Katherine & Justin’s classic wedding at The Golden Bear Club in Windermere, FL

Classic country club wedding at Golden Bear Club in Windermere, FL

The Golden Bear Club, Windermere, FL | Bridal Session in Celebration, FL | Orlando Wedding Photographer & Wedding Videographer

Finding love through letters

I had such a great time shooting one of the last weddings of the Spring season here in Orlando, Florida at The Golden Bear Club!

I had been a family friend of Justin’s for years when he met his future bride, Katherine, at our church and the pair began a friendship.

However, they soon became separated by distance, yet this distance didn’t deter their friendship. Instead, over the course of a year, this friendship transformed into a relationship exclusively through letters that Katherine and Justin wrote to one another.

When the newly-engaged couple came to me as their wedding photographer, they shared that they wanted their wedding photography and videography to capture their love story and the events of the day in a candid manner. While their bash was going to be a traditional, classic large wedding, they wanted the intimate feel of a small microwedding that prioritized friends, family, and most importantly, their unique love story.

A classic wedding at a classic Orlando wedding venue

Katherine and Justin chose to host their big day at The Golden Bear Club in Windermere, near Orlando in Central Florida. The Golden Bear Club is a great wedding venue that is large enough to hold bigger events while feeling intimate enough to evoke the warmth of a small wedding ceremony. The Event Director, Caitlyn Smith, told me that the country club itself holds a seating arrangement of approximately 120 people plus a dance floor for wedding receptions. While the golf course is active to its members, the wedding ceremony and reception still felt private and intimate! Everything is well partitioned so that guests of the golf club flow one way and weddings guests go another way.

Caitlyn also mentioned at the time this wedding was shot, the country club was undergoing renovations. (I was just told six weeks later that they’re putting the finishing touches to the renovation, so that’s exciting!) Katherine and Justin got ready in their respective dressings rooms, away from all the hustle and bustle of the big day while the team at The Golden Bear Club prepared the ceremony site and reception venue.

Capturing the intimate details of a love story through photo and video

Katherine and Justin love movies, so it was only fitting that their day was filled with little details that harkened movie themes—from place-cards to seating arrangements to their first dance (“It’s Been a Long Long Time” by Harry James & His Orchestra, most popularly recognized for being in Captain America: The First Avenger)—even their letters to each other were filled with movie quotes! Their brunch wedding ceremony was one to remember for all who came to celebrate.

The wedding reception was even more of a hoot! With Scott King of King Entertainment Events at the helm, the party was quickly underway, with lots of dancing and entertainment sprinkled throughout the wedding reception. Scott offered tons of energy and a variety of music that all generations could relate to—from the best of today’s music to classics, he was able to read the room and provide songs for everyone to dance to. Who would have imagined wedding guests could have that much fun in the middle of a Saturday afternoon!

Ending the day with a bridal session in Celebration, FL

For me, one of the most special moments of this wedding was the Golden Hour bridal photo and video session we held in Celebration, a picturesque town in southern Central Florida. After the wedding reception ended, we took a quick break to wait for the sunset and reunited at the Bohemian Hotel in downtown Celebration. Katherine and Justin each read the wedding day letters they had written to one another (which play a central role in their intimate, heartfelt wedding video) before we set forth outside into the Saturday night crowd…and boy, were we in for a treat! A popular hotspot on weekend nights, the town of Celebration was buzzing and all eyes were on Katherine’s stunning dress, which resulted in lots of cheering and hollering at the happy couple! Katherine and Justin laughed the whole way as we made it to the pier in Celebration for their bridal session photos. This hour-long bridal session was so precious, and the wedding photos and video from this session capture a romantic, intimate feel to end their big day.

Congratulations to you two, Katherine and Justin!