Over a warm and sunny Thanksgiving weekend, I met Kara and Joel at Lynn Canyon Park to kick off their wedding day celebrations. Kara told me they chose to have their wedding over Thanksgiving weekend because she loved the idea of getting married over a holiday whose principles are rooted in gratitude and family. Also, as food lovers, the bonus being that Thanksgiving has a major focus on meals and eating with your loved ones.

Kara and Joel decided to have their Vancouver Beachhouse wedding be an intimate affair, with only approximately 45 guests. Kara explained they really wanted to focus and honour the consistent people in their life who have in some way or another helped shape them into the people, and couple, that her and Joel are.

In another recent wedding blog post (Lauren & Connor Merridale Cidery Wedding), I talked about how your wedding can be whatever you want it to be. Kara and Joel’s Vancouver Beachhouse wedding was very much the same in that they worked outside of norms and traditions in deciding how they wanted their day to unfold. Being a smaller, more intimate wedding, I found their day to be wonderfully fluid and relaxed. We did portraits before the ceremony giving ourselves plenty of time to allow for Kara and Joel to really ‘be’ together intimately. They didn’t have a traditional bridal party either, which allowed more time just the two of them, to soak up their afternoon before meeting up with all their guests.

Kara and Joel wanted their guests to truly enjoy each other’s company. They were looking forward to people from different parts of their lives coming together to get to know one another. Looking through the photos you can really see that’s exactly what happened. I saw friends mingling with parents, friends mingling with friends, and even the kiddos from the different families mingling together. There was so much laughter going around on that little Beachhouse balcony, and I was grateful that I felt like I blended right in to capture it all.

Thank you so much Kara and Joel for inviting me in amongst your most intimate family and friends to document this truly special day.

For anyone out there planning their intimate- (or not)- wedding, I’d love to work with you! Get in touch HERE.

Collaborators for this beautiful wedding:

Venue: The Beachhouse Vancouver

Dress: Everly Bridal

Hair: Annie from Supernova Salon

Make up: Jude from Supernova Salon