M & A's Wedding at The Eldorado

The Hotel Eldorado in Kelowna does two things SUPER WELL- buffet breakfasts and weddings!

Marissa & Patrick got married there on July 9th 2022. I loved the room that she was getting ready in because we had a great view of Okanagan Lake to be able to do these stunning backlit portraits of Marissa before Patrick arrived for his first look.

I even made sure to get a photo of her recently passed dogs collar that she was wearing as a bracelet 😭

Her nude illusion dress was one of my favorite dresses of this wedding season, and her boho style was absolutely my jam!

When Patrick came in for their first look, it was the perfect private moment between the two of them. I love first looks because it gives you private time together to feel all of your emotions, and that's exactly what happened with these two. It was perfect.

Before we snuck away to the ceremony, Marissa wanted to do one more first look... with her dad.

AND THEN WE ALL CRIED!

The tears well up just putting this gallery together. What a special honour it is for me to capture these moments for them. These photos will mean so much to both of them, forever. The wedding day dad stuff always cut to the core of me because I am a total dad's girl.

Then we snuck away to the gorgeous ceremony in the Vintage Room.

The ceremony was beautiful and sweet, officiated by the lovely Bonnie Thorn, who did a wonderful job as always.

After the ceremony, we snuck off to every corner of the Eldorado to do photos with the wedding party and everything was in bloom so the portraits turned out stunning!

I think this wedding made me fall in love with blue suits in the wedding party.

One of my favorite parts of this wedding was that Marissa had a Best Man of Honour, her best friend of years and years, and he was twice her height so we got to do this fun comparison photo.

The reception was definitely a highlight of the wedding! The Bride's HILARIOUS sister was the MC and she was told everything was on the table. Nothing was off limits. And she went there! 😆

This Bride was so energetic the entire night, and by the speeches, I could tell she's probably always that awesome. She danced harder than anyone else and I hope that's the kind of Bride I am on my big day.

The stories were all hilarious, and both sides of the family had a knack for speeches, so my face hurt from smiling by the time I was walking back to my car at the end of the night.

Getting to hear wedding speeches is one of the best parts of my career.

As the sun was setting I had to pull the couple away from their reception so that we could do these fun shots.

While we were out doing the photos, Marissa fell in love with this person's dog and for a minute I thought we were for sure going to be leaving with it. The Bride is a dog person and that's obviously why we got along so smashingly.

The Bride was also insistent on a sunset sparkler exit on the lake, but by sunset, the wind coming off of the lake was relentless, and half the guests were also three sheets to the wind, so this was the beautiful chaos we captured!

The first dances were beautifully emotional.

In the first photos you see the Groom's parents watching their first dance, and his parents were both this tearful all day. They were loving on their son the way I love on my 3 year old son. It was precious.

There's also a photo where you see the Groom dancing with his mom in the foreground, and it's focused on his dad standing next to the Bride's Dad in the background. It's just the most priceless expression on his dads face.

All of these dances just made everyone's hearts melt.

The Bride's dance with her father was epic and they both rocked out like they were the only two people in the room.

This family knew how to dance! And let loose. And they did.

It was the perfect reception party. I wish that all wedding guests would always let loose like this at weddings because that's what weddings are for! It was amazing, and you can see by these photos that EVERYONE was living their best lives that night.

At the end of the day I walked away exhausted and full of so much love. These two came from out of town for their wedding and after just our short time together, I felt like I knew them on another level. It was such an honour to spend their wedding day with them, illustrating the start of this new chapters of their life together. This is what Marissa had to say about working with me:

"Selina was amazing! She is incredibly talented and knew exactly what to capture. I loved how comfortable she made everyone feel. I would recommend Selina to everyone.

I had a crazy idea to use sparklers when it was windy on the dock… she went with it. Haha it didn’t work out well but we have some funny picture from that moment.

I truly cannot say enough things about the hard work she does. We were from out of town and she made us feel organized and ready for our big day by simply meeting us virtually."