RF Wedding of the Week: A True Backyard Wedding by Jennifer Tai

Any wedding photographer worth his or her salt knows that not every ceremony takes place at The Four Seasons, with the bride in a Badgley Mischka gown and Hydrangea centerpieces.

It’s the wealth of imagery you bring to more simple weddings that makes for a truly creative photographer. Seattle-based Jennifer Tai is a great example of such a shooter, as demonstrated in her photojournalistic take on Brenna and Andy’s ceremony, a backyard wedding in the truest sense (as further proof, the groom wore shorts and flip-flops).

“I’ve been promised such things but rarely do weddings REALLY turn out to be ‘casual, backyard summer BBQs,'” writes Tai in her blog post about the event. “But true to Brenna’s word, it was just as she’d described it; an intimate family gathering and the only way you could tell that it was a wedding was 1. her dress and 2. the 20 to 30 chairs pointing towards the floral arch.”

Tai shot the wedding with two Canon 5D Mark IIIs and Canon prime lenses (mainly the 35 mm and 50mm).

The main obstacle? “The timeline was a little challenging because there were a lot of kids involved, and you know what havoc kids can wreak on any given day, what’s more a wedding day,” Tai says. “Other than that, Brenna and Andy have so much love surrounding them from friends and family, and that’s what’s important and really I think what makes a wedding easy to photograph well. The details and décor come second to all of that, when the people actually are happy to be with each other and they show it. Then all you have to do is frame and click!”

To see more of this wedding, visit Jenn’s site. To submit a Wedding of the Week,  email Jessica.