Why couples are creating their own rules when it comes to getting hitched!
Not every couple planning a wedding in Alberta dreams about a big, traditional wedding.
Maybe you love the idea of getting married, but the thought of planning a 150-person reception feels overwhelming. Maybe you'd rather spend your wedding budget on an experience than a ballroom. Or maybe you do want your family there—but you don't want to spend half of your wedding day following a photography timeline instead of actually enjoying it.
The good news is that weddings don't have to follow one formula.
From an intimate ceremony in the Alberta mountains to a courthouse wedding, a small celebration with your closest people, or even taking your wedding photos on a completely different day, there are so many ways to create a wedding that feels like you.
Here are five alternatives to the traditional big wedding—and one of my favourites might surprise you.
Intimate weddings, elopements and celebrations made entirely your own.
Your wedding doesn’t have to follow tradition—an intimate celebration gives you the freedom to focus on what matters most to you.
1. Plan a Small, Intimate Wedding
Having a smaller wedding doesn't mean giving up everything that makes a wedding beautiful.
You can still wear the dress. Carry the flowers. Exchange vows. Have an incredible dinner. Drink champagne. Dance. Invite your parents, grandparents and closest friends.
You're simply choosing to share the day with fewer people.
An intimate wedding can give you more time with the people who are actually there. Instead of trying to greet 150 guests, you might spend the evening around one table with 20 of your favourite people.
And from a photography perspective, smaller weddings often leave more room for the moments I love most—the conversations, hugs, nervous laughter and little interactions happening around you.
A smaller wedding can still include all the moments worth celebrating—just on a scale that feels right for you.
When you let go of the traditional wedding timeline, there’s more room for spontaneous moments, family and simply enjoying the day.
A private vow ceremony lets you keep the people who matter most at the heart of your wedding day.
2. Elope Somewhere Incredible
Eloping doesn't have to mean secretly running away to get married.
Eloping somewhere incredible also doesn’t mean jumping on a plane, because Alberta has plenty of incredible world class destinations and landscapes worthy of your attention.
Modern elopements can be beautifully planned wedding days—they're simply centred around the couple rather than a large guest list.
For Alberta couples, that could mean exchanging vows in the Rockies, spending an evening exploring the Badlands around Drumheller, or choosing somewhere that has meaning to the two of you.
You can still include flowers, beautiful clothing, vows, champagne, dinner and even a handful of your favourite people.
The difference is that you have the freedom to build the day around the experience you actually want to have.
If you'd rather spend your wedding day exploring somewhere beautiful together than worrying about centrepieces and seating charts, an Alberta elopement might be exactly what you're looking for.
For couples who would rather trade a traditional venue for mountain views—an adventure elopement gives you the freedom to create a wedding experience entirely your own.
3. Get Married at the Courthouse — Then Celebrate Your Way
A courthouse or private ceremony can be an incredibly simple way to get married without giving up the opportunity to celebrate afterward.
Have the legal ceremony. Invite your parents or a few people closest to you. Go for an amazing dinner afterward.
Or throw a party later.
Or don't.
There aren't rules saying that your legal ceremony, wedding celebration and wedding photographs all have to happen in the same place—or even on the same day.
That's something I think more couples should know.
A simple ceremony can also free up your budget for the things that matter more to you, whether that's travel, an incredible meal, your first home, photography, or an experience together.
4. Keep the Wedding — Lose the Traditions You Don't Care About
You also don't have to choose between a traditional wedding and an elopement.
Keep the parts you love.
Skip the rest.
Maybe you want a beautiful ceremony but no wedding party. Maybe you want dinner at your favourite restaurant instead of a reception hall. Maybe you want your children involved, a backyard ceremony, cocktails instead of speeches, or a wedding dress with hiking boots underneath.
Your wedding doesn't become less meaningful because it doesn't follow the usual timeline.
Some of the most personal celebrations happen when couples stop asking “What are we supposed to do?” and start asking:
“What would actually make this day feel like us?”
Traditional wedding or not, your photographs should make room for your personality—and a little fun.
A smaller wedding can mean more time for the two of you—and more space to create beautiful, relaxed portraits without rushing through your day.
5. Have the Wedding — Take the Adventure Later
This might be my favourite alternative because you don't actually have to give anything up.
Maybe you want the wedding.
You want your mom there when you get dressed. You want your dad to see you walk down the aisle. You want photographs with your grandparents. You want your friends around you, your family at dinner and everyone you love together in one place.
But you also want incredible wedding portraits in the mountains.
Those two things don't necessarily have to happen on the same day.
Your Wedding Photos Don't Have to Happen on Your Wedding Day
One option I offer couples is shorter photography coverage on the actual wedding day, followed by a separate week-after wedding photo session.
I can photograph the parts of your wedding that matter most—the ceremony, your family photographs, candid moments and some portraits together—without turning your entire day into a photo shoot.
And then you get to go back to your guests.
Enjoy the cocktail hour.
Eat the food you spent months choosing.
Talk to your grandparents.
Dance with your friends.
Actually experience your wedding.
Then, a few days or a week later, put the dress and suit back on.
And this time, let's go somewhere wild.
A courthouse signing or intimate ceremony can be paired with wedding portraits somewhere unforgettable—giving you beautiful photographs without the cost or schedule of a traditional wedding day.
There are no rules for what a bride—or a wedding—has to look like. Choose the dress, location and celebration that feel most like you.
Your Own Little Elopement — After the Wedding
Imagine having your traditional wedding on Saturday.
Your family is there. You have the ceremony, photographs with everyone you love, dinner and the party.
