Valerie & Doug's Wedding at The Lakehouse - Halifax, MA
Valerie and Doug got married at The Lakehouse in Halifax on an overcast evening in April, the first spring wedding we've photographed on this lake.
The Lakehouse brought them to us — we're on the venue's preferred vendor list — and they told us early that they don't love being in front of a camera and would want direction all day. We appreciated the honesty, and it made the day an easy one to shoot. They came up from Connecticut, and the story that got the biggest laugh at the reception was the one about their first date. Doug hadn't quite realized it was a date, went out with his friends beforehand and turned up a little worse for wear — and they've been telling the story themselves ever since.
The Lakehouse sits right on Monponsett Pond, and the last time we shot here the lake was frozen under three feet of snow. This time we had open water and an early spring that hadn't fully leafed out yet, along with our first outdoor ceremony on the property.
The morning
before everything begins.
Valerie got ready across two hotel rooms, her bridal party and Doug's two young nieces — the flower girls — in the middle of all of it. The music was loud and the room was already moving when we walked in, and there was nothing to do but match it. Tied to her bouquet was her great-grandmother's ring. The diamond from it now sits in Valerie's engagement ring, with a sapphire from her mother set in its place — one heirloom standing in as her something old, new, borrowed and blue all at once.
The moment
it all becomes real.
They married outside, facing the water, with a violinist and a cellist playing them in and out. The sky stayed overcast the whole evening, which handed us soft, even light with no harsh shadows and no rain to plan around. After a first visit here buried in snow, seeing the property in open air felt like meeting it for the first time all over again.
Just the two
of them.
We started with a first look on the dock, which is the picture everyone has in mind when they think of The Lakehouse. We keep full wedding parties off the dock as a rule, so the group formals happened on the lawn behind the ceremony space, and from there we worked our way around the grounds — the grand front entrance, the walkways, an wooden gate that framed a shot well. Having Emily shooting alongside us kept a tight window moving, her running the guys' formals while I worked with the women.
Where the night
takes over.
The wedding party came in as one group behind a lit-up neon sign, running off a battery in somebody's pocket, and the energy stayed right there for the rest of the night. The moment that stayed with us was the two mothers' joint welcome — carefully written, clearly rehearsed and more moving than either of them likely planned for. The best man's speech went the other way entirely, his wife holding up diagrams and old photos of Doug while he talked, and the room came apart laughing. And somewhere in the middle of the dancing, the bride who'd told us she didn't love a camera on her hit the floor and did the worm.
Let's make something
like this together.
We've now photographed The Lakehouse in deep snow and in early spring, and we know how the property moves through a day — the dock, the lawn behind the ceremony space, the light coming off the water. If you're planning your wedding there, we'd love to hear about your day.
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