Intimate Winter Wedding Stafford's Perry Hotel Petoskey Michigan

If you have followed me for a while, you may recognize some familiar faces in today’s post! Hong was a bridesmaid this past summer for Kelly and Ryan’s gorgeous apple orchard wedding. So it was an absolute pleasure for me to see so many of the same crew again!

Side note: Nothing makes me ugly cry more as a photographer than seeing past brides at their friends’ weddings. When I took the individual picture of Hong with Kelly, I was having flashbacks to the same picture I took when Kelly was the bride and was getting all kinds of sentimental:

I have a problem you guys… Anyways! Back to today’s wedding!

Hong and Bryan celebrated their super sweet intimate wedding with close friends and family at the lovely Stafford’s Perry Hotel in gorgeous Petoskey, Michigan. If you’ve never been to northern Michigan, it is a true gem. If you’re not a fan of winter, stick to summer travels; but if you do enjoy the snow, it is an absolute winter wonderland up there!

The couple planned a February wedding, hoping for snow. Unfortunately, Michigan was rather uncooperative this month, so most of the snow was gone by the time the 24th rolled around. But as is usually the case with weddings, this ended up working in our favor! One of the main spots that was still icy/snowy was the bay, so we opted to do portraits there. Us girls strapped on our snow boots and we all trekked out as close to the edge of the bay as we could get, giving us the most beautiful winter backdrop imaginable.

The ceremony was in a heated tent outside, giving us the benefit of lovely natural light and views of the bay while keeping us warm 🙂 And if that wasn’t toasty enough, Hong and Bryan had a hot chocolate bar set up for the ceremony and gifted each attendee a cozy blanket. Sign me up for all of that please!

I loved all of the little winter touches of this wedding, including the bridesmaids’ gorgeous wraps (ALWAYS a good idea for cold-weather weddings!), the pinecone escort cards and aisle hangers, and the ski guest ‘book’.

Side note numéro deux: Maybe I’m a glutton for punishment, but I’m starting to wonder if winter weddings are my calling 😉 Freezing hands aside, I think I’d be 100% ok with making winter my busy season – I’m pretty obsessed with winter light these days.

Hong and Bryan, it was a pleasure celebrating with you and your sweet friends and family! Thank you for allowing me to be a part of it! Enjoy these highlights!