Then the following week, we head into the Alberta Rockies.
Or Drumheller.
Or somewhere completely different.
There are no guests waiting for you.
No reception timeline.
No dinner getting cold.
No wedding party wondering when photographs will be finished.
We can plan around beautiful evening light instead of a reception schedule. We can walk farther. Explore. Stop when something looks incredible. Wait for the sun to disappear behind the mountains.
It becomes almost like having a wild little elopement after your wedding.
Except this time there is absolutely nowhere else you need to be.
It Can Also Change How You Spend Your Wedding Budget
For some couples, choosing an intimate wedding, elopement or courthouse ceremony is partly financial.
Weddings can become expensive very quickly, and not everyone wants to put a significant portion of their budget toward hosting a large number of guests.
But choosing something smaller isn't necessarily about having a cheap wedding.
It's about deciding what matters enough to you to spend money on.
Maybe you'd rather have an incredible dinner with 15 people than feed 150.
Maybe you'd rather travel.
Maybe you'd rather put money toward your home.
Or maybe photographs and the experience surrounding them matter more to you than having photography coverage from early morning until the final dance.
That's also where combining shorter wedding-day photography with a separate week-after session can make sense.
Instead of automatically choosing a full-day photography package because that's what weddings traditionally require, you can build your photography coverage around the parts of the experience you actually want documented.
What If You Want Both?
Then have both.
Have the beautiful dress.
Have your family there.
Have your grandparents in the photographs.
Have the champagne and the dinner and the dancing.
And then, a week later, put the wedding clothes back on and meet me somewhere incredible.
Your wedding day can be about being present with your people.
Your second session can be about creating something adventurous together.
One doesn't have to replace the other.
Small weddings and elopements leave room for the moments that matter most—with the freedom to create a day that fits your relationship, priorities and budget.
An adventure elopement can be as simple as choosing a place you love, exchanging your vows, and making the experience entirely your own.
Your Wedding Doesn't Have to Follow the Traditional Rules
Neither does your wedding photography.
Not every couple wants a ten-hour wedding day, a ballroom filled with 150 guests or an entire afternoon spent taking photographs.
Some couples want the big celebration. Others want to exchange vows privately in the mountains. Some want their closest family gathered in a backyard, a courthouse ceremony followed by an incredible dinner, or simply to read their vows to each other somewhere beautiful and celebrate with everyone later.
And some couples want a little bit of both.
I offer wedding and elopement photography that can be built around the way you actually want to get married—from traditional weddings and intimate celebrations to courthouse ceremonies, adventure elopements, vow readings and week-after wedding sessions.
Traditional Wedding, Shorter Photography Coverage
You can have the traditional wedding without spending your entire wedding day taking photographs.
For some couples, being present with their guests matters more than disappearing for hours between the ceremony and reception. Shorter wedding coverage allows me to photograph the parts you don't want to miss—the ceremony, family photographs, candid moments and a few portraits—before sending you back to enjoy the people who came to celebrate with you.
And those epic wedding portraits?
We can take them another day.
Week-After Wedding Photography
Your wedding photographs don't have to happen on your wedding day.
A week-after wedding session gives you the freedom to put the dress and suit back on and head somewhere that would never have worked with your wedding-day timeline.
Imagine getting married in Calgary on Saturday and spending the evening celebrating with your family.
Then, the following week, we head into the Alberta Rockies or out to the Badlands around Drumheller.
No guests waiting.
No reception timeline.
No dinner getting cold.
Just the two of you, incredible scenery and the freedom to create the wedding photographs you really wanted.
It's almost like having your own little adventure elopement after the wedding.
Courthouse Weddings & Private Ceremonies
Maybe the big wedding was never what you wanted.
Sign the paperwork at the courthouse. Exchange your vows somewhere meaningful. Bring your parents or a handful of people you love—or keep it completely private.
Then go for dinner, open the champagne, throw a huge party later or head somewhere beautiful for photographs.
A courthouse wedding can be incredibly simple without your wedding photographs feeling simple.
Adventure Elopements
For some couples, the experience is the wedding.
Head into the mountains. Explore the Badlands. Read your vows somewhere quiet. Bring a few people—or no one at all.
An elopement gives you the freedom to build your day around the two of you rather than around a traditional wedding timeline.
It can be relaxed, adventurous, stylish, emotional, completely unconventional—or all of those things at once.
Intimate Weddings & Vow Ceremonies
There is a lot of space between a courthouse wedding and a 150-person celebration.
A backyard ceremony with your children. A vow reading in a park. Dinner with twenty people. Champagne with your closest friends. A ten-year vow renewal. A private ceremony followed by a much bigger party.
Small doesn't have to mean less meaningful.
Sometimes removing the traditional expectations gives you more room for the moments that actually matter.
Spend Your Wedding Budget Where It Matters to You
There isn't one right way to divide a wedding budget.
Some couples want the venue, elaborate florals and a large reception.
Others would rather keep the ceremony incredibly simple and invest more in the experience and photographs they'll keep afterward.
And some couples find their perfect balance somewhere in between: a few hours of photography on their wedding day, followed by an adventurous portrait session another day.
That's why I don't believe every couple needs exactly the same kind of wedding photography coverage.
Whether you're planning a traditional wedding, intimate ceremony, courthouse wedding, Alberta elopement or a week-after wedding adventure, we can build photography around what actually matters to you.
Big wedding. Tiny wedding. Courthouse. Mountains. Badlands. Backyard.
There is more than one way to get married—and more than one way to photograph it.
