Carolyn Bentum Photography

Last summer you may remember that I had the privilege of photographing my sister and brother-in-law’s gorgeous wedding.   After Matt & Heidi’s wedding I was pretty beat, like it took me days to recover beat– that probably had to do with my kiddos being the ring bearers, my husband being the MC and having spent lots of energy beforehand creating and decorating (if you are reading this Heid, just know I wouldn’t have changed a thing).

After Matt & Heidi’s big day I almost promised myself that I wouldn’t work a family wedding again…but then I realized that, although it may be more work because I have to be “on” for the photography aspect and and “on” for the socializing; I wouldn’t want it any other way.  I work really hard to capture each and every one of my couples to the best of my creative ability; and I hope that the fruits of my labour will always be treasured not only by the couple, but by their family and by the future generations that come from their marriage.  I have now changed my perspective, I feel extra blessed to capture a family wedding because I am a part of the family who will relive, retell and remember not only the wedding, but the love that brought us all together to celebrate that day.

By now you’ve all probably figured it out, but I’m so excited to be working with my beautiful cousin and her fiancé for their July 2014 wedding.

Marc and Yvonne couldn’t be more perfect for each other!  To start off, the name Marc is one that easily rolls off Yvonne’s tongue since she spent her entire childhood and I’m sure even into adulthood speaking and sometimes shouting this name.  Marc “with a C”, as he is identified, will be the second Mark in our family, since Yvonne has a younger brother with his namesake.

Another reason these two are absolutely perfect for each other is, to state the obvious, I’m not sure there were too many other men out there that would allow Yvonne to dawn a nice set of heels and still require her to look up, and not the other way around.  I thought that our family was generally pretty tall until Marc came along and he easily squashed our height proudness.

Lastly, these two are absolutely perfect for each other because when they are together you can just tell they bring out the best in each other.  Marc treats Yvonne so well and it shows every time her eyes catch a glimpse of him and it makes her eyes sparkle.  Yvonne completes Marc and it shows as he becomes absorbed in her touch and embrace, and he seems refreshed by her presence.

Don’t worry Marc, I won’t tell anyone in the family that you are more ticklish than Yvonne…whoops, I guess I just did.

As long as you don’t make my kids your ring bearers and my husband your MC, I’ll totally be your wedding photographer…just kidding!  In all honesty, I’m so honoured to be involved in your big day as your photographer and I’m so excited to be the one who gets to capture and share your love story with our family.

You all know I love repeat clients; this couple is half a repeat client – and no one of them hasn’t been married before.   Let’s go way back (it makes me feel old as I write that),  to the late 90′s when I became an independent business owner for the first time. I was the head – and the only – swimming instructor in a little backyard business called Care’s Diving Dolphins (don’t judge highschool me for my lack of creativity).  It was in my swimming pool where our paths first crossed, you see I taught Steph swimming lessons for a couple of summers.  And although it made me feel a little old (again) when I got their inquiry and Steph wanted to know if I remembered her from those swimming lesson days, I was beyond thrilled when we booked their November wedding so I would get to be a “part” of her life again.

I don’t know if it was the fact that they hadn’t seen each other in awhile (you see Ryan was working as an industrial firefighter out West for sometime), or because they were so excited that Ryan’s plans of heading back to the West for a few more months had changed and now he was home for good, or because they practiced (they are hard core people– practicing some poses before we even got together – LOVE IT!!!) but these two knocked it out of the park during their engagement session.  Their joy in being together was just so obvious and the distance they had experienced since the last time Ryan was home didn’t affect how comfortable they were together either. Couple their sweet love with their good looks and ideal lighting conditions and I hardly had to touch up a photo in the set.

I’m happy our paths have crossed again Steph (& Ryan by affiliation)!  I’m so looking forward to capturing your beautiful November wedding!

I feel I say it a LOT, but my couples are just so sweet together.  This description, yet again, fits Kyle & Marlene perfectly!  Their quiet and steady love could be felt  as we worked and, I feel, was captured perfectly in these photos.  Don’t think for a minute though that these two are all quiet; they definitely like to have fun and are pretty cute when they “play”.  However, as I was selecting images though for this post, I found myself drawn to the images that shared strongly their quiet and steady love as they snuggled, looked into each other’s eyes and a shared sweet words.  Thanks again for the great evening Kyle & Marlene!  I’m so excited to work with you both again for your beautiful September wedding!  Happy Friday All!

Always and Forever…this has become this gorgeous couple’s “tagline”.  From the first moments they knew they would be together forever, this little saying would be whispered often between the two of them and found at the bottom of every love letter they shared. This little saying was also the way that Erick made sure that Stefanie knew his public, painted proposal on the University of Guelph’s campus cannon was for her (You can read the University of Guelph’s version of this sweet proposal here).  And I’ve been told that I’ll be seeing this phrase as part of their wedding theme/decorations (can I say that I cannot wait to see all of their amazing plans come to fruition?!?).

Just as always and forever has an important place in Erick and Stefanie’s relationship so does the University of Guelph.  Since this is where they met, fell in love and where Erick proposed it was naturally the perfect place to capture their engagement session.  I hope that as they look back on these photos they will always bring back not only fun memories of our time together, but more importantly fond memories of the many moments they shared in and around  campus as they fell in love for always and forever.