Fall Pics, Kitchener 2024

 

Kenabeek Pics, Fall 2024

Recently me and Lee-Anne visited my grandparents' property in Northern Ontario. It's Canadian Shield country. Cascading mossy rocks and sparse woods made of birch, poplar, maple, and conifers

 It's really hard to catch the depth of the rolling hills in a photo.

The Stone Circle, where my aunt used to do her Wiccan rituals. It was fairly undisturbed. Maybe one stone was out of place.

I'd never visited in the Fall before. We would always come up during blueberry season in the summer, and at Christmas. It was a unique experience for me to see the changing leaves. The Autumnal colours were fairly muted, with more yellow than red amongst the green. During the four days we were there it did seem the season matured into a proper Fall

There is a post on this blog from over ten years ago. Back then, I uploaded a pic of this same birch tree. I took this photo without remembering that. It's not too crazy, this tree is right next to the house. But still

Technically this is in Temiskaming Shores. It's the only one taken outside their township

Wedding Photos

Setup

Our main flower was sunflower, and the main colour was purple. Lee-Anne's favourite colour is yellow and mine is purple so it made for a good contrast. The sunflowers were in season, and they hold a bit of personal significance to us as well

Wedding favours were popcorn, made by Lee-Anne's mom

The wedding was held in Lee-Anne's parents backyard. I was skeptical that everything would fit. When I saw that a tent had been put up for the reception, effectively cutting space in half, I was even more skeptical, but everything worked out. My spatial awareness isn't the best and I would have completely overshot were I in charge

Getting those paper lanterns up was a real chore

This was a surprise for me and Lee-Anne. I didn't notice it until after the ceremony when I was directing someone to the bathroom, and it took Lee-Anne even longer 

The Ceremony

Me, Duncan, and Mom walking down the aisle

Lee-Anne and her dad

The ceremony was held in a little park outside the backyard. Originally it was going to be in the un-tented half of the backyard, but Lee-Anne decided it was too hilly. So the day before the wedding it was decided to relocate to the park, and the arch was put up morning-of

It worked out well as it made everything more visible from the street that guests were coming from

A signature moment of the day, really glad the photographer caught it. During the ceremony I was sweating bullets. I don't know if it was nerves or the sun. It was an afternoon wedding and the ceremony was held at about peak sun exposure. I wanted to wipe my forehead but with all eyes on me I couldn't do it unnoticed. I'd have to let go of Lee-Anne's hand, and if I did, I didn't want to touch her with my sweaty hand after. I also didn't want to rub the sweat off on my clothes. Eventually I felt it was unignorable and not attending to it was more awkward than doing something about it

So I broke form and rubbed my head. Lee-Anne, having followed my thought process laughed and rubbed my head as well. Audience laughed and it acted as a break from tension and added some levity to the formality of the ceremony. For some reason, some people found it touching, and a few cried

Sealing it with a kiss

We had an earth-mixing ceremony. We took dirt from Lee-Anne grandma's farm and my grandparents place in Kenabeek and placed it at the base of this young tree, symbolizing the new union of the two family trees

Signing the marriage forms

Another kiss

The Reception

Memory table for people that couldn't make it. Among them was a close family friend that always imagined me getting married and coming to my wedding. For many years I told her I didn't see it happening, and I'd even met Lee-Anne and was planning on asking her out, but this family friend passed away before the first date

My granddad who is still with us but suffering from dementia. We visited him the next day

Grandparents on my father's side

A family friend on Lee-Anne's side who passed away unexpectedly near enough to the wedding that she was looking forward to coming

Lee-Anne's first niece who passed away shortly after she was born

Not on the table, but an uncle and aunt on Lee-Anne's side were unable to make it as one of them had a medical emergency, although they're alright now

The heart with the lace was our ring pillow. The three rings are our wedding bands and her engagement ring

This was our MC Trevor, a family friend on Lee-Anne's side and the husband of the family friend that recently passed

We had four people do speeches. First up was Lee-Anne's dad

My Grandpa Rob

Lee-Anne's friend and bridesmaid Meaghen

My brother Duncan

Me and Lee-Anne. We made a speech together to close them off. We didn't have a script but planned sections and took turns between them

More Atmosphere Shots

Instead of a cake we had a tart tower

Guest seating format. Each flower represented a table and each petal had someone's name

Guided By Photographer

Groups

Us, bridesmaids and best man

Lee-Anne and bridesmaids

Me and Duncan, my brother and best man

Us, Lee-Anne's parents and her grandma

Us with my grandparents

Us with my aunt and uncle on my father's side

Us with some family friends on Lee-Anne's side

Us with my mom and brother

Us with my coworkers, the WALES team

Hugs

Cats

My mom and brother adopted a couple of kittens from Lee-Anne's sister in law. Since they'd be in the same place for the wedding she brought them down for them to take home, and here my mom is showing them off to my coworkers