Windsor Arms Hotel Wedding
This year has definitely been my busiest as a wedding photographer. Not just for the sheer size of some of my weddings, but also for the quantity. I honestly thought that elopements and micro weddings would slow down when covid restrictions loosened up. But here I am, photographing big weddings on the weekends, and having elopements take over my weekdays. This will be my last big wedding of 2022. I still have a few more elopements before the year is up but this will be the last full day event. Here’s to Olivia & Geordie’s vintage wedding at the Windsor Arms Hotel.
I’ve been anticipating this wedding for months. While I originally met this couple under the grounds of a wedding photographer, I’ve worked with Geordie a few time since then photographing corporate events and headshots. Normally I would complete the actual wedding before getting referred to other shoots. But in this case, they got to see me in action a few times before the wedding day.
Morning Prep
One of the unique things about having a wedding this late in the season is that it gets dark really early. And the Windsor Arms Hotel does not help in that regards as vintage hotels can be pretty dark to begin with. In this case, the ceremony, portraits, cocktail hour, and reception all happened after dark. As with most couples, these two did not want to see each other before the ceremony. So I maximized as many family and bridal party combinations as I could before the ceremony during daylight hours. That way, the only ones I had to do afterwards were the ones of the bride and groom together. This allowed us to not only maximize lighting, but also sped up the portrait session after the ceremony so the couple could enjoy some of their cocktail hour with their guests.
Ceremony / Reception
The civil ceremony at the Windsor Arms Hotel was dark to say to say the least. Normally there would be tons of sunlight streaming in. But in this case, it was after dark and lit up only by candlelight. A challenge for pretty much and photographer as the soul capability of a camera is capturing light. I did bring my own lighting to illuminate the photos without effecting the ambiance of the decor. So while guests were able to enjoy the silhouette of the golden ceremony, the couple will actually be able to see their faces during the event.
The same applied for the reception that was also lit by candle light. It provided for great ambience and elegance. But for the memories, I’d always recommend having the venue utilize the actual lighting of the space. Despite the difficulty with darkness, it was still a stunning and perfectly organized event. The day ran smoothly, and ended in one heck of a party.
