I am so excited to finally be able to share a 2020 wedding (a few more to come too!). As most know and most have experienced, 2020 hasn’t been the best year. With a global pandemic happening, many people are going through the unthinkable and having a wedding is the last thing on some couples minds but like my boy Harry Potter said “Maybe that’s the best reason to have it. Because of everything that’s going on”. Couldn’t agree more Harry.

Cue Jessy and Barry, who were forced to change their plans multiple times. From a large wedding at an Ottawa wedding venue, to a medium sized wedding at her parents Crow Lake cottage to a small, intimate and romantic wedding at the Tichborn area cottage of only 20 people.

The day welcomed them with very unpredictable weather but one of the best things about an intimate guest list is you can change on the fly and go with the flow. When a storm rolled in over the lake, we all decided to just wait it out. No rush for the ceremony as that gave everyone extra time to get ready, feed the babies (Jessy and Barry have two beautiful twin girls as you will see) and take some extra downtime and make sure everything was ready. When it came time for the ceremony, there was a little rainbow and the clouds parted with the dreamiest light. From there, the day continued to be dreamy and I need to mention, these two have the kindest families and friends who treated me like family from the moment I got there. When I got in my car at the end of the day, my face hurt from smiling so much and I had puffy eyes from crying because their day was that perfect and you could feel the love every single second everywhere.

Jessy and Barry, THANK YOU! I am so so happy I got to be the person to document your day. It was one of my favorite days I have ever been a part of and you two are truly meant to be together (and you make beautiful babies taboot! :) )

Love you guys and thanks for checking this wedding out everyone!

-Megan

Andrea and Shane were recommended to me by one of their friends who has been a guest and bridesmaid at several weddings I have shot (thanks Robyn!!). When we initially met for a coffee, it was love at first sight (photographer and couple sort of love) and I knew we were a great fit. They had booked Bark Lake Leadership Centre, which for the most part is a kids camp, but you can also book for weddings too. When they described their wedding, they used the words "fun, relaxed and personal" which are the three words I would want for my wedding too, it doesn't get much better then that.

"When we looked for our venue, we wanted a place that would hold all of our friends and family together for a weekend. We saw our wedding as an opportunity to bring everyone we loved together and spend quality time with them, instead of being rushed through an evening. Bark Lake gave us the opportunity to have an outdoor wedding with our favourite activities, while having the added bonus of being an absolutely stunning place to get married. We loved having everyone stay over and having brunch with everyone the next morning- we felt surrounded by love the whole time. The staff at Bark Lake were also very flexible and open to our ideas when we met with them, and were happy to support our visions, like finding room for an amazing twelve piece band to help us dance the night away, and having the groomsmen paddle in in a voyageur canoe

Obviously a venue like this isn't for everyone and it can take a lot of blood sweat and tears to make it perfect and personal, but Andrea and Shane did it, with flying colours.

"I don't think we realized when we booked our venue that getting married in an less traditional location would require extra work and coordination, as we live in Toronto and we tried to get vendors that were local to the area. We ended up doing a lot more DIY work than we originally thought we'd have to, and our biggest stress was trying to figure out how much alcohol to bring in to the woods. But we were lucky to have a supportive family, and a venue that was so open to talking with us (maybe a million times!!) to figure things out. In the end, it was totally worth it, because we really got to design every aspect of the entire weekend, and we truly felt like the wedding was a perfect reflection of who we are as a couple. We also had to be a bit flexible with the weather which was stressful on the day; we received multiple tornado warnings and weather alerts. We were so lucky that our dream came true and we got married under the trees... but we hid from a massive storm for the rest of the night!! If you're doing something similar, make sure you have a solid rain plan in place!"

As a photographer I continue to try and grow and improve but more importantly, find those couples who make their day about them and aren't afraid to throw tradition to the curb and have fun with their wedding and make it unique and relaxed. When I find those couples, the connection is much stronger as I find those couples are my kind of people and whom I would want to be friends with and surround myself by. These two were positive, fun, candid, so deep in love and overall, a fun amazing couple who I can't wait to hang out with and hopefully work together again in the future.

Love you guys!

xo - Megan

Wedding Planner - Lucy Myers Events
Videographer - Kathryn Fudurich
Florals - Tanya List Designs
Band - Kim and Company
First Dance Musicians - Mike and Cassandra
Dress - Ferre Sposa
Tux - Sur Mesur
Custom Rings - Ron Pollock imports