Living Room Wedding Ceremony In Kitchener | Ian And Nicole Celebrate With Close Friends And Family And Dinner At The Keg
What's your ideal vacation?
“Non-alcoholic margaritas on a beach after a day of scuba-diving”
How This Wedding Location Came To Be
The beautiful thing that happened over the course of the pandemic is that folks realized there is no right or wrong way to be married.
Elopements, small weddings, back yard weddings…. living room weddings - it ALL works.
It really all depends on who you are and what is important to you.
If having lots of nature and greenery is important - then go for a forest or field ceremony.
On the other hand, if you just simply want to gather your nearest and dearest - parents, siblings, and a couple of friends - and you don’t really care where you do it… and the forecast calls for rain anyway….
Then?
You get married in your friend’s living room!
Yup, you get married right in the living room in their house, overlooking the cosy suburban Kitchener street.
I love Ian and Nicole’s completely organic approach to their love. They met eight years ago at the university of Waterloo science orientation, where they were grouped into the same colour. Nicole is finishing off her PhD, and in fact during our last chat before the wedding, she joined us on the zoom call from her lab. 😍
For their engagement session, they made perogies in Ian’s parents’ house in Kingston. I mean… that’s pretty awesome!
So, you know their wedding would be no different.
Actually, that it would be different.
When we initially chatted before the wedding, they were toying around with the idea of going to Lonestar after their ceremony. It’s one of their favourite places to eat.
On the actual day of the wedding, though, they decided that the Keg would make just as good a place to eat - it was also the place where they had their first date, I want to say? Though I might be wrong…
So…
When I arrived, Ian and Nicole were hanging out with their friends, and their friends were decorating the living room, putting up flowers and making it pretty.
They popped some bubbly and laughed and chatted with their friends.
It was super chill, and kinda awesome - no stress!
(Nicole had originally planned a slightly bigger wedding in Kingston, but it was proving to be too much stress planning it, so this alternate version in Kitchener, close to their home, was perfect. And no, I don’t mind the drive at all. I got a Volvo and I spend a lot of money on tires, for good reason. Because I love road trips, and I want to make sure that no matter where in Ontario your wedding or elopement happens to be - I’ll make it there safely and in good time!)
I milled around the house, taking photos of them hanging out, as well as a few detail photos of the flowers and such. Wedding details can be really pretty, and I usually use my long (200mm) lens to capture some colourful closeups of the bouquet.
Nicole’s wedding bouquet, as well as a little closeup of her wedding dress by @valentinagowns
After the fun times with friends, Nicole went into the bedroom to put on some makeup and do her hair.
This page was taken out of the wedding album I designed for Nicole and Ian, and I wanted to make sure to give them options. This is why the right panel photograph is edited in black and white, and the two on the left are edited in colour. Choices are good!
At this time, the two kitties somehow escaped from the basement, where they were supposed to be chilling while strangers milled about in their house above. So we went to put them back, and some kitty pets ensued. They sure were cute. 😻
The Ceremony In The Living Room
Right before the ceremony, we had set up Nicole’s phone on my little tripod, so that she could record video footage for her family who couldn’t be there.
Unfortunately, someone who was in charge of this forgot to press record, oops! Nicole wasn’t bothered in the least. :) And there will always be the photos!
I tried to capture Ian and Nicole while they were exchanging vows. In that beautiful light of the window.
I also wanted to get a sense of the atmosphere, of the room… of the close family gathered to watch. Nicole’s two moms and brother. Ian’s parents and sister + sister’s wife. And of course, the two BFFs whose house this is. I flitted around the room trying to get all the angles without being annoying to anyone. That matters particularly in a small place like a living room :)
The ceremony was short, the signing even shorter, and then they were married!
We wanted to get a few family photos in, so we moved the couch a little and the coffee table out of the way, so everyone could squeeze in and I used a little bit of flash on my camera for a bit of extra pop. I think they turned out really well, and the couple will get to have some of those important group and family photos without any fuss or stress, and without posing people for hours (or dragging everyone outside in the rain).
Speaking of, it was just starting to rain, and Nicole commented that she’s happy they had their wedding ceremony in the living room rather than in the back yard, because we would all have been soaked!
We hopped into our vehicles and headed to the Keg (on the way to which, there was a heavy downpour. The kind of downpour where you have to put on your emergency blinkers on the highway so the people behind you can see). Luckily, it was a short-lived one, and by the time we arrived at the Keg, there were just a few puddles left.
Wedding Dinner At The Keg
I stayed for dinner and to snap a few photographs.
The Keg scores points for creating a lovely moody, nighttime atmosphere. Even though I came equipped with many lights, I decided that the photos I took in the restaurant were going to capture that atmosphere, without using lighting equipment.
With an intimate gathering like this one, it’s always a privilege to be able to sit down at the table next to the parents of the marriers. In this case, I was lucky enough to be seated at a table with both Nicole’s moms and Ian’s mom. We talked about nutrition (“what kind of vegan or vegetarian would eat at the Keg?”, Nicole’s mom pondered.
Me!🖐 Haha. I told her later that I’m actually one of those people. Luckily for me, they had a couple of delicious vegan options on the menu. Extra points for the Keg.)
We talked about how her other mother used to skydive since she was very young (when she used to go with her dad) but had to quit because of her knees (she’s 80! and my hero). Nowadays, she just works in the garage on carpentry and such, apparently. Did I mention how cool she is? Her only weakness, she said as she sipped from a steaming mug, was coffee. So she was indulging in one tonight at dinner. It was a special occasion. She would allow herself an extra cup of dinner-time coffee. And really, who am I to argue? Caffeine fuels me, too!
Haha.
This wedding was a super quirky, cute, lovely one in all the ways.
It was a small group, a beautiful setting (in the home of your best friends), and only their most loved folks were there to celebrate with them. (and of course, me…)
I am so lucky to have been invited to this wedding, and I wish Ian and Nicole a lifetime of happiness and nerding out over sciency things, a lifetime of love, and a lifetime of adventures. ❤️