Some wedding days have a way of giving you stories that you’ll still be talking about years later. Julianna and Cole’s wedding at The White Poplar was one of those days.
For starters, the temperature was over 40 degrees. Everyone was doing their best to stay cool, find some shade, and make it through the day without completely melting. And somehow, through all of it, Julianna and Cole stayed relaxed, laughed their way through the unexpected, and made the day feel completely like their own.
Then there was the cake.
Julianna had ordered a regular-sized wedding cake and ended up with a much smaller one than she expected.
Instead of letting it become a problem, she thought it was hilarious.
So naturally, we made photographs of it.
Those two details: the heat and the tiny cake, probably weren’t what Julianna and Cole imagined when they started planning their wedding. But that’s part of what makes a wedding gallery so meaningful. Years from now, those are the kinds of things that can bring you right back to the day.
And alongside all of that, we created a collection of photographs that feels clean, classic, editorial, and timeless.
Getting Ready at The White Poplar
The morning of a wedding is full of small pieces coming together.
The dress. Hair and makeup. The people helping. The conversations happening while everyone gets ready.
For Julianna, those details gave us a beautiful place to start the story of the day.
I love photographing these parts of a wedding because they don’t require much production. There is already so much happening naturally.
Someone is making a final adjustment.
Someone is laughing.
Someone is checking the schedule.
Someone is helping the bride with her dress.
Those photographs help establish the atmosphere before the ceremony even begins.
And because The White Poplar allows so much of the wedding day to happen in one place, we don’t have to spend the morning worrying about getting from one location to another.
The day can simply unfold.
A First Look at The White Poplar
There’s something special about seeing each other for the first time on your wedding day.
After all the getting ready, the little details, and everything happening around you, the first look gives you a chance to slow down for a minute and actually take each other in.
For Julianna and Cole, it was a sweet and playful start to the afternoon.
Julianna made her way over to Cole, and when he turned around, the nerves and anticipation of the day seemed to disappear for a moment. They smile, take each other in, and have a little time together before everything else began.
I love that first looks don’t have to be overly serious. Some couples cry. Some laugh. Some are completely stunned. And some, like Julianna and Cole, just settle into the moment and enjoy being together.
It also gives us a little breathing room before the ceremony. We can take our time with portraits, wander around the property, and make photographs without feeling like we’re rushing from one part of the day to the next.
For Julianna and Cole, that meant we could let their portraits unfold naturally. Some were more polished, while others caught the two of them laughing, moving, and simply being themselves.
Looking back at these photographs, you can still feel how excited they were to finally be there. And I think that’s what makes a first look so worth remembering—not just seeing each other for the first time, but having a few quiet minutes together before the rest of the wedding day takes over.
A Ceremony in the Summer Heat
The outdoor ceremony at The White Poplar was beautiful, although there was no escaping the heat that day.
With the trees, open space, and natural surroundings, the setting already gives you so much to work with photographically. It doesn’t need much added to it.
Before the ceremony, everyone was getting settled and waiting for Julianna to make her way down the aisle. Then suddenly, it was time.
Once Julianna and Cole were standing together, everything else seemed to fade into the background. There were the little looks between them, the smiles, the nerves, and all those quiet moments that happen throughout a ceremony without anyone really noticing them at the time.
I always like mixing those closer photographs with wider images that show the whole setting. Years from now, those wider photographs will bring back more than just what the ceremony looked like. They’ll remind Julianna and Cole where they were, what the day felt like, and how many people were there to celebrate with them.
And despite the 40+ degree weather, they were such good sports about everything. We had to be a little more mindful about the heat and make sure there was time to breathe, but they never let it get in the way of enjoying their day.
Honestly, that’s what stood out most. It was an incredibly hot wedding day, but everyone stayed relaxed, laughed through it, and just kept going.
Portraits That Feel Like Them
Once we got into portrait time, we could focus on creating the photographs that would become some of the most recognizable images from their wedding.
I wanted a mix of classic, editorial, and natural portraits.
Some photographs are more composed, with clean lines and intentional framing.
Others are much more relaxed.
A walk together.
A conversation.
A laugh.
