Church and State Winery Wedding with Lindsey and Brent // Victoria Wedding Photographers

Lindsey and Brent's summery September wedding at Church and State Winery on Vancouver Island // Victoria Wedding Photographers

We first met Lindsey and Brent at Victoria's Modern Bride Wedding Show back in January, and have been eagerly awaiting their Church and State wedding since we did their spring time engagement photos. Wow, how time flies!  

Even though their wedding fell on an autumn day, Lindsey and Brent were still treated to summer sunshine.  What could be a more perfect way to start off a summery wedding, than with a private first look between bride and groom, under a willow tree, in front of a duck filled pond, in Beacon Hill Park in Victoria?!  To add a cherry to an already intimate first look, Lindsey and Brent took the time to read each other some very personal and emotional vows, before heading to the ceremony with family and friends. 

Church and State is already a top notch, rave-worthy venue, but throw in the organization and stylings of Borrowed and Blue Events, and you've got an unforgettable atmosphere for a wedding there: equal parts welcoming, breathtaking and intimate.  We always love speech time during weddings because it gives us another little peek through the window into our couple's lives, and Lindsey and Brent's family's opened those windows wide.  We finished off the night as the music cranked louder and these two and their friends left everything on the dancefloor (mostly just a lot of shirts)!

Thanks for having us there to celebrate with you, Lindsey and Brent, we hope you love the photos!

Meghan & Jeff's Wedding at The Prestige Oceanfront Resort in Sooke

It's been a while since we shot a wedding in our own town of Sooke!  It's a hidden gem for outdoor, destination-style wedding venues, with a plethora of great places to experience, if you're the adventurous outdoorsy type.  Just one of the many reasons we love it so much!  For Meghan and Jeff, it was perfect place to host their wedding! 

Meghan and Jeff met up in Kitimat when Meghan started a career with the RCMP there.  They've since moved to Vancouver Island and built a house right here in Sooke!  Their wedding day, planned by the unbelievably talented Emma McCormick, was held at Prestige OceanFront Resort and was filled to the brim with personal touches.  Meghan's father, also RCMP, walked her down the aisle in his red serge uniform. Meghan donned her own boots for a while.  Pictures capturing Meghan and Jeff's relationship filled the entry-ways, a ping pong table was set up for guests to enjoy.  They had special guests "serenade" them with a hockey-themed wedding song. They were even presented a custom stained glass window made by Meghan's father.  For pictures, we stopped by Whiffin Spit, and then swung by Meghan and Jeff's about-to-be-completed home and snuck inside for some photos together.

We really loved being a part of Meghan and Jeff's day, meeting their friends and family from all over the country, and capturing so many special moments. And especially loved watching all their friends get wild in our photobooth!

Thank you to Meghan and Jeff for having us there, we hope you love and cherish these photos!

Matt and Sayde's Cheakamus Centre Wedding in Squamish - Our Own!

You’ve seen our proposal photos and read the story, so now it’s time to show you some photos from our September wedding!

What a funny feeling, being wedding photographers planning your own wedding.  We did everything with photographers' eyes, and when looking at venues and vendors, we saw everything as images.  As wedding photographers, we’ve noticed a huge change in the way weddings are done, generation to generation.  Weddings were once bound by tradition, and these days they are more an event of self-expression, and a way to commemorate and celebrate a couple’s personality, lifestyle, and history.  After photographing so many unique and interesting couples, we wanted our wedding to be a reflection of ourselves as well.  Our relationship was built on exploring BC together, hiking the landscapes, and photographing all over the province. It was important for our wedding to really show that part of us and our life together.  We wanted our wedding to have a very outdoorsy feel without being bo-ho in style.  We aimed for a refined PNW feel, blues to mirror the waters we love, greens for the forests, and metallics to bring in some modern glitz.

With their contemporary glass and wood building plunked in the middle of lush moss and fern carpeted rainforest, perched on the edge of the turquoise waters of the river of the same name, Cheakamus Centre in Squamish offered us that environment and feel.  My mom (and her wrangled gang of family members and friends) decorated the whole place to bring the outdoors indoors.  Ferns, peonies, roses, and metallic votives and charger plates, complemented with hand-calligraphy name cards made by Matt’s mom.  Many of the details of our wedding were pulled together by the help of our friends and family.

We headed to Squamish from Vancouver Island a few days before the wedding.  It had been sunny all week leading up to the wedding, and rained buckets the day before.   For those on the west coast, you know that’s the perfect combination for creating dramatic and beautiful days. The day of the wedding we woke up to skies that were clouded and sunny at the same time, and mist billowing up from the pine covered mountains. 

As Matt and his guys headed over to Cheakamus centre to get ready, me and the girls got dolled up by Faye Smith and her awesome team.  Having developed alopecia universalis during our wedding planning (a condition that affects the hair follicles, and causes hair to fall out), it felt so nice to have my wig styled, make up done, and eyelashes donned by Faye!  I felt like myself on my wedding day, and that was so important to me. 

From there, the day unfolded on its own and we had a blast with our friends and family. Many of them came from far and wide, and some even made holidays of it by travelling to Vancouver Island, visiting Tofino, Victoria and Sooke, while others adventured around Whistler, Vancouver and Pemberton.  Check out some of the photos below, which were taken by the incredible team Amy, Tony, and Lindsey at Hoffer Photography who came all the way from Philadelphia!

Some of our vendors:

Photography: Hoffer Photography

Venue: Cheakamus Centre
Hair and Makeup: Faye Smith
DJ: Painted Frog Entertainment
Matt's Suit: The Bay
Matt's Tie: Beaux Ties
Sayde's Dress: Lisa's Bridal
Sayde's Second Dress: Jenny Yoo
Gold Headband: Twigs and Honey
Decor:  Melanie B Floral Designs (thanks Mom!)
 

Thanks so much for stopping by our wedding blog.  If you'd like to know more about our life as wedding photographers in Victoria and Vancouver Island, or about our life in BC, read About Us!