Hessenland Winery Autumn Wedding

Cassandra + Antony

Cassandra and Antony had an absolutely lovely wedding at one of my all time favourite wedding venues, Hessenland Inn on the shores of Lake Huron in Southwestern Ontario.

Like almost every other couple getting married these days, their wedding plans had been wrecked by COVID-19 forcing rescheduling and even rebooking of a certain vendor who I won’t name who refused to provide proof of vaccination or even get tested…. luckily Cassandra and Antony were able find an amazing replacement in Jeff Sabin!

Began the day with Cassandra and the girls at her parents beautiful country property just outside of Zurich, Ontario as they got their hair and make up done. Also popped quickly into town to Cassandra’s brothers place were the boys were hanging out for some prep pictures of them as well.

Cassandra and Antony opted to have a first look where they see each other before the wedding, something that I always recommend. In my experience this gives the wedding day schedule a much better flow… We can get all the portraits out of the way before the ceremony which allows the everyone to go straight from wedding ceremony to cocktail hour to the reception. I find it also gives couples more time with the guests and more opportunities for candid moments.

Cassandra and Antony lucked out and had the most amazing weather for a wedding in October… not a cloud in the sky and it was still pretty warm out for their outdoor wedding ceremony.

For cocktail hour they had arranged to have lots of games for their guests to enjoy on the beautiful grounds of Hessenland Inn.

Dinner was amazing, as always, with plenty of laughs and even a few tears during speeches and lots of dancing to end the night!

You can view some of my favourite wedding photographs above and their full wedding slideshow below.

If you have the password, you can view the entire wedding gallery here!

Check out some other Hessenland Inn weddings!

Amanda + Chad

Alex + Colton

Rebecca + Jeff

If you’re getting married next year at the Hessenland Inn please get in touch!

Hessenland Inn Fall Wedding

Amanda + Chad

Amanda and Chad had a fantastic fall wedding at the beautiful Hessenland Country Inn located in Southwestern, Ontario.

I spent the morning at Amanda’s parents beautiful property in Exeter for some coverage of the girls getting ready with veils being steamed (and what an amazing veil and dress!) flowers delivered and mimosas consumed. :)

Amanda and Chad decided to have a first look at her parents house (this I can be a great option to cut down on the time doing portraits after the ceremony and can also help with pre ceremony nerves!). We took full advantage Amanda’s parents beautiful property for some portraits of the family and the wedding party.

Amanda was driven to Hessenland by her father in a beautiful Dodge Prowler (don’t worry, they put the top down for the drive over) and they even pulled right up to the wedding ceremony in it!

After the ceremony all the guests gathered for a group shot from the tower and then they got to enjoy lawn games, cocktails and appetizers while we took care of some of the more formal portraits. Dinner was great with some amazingly funny speeches and great food and service provided by Liz and her dedicated crew at Hessenland.

The night finished with a packed dance floor as everyone celebrated Amanda and Chad’s wedding!

Check out some of my favourite wedding photographs from Amanda + Chad’s Hessenland Country Inn wedding below and their full wedding slideshow above!

You can also check out their Bayfield engagement pictures.

Hessenland Inn Wedding

Alex + Colton

These two must have some good connections upstairs… their wedding day was a gorgeous one bookended by some really crappy weather. This worked out great since Alex + Colton had a beautiful outdoor ceremony on the ground of the Hessenland Inn. We even lucked out with a beautiful sunset for some nice golden hour portraits!

Alex had both of the tower rooms above the Couch House to get everyone ready for the big day while the boys had the front house to relax in. Once everyone was ready, Alex had a big first look with her dad in the orchard and then we all headed off to the wedding ceremony in front of the waterfall.

Two of the cutest kids were the ring bearer and flower girl and they did an amazing job (it can be hit or miss!)

For portraits locations we were really spoiled. Right of the bat the the grounds at the Hessenland Inn are amazing but they’ve added vineyards and an amazing patch of sunflowers. We also had access to their private beach!

The reception was great, with some really heartfelt speeches and of course an amazing meal! Liz and her staff always provide amazing service, making every guest feel like part fo the family.

A couple of highlights from the reception… The grandparents dancing and celebrating their anniversary and Alex’s brother shaving his leg and pulling switch on a blindfolded Colton for the garter toss.

You can check out Rebecca + Jeff’s amazing wedding at the Hessenland Inn over here!

I had an amazing Goderich engagement session with Alex + Colten you should check out too!

If you have the password, you can see the full gallery of wedding pictures from Alex + Coltons wedding over on my proofing website.

A year in review....

As we begin 2016 I thought it might be nice to take a look back at how great 2015 was!

