Saturday's wedding takes us to the portfolio of Pacific Northwest photographer, James Moes and the beautiful outdoor (Steveston, B.C) wedding of Michelle and Martin. Michelle was kind enough to share the details of their beautiful day:
Our wedding took place at The Richmond London Heritage Farm near Steveston. I grew up in Richmond and when Martin and I were looking for a venue I knew the Heritage farm would be the perfect spot. We wanted our wedding to be outside because who doesn't like a summer outdoor bbq wedding?!? We both nodded and smiled in unison when we walked onto the property. It had a chicken farm, large community garden in the back, lush garden in the front, big red barn, and of course the beautiful 1880's farmhouse.
Martin and I wanted to add a few special touches to our ceremony. The day wasn't just about Martin and I joining in marriage, but also our families. We had a little ceremony to celebrate the union of our families which we titled 'Family Circle'. In addition, we wanted to pay respects to my heritage so we performed a small tea ceremony where the couple serves tea to the parents to give thanks and in return the parents give a blessing.
A lot of this wedding was D.I.Y. We saved a lot of money doing it this way and it allowed me to give it my personal touch. It's near impossible to get it perfect, but by making the decorations and all I was able to create a celebration that was foremost fun for Martin our friends and family. I bought my dress from a consignment shop in New West. The dress wasn't 'it' when I first saw it, but there was potential. So I worked with the seamstress to get it where I wanted it to be. Almost EVERYTHING was done with the help of family and friends!
Martin and I are huge fan of bikes. Our friends and us commute regularly on our two wheel steeds and Martin plays bike polo (youtube it if you haven't seen!). Martin's groomsmen are all from the bike polo community; Ben from Chicago, Jason from Portland, and Rory from East Vancouver. Martin had the idea that he wanted to ride me out of the wedding on a bicyle, so he borrowed a front loader bicycle from Super Champion, strapped on a couple pillows in the front, and voila, my very own bicycle service!
When Martin and I started to search for caterers, we were really discouraged to learn they were so expensive. I didn't want to sacrifice taste for funds, so to solve the problem I asked my best friend Mim to do the catering for us -no better way to save money than to do it yourself! We wanted a relaxed barbeque-type reception so we came up with a menu of fresh seasonal salads and yummy barbeque meats. A lot of the produce was sourced locally from Langley and the Salmon from Chilliwack. Mim didn't do it alone of course, she had her lovely partner in crime, Katie to help and we hired a friend of a friend, Matt. All of the desserts were baked by friends and family. My cousin (who was also my maid of honour) made all the cupcakes, Martin's mother provided the best pies and the rest were baked by friends!
Thank you Michelle and Martin for sharing your amazing day with us here and to James Moes for allowing us to use the photographs! To see more of their gorgeous wedding click here!
Location: Richmond London Heritage Farm
Photographer: James Moes
