When Pamela contacted me about her wedding, I thought it sounded like the perfect wedding for me to photograph.  Pamela and her fiancee Jenny were planning a wedding in Halifax on June 1st, and then a second reception a week later in Toronto, a perfect combination of where I am and where I’m from.

Jenny and Pam were married at the ViewPoint Gallery of Contemporary Photography, on Barrington street in Halifax, in front of a couple dozen family members.  As we stepped outside the gallery after the ceremony (its first wedding), we walked toward the waterfront for photos, making various stops along the way.  Of course, it happened to be the busiest day of the year to that point at the waterfront, making photos a bit challenging, but we managed. We even had time to stop at I heart Bikes to get a photo with a tandem bicycle.  We then went to the Public Gardens to finish up with their families before heading to Saege Bistro for the reception.

Saege was a great place for their small reception, which gained a few friends on top of the ceremony attendees.  The speeches were good and brought out the full gamut of emotions from the brides and their guests, but mostly laughter.  With no space for a dance floor, the first dances would have to wait a week until the Toronto reception.

In Toronto, the reception was held at Rosehill, a very nice yet unsuspecting place from the outside.  This part of the wedding had more than twice the number of guests, so it was quite a bit larger than in Halifax.  The tables were adorned with beautiful flowers and each table had a quote from a Canadian author, such as Margaret Atwood or Leonard Cohen for example.  I like how Jenny’s dad managed to incorporate that detail into his speech in a humorous way.

Following speeches, the lovely brides grabbed their fathers and had a dual father/daughter dance, followed by Jenny and Pam’s first dance.  The party ensued pretty quickly after the dances and went well into the night.  It was great to see so many people joining the dance floor, both young and old, I think everyone at both celebrations had a great time, I know I did..

I know a lot of people planning a wedding can feel overwhelmed by the costs associated with putting everything together, but Jenny and Pam showed me that there are ways of cutting costs without giving up on having a wonderful wedding.  One way that they did so was to not buy traditional ‘wedding’ dresses.  They actually bought bridesmaids dresses, and if you’ve ever watched ‘Say Yes to the Dress’ (I know I have, my wife loves that show), you know that a wedding dress can run in the thousands of dollars very easily.  Jenny and Pam looked gorgeous in their dresses and I know you can’t tell they weren’t ‘wedding’ dresses.  The fact of the matter is; no matter what you wear for your wedding, it doesn’t matter who made it, or if you got it on sale, if you like how it looks, wear it, no-one’s going to know the difference, or care for that matter, your guests come to support YOU, not your clothes.  Not wanting diamonds on your wedding ring can also be a cost cutting measure, though I’m sure that has more to do with specific taste than anything.  Jenny had a gold infinity band, and Pamela had sapphires in her ring which she got off Etsy (I recommend checking out Etsy and supporting small businesses).  I really liked what Jenny and Pam did for their bridal bouquets.  I know how expensive flowers can be, but one of them had a genius idea to get a bouquet made up at Pete’s Frootique and they only cost $35 each.  If that’s not thinking outside of the box, I don’t know what is.  These cost saving measures, and for all I know there were more, helped them pull off a wedding without having to incur any debt, and it also allowed them to spend their hard earned money in places that mattered to them.  It may take a little extra time to see where you can trim costs, but it’s possible, and I’m sure you can find many more ways.

Here’s a sampling of the 2 celebrations for Jenny and Pam, starting with Halifax and then Toronto;

Congratulations Jenny and Pam!!!

Enjoy!

www.DustinHallPhotography.ca

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