I had a bunch of amazing couples and weddings at some of the best wedding venues in Toronto and Ontario including Fermenting Cellar, Hessenland Country Inn, Bruce Hotel, One King West, Liberty Grand, Waterloo Region Museum, One King West (again!) The Tannery, Copper Creek Golf Course, The Stirling Room, 99 Sudbury, Ancaster Mill, Federation Hall and WhistleBear Golf Course as well as weddings across ontario including Tobermory and Windsor.

Now, usually I do a slideshow for these year end posts but this year I thought I'd try something different and post 10 of my favourite images.  Wow... it was way tougher to pick 10 than I thought.   So many great moments from the year but I finally managed to whittle it down to my favourite 10 (in no particular order!)

I love this portrait from Josh + Paul's wedding at the Bruce Hotel in Stratford, Ontario.

The best light is always around sunset (or sunrise... but that's not happening!) so I always try to sneak my couples out for a quick portrait session to take advantage.  

To me this image feels really natural, not forced at all... which is exactly how I like to work.  I put the people in the nice light and then let things happen!

I really like this photograph from Spencer + Jonas' wedding at the Stirling Room in Toronto's Distillery District.

During the wedding ceremony, they had something called a 'ring warming' where the two wedding rings were passed around to all the guests before they said their vows.

Having shot over 300 weddings, it was nice to see something new and unique!

For me, a great moment will always trump a great portrait but there is something about this photograph of the wedding party from Emilie + John's wedding at 99 Sudbury in Toronto that I really like.

I think it has that timelessness and elegance to it, something I'm always striving to achieve!

Plus, I photographed it vertically so that makes it pretty rare for me.  :)

I'm always looking for a different angle when I photograph a wedding.  It's a hazard of the job that you're essentially photographing the same events week after week so you have to keep looking for new ways to see things!

This picture is from Rebecca + John's wedding up at the Hessenland County Inn in Ontario on the shores of Lake Huron.

Here's another one from Rebecca + Jeff's wedding at the Hessenland Country Inn (what can I say, it was  great wedding!)

I like everything about this picture... the look on Rebecca's father's face as he dances with his daughter... the guests looking on in the background... the contrast  of tones between the subjects in the foreground and the warmth in the background.

This wedding photograph is from Jennifer and Alex's wedding in Toronto.

The speeches during the reception were really great, and really emotional.  

Somewhat surprisingly, this image was captured as the best man was giving his speech and talking about how Alex and him had a bond closer than brothers.   This really touched Jennifer and I managed to capture this just as she wiped away the tears.

 

This image is from Andrea + Chris' wedding at One King West.

I love the connection they have as Chris listens to Andrea's speech.

This is a portrait from Joohee + Joel's wedding up in Tobermory. 

We had just finished the civil wedding ceremony, right on the water at Joel's mothers property, and paused for a few pictures. 

I love the colours in this picture, from the traditional Korean hanbok to the brilliant blue of the sky.

I love it when people are smiling in wedding photographs (I'll take happy crying as well) so obviously I love this picture from Kaylen and Roberts wedding this spring at Federation Hall in Waterloo.

You can see the joy on Kaylen's face as she enjoys their first dance during the wedding reception.

Photographers love the soft light of overcast days and golden hour sunsets.  Unfortunately, wedding portraits sometimes need to be made during the middle of the afternoon under harsh sunlight.

This was the case during Maria + Theo's wedding this fall in Toronto as we met for portraits near the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Hesseland Inn Wedding Photographer

Rebecca + Jeff

Rebecca & Jeff's wedding at the Hessenland Inn on the shores of Lake Huron was one of my favourite weddings of the year!

Rebecca was a bridesmaid from Nicole + Bobby's wedding last year so there was an automatic comfort level for all of us working together!  Plus, we did some great engagement pictures you can see here.

It was my first time photographing a wedding at the Hessenland Inn and I have to say it's an amazing venue.  The reception room is an old stone barn and the bridal suite is in the converted silo with amazing views!

After everyone was ready and looking great, we headed across the grounds for an outdoor wedding ceremony.  The weather forecast hadn't been looking great all day, and there was a brief moment it looked like we might be getting wet during the ceremony, but my lucky habits foot worked again and it blew past us.

Hessenland Inn has access to a great beach so after some portraits with the families and the wedding party I took Rebecca + Jeff down there for some portraits of just the two of them.

The reception had everything... great speeches, great food, great party, great tornado.... Yep.

The weather held out out for the ceremony and pictures but once the reception started it was a full blown thunderstorm for most of the night.  At one point, during one of the fathers speeches the normal sounds of rain, thunder & lighting were replaced by about 15 seconds of a loud roar.   We all kind of paused and looked up, half expecting the roof to come flying off but it quickly passed.  The worst of the damage was several big trees on the property knocked down!

You can see some of my favourite wedding photographs from their wedding above as well as the full wedding slideshow below!

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