Intimate Backyard Wedding in Coquitlam

I always feel really grateful to photograph an intimate backyard wedding. Intimate backyard weddings never feel pretentious to me. There’s always such a feeling of ease, of home, of comfort – it never feels like a big production.

It’s been over a decade since I photographed my first wedding – maybe it’s that I’m getting older and the things that hold my attention have shifted, I’m not sure. I used to live for the wild wedding parties and get a bit bored at chill weddings when I was in my early twenties. I still love a packed dance floor and people laughing their asses off, but I’ve cultivated a quiet appreciation for relaxed casual weddings over the years too.

I actually find I have to work a bit harder at backyard weddings – often the space is smaller, and there are less people. So I have to be more careful about getting in the way, and you really have to pay attention to the subtle nuances in a conversation. In a big loud wedding stuff is happening everywhere and it’s overwhelming to try to capture it all. At a quiet and intimate backyard gathering you have to use all the senses to feel into a space – to capture a quick toast between friends, to overhead that two people haven’t seen each other in 15 years, to know that there is grief over a recently passed relative, and to approach with gentleness.

There was a moment at Krystyne & Joe’s wedding where their niece was just quietly admiring a caterpillar in the corner (which I didn’t blog here just because the posts get way too long). It just reminded me that every person at the wedding is having their own individual experience, and in the moment a child was fascinated in the garden by a little fuzzy caterpillar wondering what kind of butterfly it would be. No one else might have even noticed that there was a caterpillar at the wedding at all, and perhaps its a mundane thing to capture, but to me it speaks to childhood and how children notice everything. It speaks to me about discovery, and fascination of nature, and these are also important stories to tell because it’s part of the story of a wedding from the perspective of the bride’s niece – someone the bride loves so dearly!

Another being I loved capturing at this wedding was the couple’s dog! He’s such an integral part of their lives, and I loved how he’d just wander into the crowd like he was part of a conversation, or find a quiet place to lay down and observe, or find ways of convincing guests to sneak him a little snack.

Anyways I just write this post to sing the praises of the highly underappreciated intimate backyard wedding. I know these weddings rarely make it into wedding magazines or publications but honestly they are SO lovely, and my heart is filled every time I get the opportunity to photography one!