I met Amanda at the Atlantic Wedding Showcase in January where we spoke briefly.  She had seemed interested, but I’m notoriously bad at gauging interest at wedding shows, so I didn’t get my hopes up.  About a half hour later she returned and booked me on the spot, the first time I’ve had that happen.

Having only had a chance to meet Amanda at the wedding show, and not meeting Scott at that point, I made sure to add her to Facebook so I could figure out who her fiance was, and maybe a little about the two of them in general.  That’s when I learned that Amanda was a singer, and Scott was the lead guitarist in her band.  Her Band’s site is HERE & Facebook page is HERE, go check them out.

Learning about this part of their lives was getting my hopes up about the wedding.  The Hubbards Barn has a little stage and I thought it would be awesome if they performed at their own wedding.  I was going to have to wait a long while before learning the answer to that question though.

On the wedding day, I met up with Scott and his guys at Rosewood on the Cove Cottages in Hubbards, a place that I will keep in mind the next time I need to find a photo location in the area.  We didn’t spend too much time there as I needed to go see Amanda, and the guys needed to get to the Church.

Amanda was at her mom’s house in East River and she was just about ready to go, save for a few finishing details like a can or two of hairspray and some minor dress adjustments.  Her uncle arrived in a Camero to pick her up, and we were then on our way to the Aenon Baptist Church in Chester Basin for the ceremony.  It was Amanda’s grandmother who actually married Scott and Amanda, not something most couples are able to have done, so that was a great personal touch.  The ceremony ended and the church bells rang out as the wedding party exited the church and got ready for the receiving line.  During that time I noticed that the light coming through the trees was perfect for photos, so I decided we would be best suited to taking some photos out behind the church, even if that meant shooting in a graveyard.

As we wrapped up the photos at the church, I asked Scott to move his Corvette into the parking lot so I could get a photo of him and Amanda in the car without trees reflecting on the front window.  I moved my bag to the front steps of the church and took a few photos in the middle of the parking lot before waving Amanda and Scott on their way.  I didn’t want to be getting to the venue too far behind them, so I quickly got in my car and on the road to the Hubbards Barn.  I caught up (going not a kilometre over the speed limit of course), and when we arrived at the barn, I grabbed my camera and realized that I had forgotten my bag.  Like and idiot.  I’ll admit, I was freaking out a little on the inside, not because I was worried about my camera gear going missing, but because I only had one flash, and one set of batteries for it in my backup bag, an no extra camera battery, the bulk of my batteries are on me at all times, well, unless I forget my bag.  I’ll be making a few adjustments in the future.  I was fortunate that one of the bridesmaids got her father to drive back to the church (about 15 minutes away), and he found the bag there with everything still inside.  That man is my hero, sorry Mario Lemieux, but for one day, you have to step aside.

So, heart attack averted, the reception continued in the beautifully decorated barn.  Amanda and Scott had about 40 friends and family go into the barn at 1:00 on that day, and in about an hour, they set everything up and did a wonderful job.  You know you have a good group of friends when they all pitch in like that.

After the dinner and speeches, we made our way to the dance floor for a few dances, and then we were lucky enough to have Amanda and Scott get up on stage with their band to sing some songs.  I thought they sounded great, and while I didn’t know all their songs, I could tell everyone else did.  Some people might find it odd that they would want to get up there on their own wedding day, but I figure that when it’s something you love, it’s just a part of who you are, so it just makes sense to me.  This is of course coming from a guy who took photos at his own wedding.

As the night went on, the entertainment switched back to recorded music for a while, and then we got to hear them play live again, this time with some former band members too, and Amanda’s brother Jordan even stepped up to the plate and belted out a song.  I was quite impressed with his singing, I would have thought he was in a band too.  The whole evening was some of the best entertainment I’ve seen at a wedding (just ask Amanda’s mother about how her speech started), and I thoroughly enjoyed the whole day (bag fiasco aside).  Have a look for yourself below for the first time, or relive it if you were there.  Hopefully someone got some good videos of all the performances.  If you did, and you’ve posted it online, share it in the comments section below, I’m sure everyone would love to see it.

Enjoy!!!

www.DustinHallPhotography.ca