A Bonavista Social Club Wedding // Martha + Ray

This was my first time shooting a wedding in Bonavista and I couldn’t wait. This area of Newfoundland is so stunningly beautiful that it would be a pretty easy task to find great backdrops for Martha and Ray’s wedding photographs. They were married on a cliff side next to the Bonavista Lighthouse where the views are magical. I love it when couples get married outside. The weather always plays such an intricate role in the photos and this day was no different. It was a beautiful sunny day, but extremely windy. Martha and Ray didn’t mind and it just made things more interesting and fun (as evident by the photo below of Martha’s veil taking off during the ceremony haha).

I don’t often get the chance to shoot outside St. John’s, but when I do it’s such a fantastic addition to my wedding season here in Newfoundland. Congrats Martha and Ray! A complete list of their wedding vendors follows and be sure to check out their reviews and wedding planning advice at the bottom of this post.

Newfoundland Wedding Vendors

About the Bride + Groom

We are both from Ontario, and met working together. I (Martha) fell in love with Newfoundland going on family trips as a child, and took Ray once we were engaged. He also loved it there, and since we wanted a smaller, more unique wedding, decided it was the perfect place to bring our friends and family for the big day!

We planned the wedding in just under a year, and definitely could not have done it without the help of Martha’s mum, who handled a lot of the details for us.

vendor reviews for their bonavista wedding

Dress

Essence of Australia, from The Gown in Newmarket, ON - I’ve loved Essence if Australia dresses since I started looking, and definitely thought theirs would be the one I’d fall in love with.

SUIT

Calvin Klein suit, from Strauss in Newmarket, ON - Very helpful in getting the fit and look we were going for.

Decor

We absolutely loved the look of the Bonavista Social Club already, so we didn’t have to bring much decor other than lights and place cards! The staff there were so helpful with everything too.

Photography

JP Mullowney - Loved the focus on the beautiful scenery, wildlife, and the candid shots! This were the two most important things for me with the photos.

Flowers

Connie from Bonavista Flowers & Gifts did our flowers, and we felt so lucky to have found her. The flowers turned out more beautifully than we could have imagined - they were perfect!

Hair and Makeup

We did this ourselves! We had fun doing our own hair and makeup, and I would definitely recommend it to other brides who are comfortable with that sort of thing.

Venue

Marlene and her staff the the Bonavista Lighthouse were so kind, helpful and accommodating. We are so glad we had our ceremony there!

Katie Hayes and her staff at the Bonavista Social Club made our reception perfect! They were so helpful and accommodating, the food was delicious and everything was exactly how we wanted it.

MUSIC

Our musicians, Charlie Barfoot and Jack Dawe were so excellent! Live music was very important to us, and they really made such a wonderful atmosphere for the ceremony and dinner.

All our vendors were so wonderful, and we would not have changed a thing about the day!

Bride’s favourite moment

To be honest, this might have actually been the day before at the engagement shoot, where all the puffins were hanging out with us ahaha

But really I had so much fun the whole day. I would say though that probably the pictures with the wedding party right after the ceremony was my favourite part!

Groom’s favourite moment

Two favourite parts were doing the groom/best man photos, and walking into the reception.

Advice for planning:

Do what makes you happy, and don’t stress too much about the details - everything will fall into place.

Wedding PhotographyJP MullowneyBonavista Social ClubCalvin Klein, Bonavista Social Club, Bonavista Flowers and Gifts, Bonavista Lighthouse, Essense of Australia