Kaitlin and Dan had a gorgeous wedding at the Woods at Bear Creek in Franklinville, NY! A little back story on the location. Kaitlin's parents are the owners of Rapid's Theatre in Niagara Falls. Then they bought this location and started hosting weddings at Bear Creek! We could not wait to photograph a wedding there. When we first met with Kaitlin and Dan, they were up in the air about which one of the two locations they wanted for the wedding. The bride's sister got married at Rapid's so she wanted to be different. We could not be more excited because we had not been to the Woods at Bear Creek yet.
They gave us a cabin to stay in for the weekend of the wedding, as we were traveling a few hours to get there. This was perfect because we could scope out everything the day before the wedding. We were also able to attend the wedding rehearsal and get all the details for the day! We had already planned out the spots we wanted to use for photos for the wedding. After the ceremony rehearsal we had a quick chat with the couple about our ideas. They could not be more excited!
All of the guests (including us) who stayed on the property were given golf carts to get around in. It was so fun to see a bunch of golf carts parked for the ceremony. Then everyone did the short drive over to the reception hall. For an end of the night shot, we knew we wanted to have some fun with the newlyweds. We brought some smoke bombs for the occasion. We all took golf carts to get up this hill right across from the reception. We could still hear the music playing from there! We already had lights set up. Neal told the bride and groom how he wanted them to pose. Then he headed down toward the bottom of the hill to get this angle. I was in charge of lighting and the smoke bomb. I was terrified to pull the cord. All I was thinking was this thing may explode. The couple was laughing at me the whole time. The pin was pulled and smoke started pouring out of this thing. Almost too much. I was running back and forth behind Kaitlin and Dan to try and create some funky smoke effects. The smoke started to completely surround the bride and groom almost to the point we couldn't see them. Neal was yelling to have me move back because I could not see what he was seeing. Then we heard, "We got it. Let's get back to the party!"
This was such a fun image to create for Kaitlin and Dan. They were up for all of our crazy ideas. They knew us and our work and trusted our ideas! We were so happy to be a part of their wedding day!
Location: 3510 Bear Creek Rd. Franklinville, NY 14737.
