Renault Winery Wedding | Leslie & Chris

Leslie and Chris’ Renault Winery summer wedding was a hot one, but it was filled with so much joy. Despite time running a bit short and it being an exceptionally hot day, Leslie and Chris’ love for one another outweighed it all. The joy they shared in being together was palpable. It was my first opportunity to photograph at the Renault Winery and their Champagne Ballroom in Egg Harbor City, New Jersey and I had a chance to work with my favorite planner, Sarah Montgomery of Sarah Montgomery Events. A wonderful event where Leslie and Chris had their children, 6 in total, in attendance to celebrate with and a special visit from their 3 dogs (Leslie runs a pet boarding business– Lucky’s Bed and Biscuit). I also got to work with my favorite videographer Jose from Delia Studios.

I started the day with Leslie and Chris’ first look. You can just feel all that joy that Leslie is emanating…

I love that look Leslie is giving Chris in the photo below…

A visit from their pups!

We escaped the heat for a few minutes by grabbing a few photos from inside the Renault Winery…

Chris was giving a gift to Leslie while Sarah got down on the ground to tend to Leslie’s daughter…

I’m a fan of letting kids show their true emotions for the camera. There is such an expectation of perfection these days with heavily curated lives on social media and I don’t think that curation is serving any of us in a positive way. Weddings are happy days, but they are also long days filled with lots of schedules and expectations and emotions and this can be exhausting for kids. I love the joy on Chris’ face juxtaposed by Leslie’s daughter’s lack of enthusiasm at that particular moment and I particularly loved that neither Leslie nor Chris pushed her to smile. They let her be real and that makes my heart smile. Some people want everything to be curated to be perfection, but to me perfection is the real story. She had plenty of fun that day and you will see her dancing and smiling further down in the blog. 

Chris watches as Leslie walks down the aisle for their outdoor Renault Winery summer wedding ceremony…

Chris’ boys watch on…

At a moment when the officiant was talking about Leslie’s late mother, I noticed the rainbow behind her and her sister…

Hah!

Leslie showing off her ruby red slippers which had sentimental meaning to her…

Give me the laughter…

Give me the tears!

Leslie’s son smiling as he records video of the ceremony…

We took a few minutes after the ceremony to explore Renault Winery’s grape vines in the slightly cooler temps of the late afternoon…

Leslie and Chris shared their first dance during their Renault Winery summer wedding in the Champagne Ballroom…

Love this candid moment of Chris. I snapped it as Leslie was dancing with her dad….

Leslie’s daughter having a blast with other little ones…

I always tell myself while I’m shooting that I’ll remember the song that something was happening to. Seems so easy in the moment, but then I start editing and it slips away. Every. Time.  I can’t remember the song this impromptu conga line formed to, but I remember thinking it wasn’t the typical song that inspires a conga line and I also thought that I really liked it– it worked!  

Layers of smiles… 

If you have never experienced The Pickles band, you are missing out! Boose is an amazing guitarist and he let this little one who was really into the music have a chance to play…

Wedding guest singing a song!

I do love silly moments like this… A fantastic Renault Winery summer wedding with Leslie, Chris, their wonderful friends and family, Sarah Montgomery and Jose! The heat couldn’t stop this party! Thanks to Brandan Calhoun for assisting me.

You can check out another beautiful winery wedding I photographed by clicking here.