A moment where they forgot about the camera.
That combination is important to me because I don’t think couples should have to choose between beautiful portraits and photographs that feel genuine.
You can have both.
The best portrait sessions usually aren’t about holding a pose perfectly. They’re about giving couples enough direction that they feel confident, then allowing them to interact naturally within that direction.
Julianna and Cole made that particularly easy.
And Then the Cake Was Tiny
I don’t think we can write about this wedding without giving the cake its own section.
Julianna had ordered what she thought would be a normal-sized wedding cake.
Instead, a mini cake arrived.
And she found the whole thing hilarious.
Which meant we had absolutely no choice but to photograph it.
I love moments like this because they aren’t something you can manufacture.
Nobody plans to have a miniature wedding cake.
Nobody puts “make hilarious cake photographs” on their wedding timeline.
It just happens.
And suddenly, something that could have been disappointing becomes one of the stories you tell about your wedding.
That’s the kind of thing I want to preserve.
Not just the perfectly planned details, but the unexpected ones too.
Because those are often the details that make a wedding unmistakably yours.
The Photographs You Didn’t Know Were Happening
When Julianna received her wedding gallery, she mentioned something that really stood out to me.
There were photographs of little moments that she and Cole hadn’t actually seen happen.
That’s one of the reasons I photograph beyond the obvious moments.
Your wedding day is happening in several places at once.
While you’re talking to one person, someone else is laughing across the room.
While you’re taking family photographs, your friends are catching up nearby.
While you’re getting ready, your parents or wedding party are having conversations you may never hear.
You can’t see everything.
And you shouldn’t have to.
Part of my job is to pay attention to all of it.
Those photographs might not be the ones you expected to receive, but they can end up being some of the most meaningful.
They give you a version of your wedding day that you simply couldn’t experience for yourself.
Celebrating at The White Poplar
By the time the reception was underway, everyone had made it through the heat and could finally settle into the celebration.
The atmosphere shifted from getting everything done to actually enjoying the evening.
There were speeches, reactions, conversations, laughter, and plenty happening around the room.
This is where a wedding gallery starts to become more than a collection of portraits.
The photographs begin to show the people who came to celebrate with you.
The friends.
The family.
The people listening to the speeches.
The people laughing at the tables.
The moments on the dance floor.
Those photographs give the day context.
And when they’re mixed with the more polished portraits and details, you end up with a gallery that feels complete.
A Wedding That Wasn’t About Everything Going Perfectly
Looking back at Julianna and Cole’s wedding, I don’t think the things that made the day memorable were the things they could have planned.
The weather certainly wasn’t planned.
Neither was the tiny cake.
But both became part of the story.
And that is one of my favourite things about weddings.
You can spend months planning a day down to the smallest detail, but once it actually arrives, you have to let yourself experience it.
Julianna and Cole did exactly that.
They laughed.
They stayed relaxed.
They trusted their vendors.
They made the most of the circumstances.
And they ended up with a wedding gallery filled with photographs that feel personal rather than overly produced.
Julianna’s review after the wedding said it better than I could. After their engagement session and wedding day, she said she and Cole were extremely pleased with their photographs and described receiving their album of more than 1,000 images as a “WOW” moment.
What meant the most, though, was that the photographs showed them moments they hadn’t been able to see themselves.
That is the goal.
To give you the beautiful portraits you hoped for.
The clean, classic, timeless photographs you’ll want to print.
The candid images that make you laugh.
And the little moments that you didn’t even know were happening.
Because when you look back at your wedding years from now, I want the photographs to bring back more than what everything looked like.
I want them to bring back what it felt like to be there.
If you’re planning a wedding at The White Poplar in Manitoba and looking for a wedding photographer whose work combines clean, editorial, classic, and timeless imagery with the genuine moments that make your day yours, Longpine Photography would love to be there
Wedding Vendors
Venue: The White Poplar
Photography: Longpine Photography
Videography: Christian Tamayo — @ctamayopv
Makeup: Isabelle Shaw Artistry — @isabelleshawartistry
Hair: Courtney Zajac — @hairbycourtneyzajac
Dress: Chantal’s Bridal
