When I first started talking with Dana and David about their wedding, they were living in Calgary.  They had gotten engaged in Cape Breton on vacation and had some other connections to the island, so it had some meaning to them and the decided to get married there.  A few months before the wedding, I found out that David had gotten a job in Cape Breton, and against the flow of the population, they would be moving to Nova Scotia which was definitely going to make the planning of their wedding easier.  While my wife and I didn’t get married in Nova Scotia, we also got engaged in the province while on a vacation and ended up moving here, so I obviously saw a lot of similarities between us.

I absolutely love Cape Breton, I could see myself living there one day, so I always love when I get the chance to visit, and Dana and David’s wedding was no exception.  I arrived a little bit early and scoped out some locations and hoped the sun would stay behind the clouds.  Belle Cote is right on the coast in the Margaree area and doesn’t have the best options for shade in the mid afternoon.  Fortunately the clouds did end up helping us out.

Dana and David decided to have a first look as Dana said she knew she would going to be in tears.  She was right, and that got David going too.  They read vows to each other privately on the beach as I captured the moment.  With the wind, I couldn’t even hear what they were saying, so those private words will remain that way, just between the two of them.  As a nice little bonus, Dana wore a separate dress for their first look than what she wore the rest of the day, which gave David that first look feeling a second time as Dana walked down the aisle.

I will be honest, I had some serious expectations in mind regarding this wedding.  Dana had told me that Asheton and Gavin’s wedding, which I had shot just down the road in Cheticamp the previous year, had helped cement their plans to do a wedding like the one they were planning.  I was in no way let down.  The little cottage and the tent out back, decorated by friends, with a canoe full of beer outside the door, was just the right fit for Dana and David.

The ceremony was on the lawn outside and may have had some tears.  For their first kiss, they asked me to capture the moment from a different angle than normal as I stood behind them and captured the kiss and their friends and family all at once.  With the ceremony over we made time for family photos and then the wedding party before we made our way inside the tent for dinner.

There weren’t a ton of speeches but those few definitely elicited strong emotional responses.  The open mic also brought up some guests to the stage to sing, including one from Dana’s sister which just happened to be the same song Dana and David had chosen as their first dance song.  After that first dance, the band kicked off the evening and they were awesome (they’re called Donair Supply in case anyone is looking for a band).  The dance floor was packed and remained that way all night.  The clouds that had helped us earlier in the day had passed and left us with a beautiful starry sky which we took advantage of to capture a photo with Dana, David, and the stars.  It was about the last photo I took before heading home for the night, and as I left I saw the dance floor full and the band playing, leaving me with that perfect lasting impression of Dana and David’s wedding.

Here’s a look at Dana and David’s Cape Breton Wedding;

Enjoy!!!

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