You know I love my iPhone. I take so many images on it and have such a blast breaking boundaries and trying new things with it, since it allows me to just be creative without a ton of technical settings to fiddle with each time. I have been considering photographing a wedding with my iPhone for a little while and in September I decided to throw the idea out into the world to see what would fly back to me. What flew back to me were two of the sweetest, most fun and relaxed people I could have ever imagined. Brittany connected with me over the Labour Day weekend in response to my call out, basically open to whatever I had in mind, including the wedding date! So we selected a date that worked for all of us, which happened to be about two weeks after our first chat and she and Elroy started planning the day. For my part, I knew that I wanted to make the most of this for them, checking out different iPhone shooting techniques online and pre-scouting the location they chose for the best little spots to capture the moments.
Finally the big day arrived and I knew as soon as we all met in person that they were the perfect couple for this little whimsy of mine. They laughed at my jokes, didn't take themselves too seriously and had a loving supportive family to witness their simple, lovely ceremony.
Once they were wed, they gave me free rein to take them wherever my heart desired, so we hit downtown Kitchener to check out various parking lots and back alleys and just have a damn good time. They playfully ran together, let me flash them in the bushes and braved darkened warehouses. In short, they were PHENOMENAL.
I asked them to tell their story for the blog, so that they could share in their own words why they decided to participate in this project with me. Here is what they had to say:
"We have known each other through friends of friends for a long time. We started dating in 2010. Three months into our relationship we went to Cuba for a week.. something Elroy’s friends asked him if he was sure about it... they asked, “This soon?” That was a big step in our relationship.
After a year, we both knew we wanted to buy a house. After we had been in the house for a while, we knew we wanted a baby. Baby before marriage, not a route most people would prefer. At the time we weren’t too big on marriage, starting a family was our priority.
We eventually came around to the idea of tying the knot. We knew there can be a lot of stress surrounding a big wedding – that was what we wanted to avoid. Our families knew we wanted something small and simple. Not everyone was happy about it, but this was the way we wanted to celebrate our love.
We kept talking about getting married, we took a trip to Asia and even thought about doing it there, but we didn’t... (Brittany thinks Elroy was still nervous!) Labour day weekend, Elroy says “I think we should get married in September”. Brittany’s priority was making sure she got her hair done. Luckily Brittany’s hair stylist, Hollie, is also her friend and was more than willing to squeeze her in for the special event. Hollie also happens to follow Mandy on social media and she put us in touch when Mandy’s status said she was looking for a laid-back wedding to shoot with her iPhone.
We checked out Mandy’s portfolio… we felt her work was so genuine and candid, like she was a professional at freezing special moments in time. We got in touch with Mandy and told her we were so laid back that we didn’t even have a date yet. She chose September 25 (good choice Mandy, the weather was great!). We had 2 weeks to make arrangements : get rings, a dress, a marriage licence and an officiant. We invited our parents.
By talking to Mandy on the phone, we got to know her sense of humor. Brittany laughed the day of when everyone was there but Elroy & Mandy jokingly asked if the groom was coming. We had a beautiful and brief ceremony at Rockway Gardens in Kitchener. After that we went with Mandy to take pictures. She had us laughing the entire time! Elroy doesn’t usually like getting his picture taken, but he said everything with Mandy was so natural – it didn’t feel like a photoshoot!"
I felt the exact same way you guys - just like hanging out with firends and taking some pictures. Pretty darn awesome.
Thank you so much Brittany + Elroy for being so open, genuine and willing to go on this adventure with me!
M xo
(All images taken with an iPhone 6 and edited using the VSCOcam app.)
