Meet Miquel and Paul, one of our adorable 2011 wedding couples!! They decided on Niagara-On-The-Lake as their shoot location, which was really exciting for us since it is (by far) one of the most quaint little towns within driving distance, and has a TON of great buildings and such to work with. Oh, and a gorgeous lake, of course, hence it’s name. So, we all crossed the border into Canada, and had a blast just walking around town to find different spots to shoot. These two are so laid back, and so much fun to hang out with, that we hardly even noticed we were working (although the 97 degree weather was an unfortunate reminder)!
Before we headed up to Canada, we stopped at a park near Miquel and Paul’s house to grab some pictures of them with “the girls.” This was my favorite. :)
So, like I said, Niagara-On-The-Lake has a ton of cool stuff to shoot around. Like this triangle-shaped bike rack, for example…FUN!!
The Prince of Wales Hotel is always a winner.
I love this shot of Ben’s! It’s totally perfect. :)
Miquel is an English teacher, so we thought some book shots would be completely appropriate. These are super cute!!
There was a wine shop on the main strip in NOTL that had its front windows stuffed with corks, and we thought it would make a sweet backdrop. LOVE the way this turned out!! (Of course, being as gorgeous as Miquel is definitely helps!)
Toward the end of our shoot, we drove down to the lake in the hope of catching an amazing sunset (and hoping to cool off!!).
I am IN LOVE with this one. Are those lashes for real??? Seriously…GORGEOUS.
Taking in the sunset!
Miquel and Paul – Thanks so much for spending some time with us up in NOTL!! We had such a great time just hanging out with you guys, and we’re totally looking forward to the wedding! It’ll be here before you know it. :)
Stacy’s bridesmaids help her get laced up and ready to go!
Stacy, opening her wedding gift from Mike…it was a Kindle!! WOO HOO!! What an awesome gift! I think she likes it. ;)
What a gorgeous color palette for a bouquet! I just love it!
Stacy looked absolutely STUNNING.
The Old Library Inn had all of this amazing woodwork, and a bright blue carpeted stairway with beautiful window light, so I thought this would be a good spot to show off the fabulous train on Stacy’s dress. I’m pretty darn happy with the way this turned out. ;)
Meanwhile, over at the St. Bonaventure campus, Ben was hanging out with the boys, and capturing some AWESOME pre-ceremony moments!
These might be some of the best groomsmen shots I’ve ever seen…nice work, Ben!! Of course, it definitely helps if your groomsmen are as laid back and cooperative as Mike’s were – thanks guys! :)
The ceremony was in St. Bonaventure’s University Chapel, which was actually pretty cool and modern looking, as far as churches go. Stacy making “the walk” down the aisle with her dad…
I love this shot SO MUCH. They walked back up the aisle, past all of their guests, and as soon as they got to the door, they both had these huge smiles on their faces. It was such a great moment to capture!
The St. Bonaventure campus was absolutely loaded with amazing things to shoot. I think they must’ve have built this building with wedding photography in mind. Double fire escapes?? C’mon…what are the odds?
I heart ivy-covered anything.
The famous bushes that spell out “St. Bonaventure…”
Then, we got to spend a few minutes alone with the bride and groom for some fabulous wedding day portraits. These two are SO easy to photograph – they are so comfortable with each other, and so obviously in love – an absolute pleasure to work with. :)
After we left the St. Bona campus, we headed on over to the reception at The Old Library Restaurant. Mike and Stacy make their grand entrance, and go right into their first dance (there was a lot of twirling involved – it was very cute)!
Rumor has it that Mike had a hand in the making/assembly of this cake. (If this rumor is true, then color me impressed!!) The chocolate tuxedo is the groom’s cake – so cute!
A little wedding cake feeding…
Normally, I would never post two ring shots, but I couldn’t decide between my favorite one of Ben’s and my favorite one of mine. Usually, we borrow the rings from the bride and groom at the start of dinner, and we each take a turn with the macro lens. It’s become sort of a friendly competition between Ben and I (and it gives us something to do while people are eating). The rules of the competition? We can’t watch what the other person is doing during their turn, the ring shots have to correlate (if possible) to the theme of the wedding, and we can’t tell the other where we went or what we shot during our 10 minute turn. The results are usually very interesting indeed. But, anyway, I thought both of these shots were stellar. :)
The garter/bouquet toss happened after dinner, and then the dance floor opened up and it was PACKED all night long!
I have never seen anyone pull off this dance move at a wedding reception before. It’s probably one of those things you get to see only once in a lifetime, like Haley’s Comet, or a Blue Moon. I feel honored to have caught it. This girl and this guy: you are the bomb. ;)
Love and Sabres jerseys…ADORABLE!
Standing on tiptoes is also ridiculously adorable…
GO SABRES!!!
Shortly after the super fun jump shot, they changed out of their jerseys and we took a few more cool shots around the arena.
From the top of the parking garage next to the arena…gotta love the Buffalo News trucks in the background!!
Then, we went inside the parking garage, and played around with all the cool stuff in there for a while. Awesome stairs…
Awesome circle thing-y…
…awesome cables, and an AWESOME COUPLE!!!
The rain tried to crash our party, but we pressed on throughout the sprinkles to grab this sweet shot. We were both loving the “Queen City” signage.
I love this one of Ben’s!! It started to rain a lot harder at this point, but Lindsey and Joe didn’t even care! How great is that?? They are HARD CORE.
Raining, raining, raining…but, I love this shot (and I love the man who let us use his building)!!
The sprinkles turned into monsoon like conditions, but we still decided to go check out the newer, more modern-looking lighthouse at the Marina. We climbed up a billion flights of stairs to get there…no, I kid. It was about 5 flights, but it felt like a billion. :)
It may have been a wild, wet, and windy storm outside, but these two hardly even noticed. Now that’s TRUE LOVE!! :)
by Ayres Photography
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