Jonna and Kyle had a lovely, small wedding/elopement at the beautiful On The River Inn in Woodstock, Vermont and Annie Alexander-Kramer was the officiant. Annie and I have worked to together a lot and I honestly feel she is the best officiant in the area, friendly, professional and such fun to work with! This was however, my first time to photograph a wedding at On The River Inn and what a wonderful surprise! Everyone was so friendly and helpful and the Inn is amazing, with so many wedding photo opportunities, my only regret was the weather was not quite warm enough for us to go down to the river to shoot some romance photos, but we were able to get some lovely wedding photos by the pond.
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This was only a 2 hour wedding and attended by Kyle's brother and his mother and Jonna's best friend and her two children and the following photos give you an idea of just how much is covered in a 2 hour wedding or portrait session.
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We started inside the hotel and I loved the natural light coming through the windows. Whenever possible I always try and photograph my weddings and portraits in natural light, especially since the light here in Vermont is so beautiful.Â
From there we went into the 506 Tavern, inside On The River Inn and the bar there is just wonderful! I felt like I stepped into a 1920's movie set and completely understood why Jonna had specifically asked for some wedding photos there.
Here are a few more photos we did in the 506 Tavern before heading outside for the wedding ceremony by the pond.
After a quick break we braved the cold and all went outside by the pond for Annie Alexander-Kramer to perform the wedding ceremony. On The River Inn is actually "on the river" and if it had not been so bitterly cold we would have gone down there for the wedding ceremony, but the pond was just outside the inn and it was easy to step inside the warm lobby area and thaw out.
Jonna was a radiant bride and you would never guess how cold she really was.
Before the wedding ceremony began, Jonna and her best friend had a wonderful, tender moment together. I love it when I am able to photograph those candid, wedding moments. In this case I was afraid the bride would start crying before the ceremony, but Jonna held back the tears.
The wedding ceremony was lovely and I never tire of listening to my couple's personal vows, poems they write or favorites readings. In this case Annie read them out while the couple listened, Jonna still fighting back the tears.
Then it was time for some family photos.
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As well as the traditional family wedding photos, I always try and incorporate some candid photos when I am photographing the bridal party and it was easy to get Kyle and his brother, Jeremy to laugh it up a bit!
I love to see and photograph children at weddings and these two were just adorable!
I also had a quick chance to photograph the rosary beads wrapped around Joanna's bridal bouquet and then Kyle added his father's rosary to be photographed as well.
After the bridal party photographs we all stepped inside the hotel to warm up a bit before I photographed the wedding romance session and I noticed this great shot of Jonna in the hallway while Kyle held the door.
It was starting to get a bit late so we had to hurry and get the wedding romance session photographs before it got too dark. Once again it was just too cold to go down to the river so we photographed the entire romance session just outside the On The River Inn, in front of the pond.
We only had about 15 minutes for this romance session, so there was virtually no time to do a lot of "poses", but photographing Jonna and Kyle was like photographing super models! In small elopements and weddings there is very little tension and/or stress and it is quite easy to get the couple to relax and enjoy the photo session and Jonna and Kyle were no exception.
Then it was time to have one more quick photo session inside the 506 Tavern before Jonna and Kyle had their wedding dinner in the restaurant. They had mentioned they liked the large leather couch just inside the tavern and as the wedding couple waked into the room the hotel and restaurant guests all wished them well with congratulations and a lively applause. Woodstock, Vermont is such a friendly town and I cannot think of a better place to have a wedding or elopement!
