more than that” was apparently the refrain — and the eventual shift into romance. The foundation of friendship (years of it!) was especially obvious as we meandered the trails. I tried not to eavesdrop too much, but listening to them pick up conversations with ease and practically finish each others sentences was an immense joy to see.

And LOOK HOW HAPPY!

I love this series tons because what you don’t see is my phone plunked on the grass playing their song as they took a first dance as husband and wife.

Not knowing what it was
I will not give you up this time
But darling, just kiss me slow, your heart is all I own
And in your eyes, you’re holding mine

Baby, I’m dancing in the dark with you between my arms

Barefoot on the grass, listening to our favourite song
When you said you looked a mess, I whispered underneath my breath
But you heard it, darling, you look perfect tonight

[Ed Sheeran, Perfect]

Another favourite part of this wedding day story is how perfectly timed their wedding was: mere hours after their reception the province of British Columbia began another round of Covid-19 lockdown and had they chosen a wedding day even one day later it would have been cancelled. Talk about a blessed day! <3