Some weddings take months of planning and a timeline broken into fifteen minute chunks. And then there are days like this one with Aleisha and Jay, where the entire thing happened in about an hour, start to finish, and it still ended up being one of the most beautiful hours I've photographed in a long time.
This was an elopement at The Inn at Westwynd Farm, a venue I've worked at before and genuinely love coming back to. Jorie and everyone on the team there treat every couple like family, and it shows in every detail. For Aleisha and Jay's day, Westwynd took care of it all, the flowers, the cake, every last piece. All I had to do was show up and photograph it.
Meeting Aleisha and Jay
I met Aleisha and Jay for the first time that evening, and it took about thirty seconds to know this was going to be a good one. Jay is a character, cracking jokes and telling stories the whole time we walked around the property. Aleisha had an easy, happy calm about her that balanced him out perfectly. They were clearly two people who liked being around each other, which honestly makes my job easy.
The Ceremony
We walked out to the arbor together, where Minister Paul performed their ceremony, and the light that evening could not have cooperated better. The sun was setting right behind Aleisha and Jay, wrapping them in this warm spotlight with green fields and the horse paddocks rolling out behind them. It's the kind of light you hope for on every wedding day and only get exactly right every once in a while. This was one of those times.
Portraits With the Horses
After the ceremony we walked down toward the horses for a few portraits, and this is where the day got really fun. One of the horses took an immediate liking to Jay, leaning over the fence and getting right up in his space. At one point it looked like the horse was going in for a kiss. Jay played along like it was the most natural thing in the world, and we ended up with some of my favorite images of the night out of it.
Our Fourth Guest: Zodiac
Every elopement gets a surprise guest, and this one was a barn cat named Zodiac. I am told he normally keeps his distance from weddings. Not this time. Zodiac decided he loved Aleisha, and he stuck close by her from the ceremony all the way through our last shot as the sun went down. Between the horse falling for Jay and the cat falling for Aleisha, it felt like even the animals at Westwynd Farm knew these two belonged together.
The Last Light
We wrapped up right as the sun dropped below the tree line, one last shot before I packed up and headed out. An hour, start to finish, and somehow it felt like nothing was missing. Just a couple, a minister, a farm full of animals, and some really good light.
Thank you to The Inn at Westwynd Farm for another beautiful evening, and to Aleisha and Jay for letting me be part of it.
