For many reasons this was a very special wedding for Jay and I. When Michelle booked us we had no idea there were so many close connections. I suppose I should make this assumption when shooting close to home. In this case at beautiful Bracebridge United Church,  The Fairways at Kirrie Glen for the reception, and Touchstone on Lake Muskoka. After a few emails back and forth and then a wedding invitation we discovered that Jay and the Groom, Derek grew up together. They were both trouble makers in high school…I had never met Derek but did know his mother who still lives in Sundridge. It was wonderful to be at wedding where there with so many familiar faces. This wedding was also one of our last of the season, Thanksgiving weekend. It was a beautiful way to spend this time of thanks and celebrate the end of season. And most importantly this wedding was so special because of Michelle, our Bride. I discovered early on that Michelle was so not into photographs of herself. In fact it was this preference that drew her to us. She really appreciated our affinity for candid/photojournalistic perspective. I promised Michelle we’d avoid {as much as possible} the typical “smile and look at me” poses. I think we did a pretty good job getting some very sneaky, very beautiful images of her {pssssst, Michelle, you are beeeeeautiful!}. I must say Derek was a total ham, happy to be the centre of attention. He tok the pressure off.

It was a day to remember, rain, snow, sunshine, and wind…a lift truck for the group shot and a romantic power outage to finish it off. Congratulations to Michelle, Derek and your wonderful families! To view the rest of this sneaky wedding album visit Smugmug, http://katehood.smugmug.com/Weddings/Michelle-and-Derek-a-little

And then the power went out. Just like that. regardless the party continued, the generator hummed, and the dancing commenced.