Chelsea Pagé
- Jan 12, 2023
- 7 min read

Rainy day in Swan river-Lovestruck portraits

I can't tell you how honored I was when Brittany & Patrick reached out to me to capture their wedding day. This would be my first time capturing a wedding in Manitoba, but if you know me I love to travel to new locations. I spent the morning with the gals as they got ready, and Brittany was such an amazing bride, we were watching the skies praying it wouldn't start pouring... well sadly it did. The held their ceremony in her parents backyard which backed the river. With the rain pouring down, they said their I do's while tucked under umbrellas. I loved all the personal touches they had during their ceremony. With the weather we had to roll with some changes, and headed to the venue to capture their family photos. They did luck out and by the time we were finished capturing family photos the rain started to let up. Which meant I could take them outside around the museum. I had so much fun with their wedding party, They had me laughing during most of the photos. The Swan river museum is such a cool location with train tracks, old buildings and the river right there. I loved just taking the two of them to capture photos, they are so madly in love with each other and it shows in their images. Their reception was so much fun and their dance floor was packed most of the night! I would go back to Swan River in a heart beat to capturing another wedding there.

But enough from me... let's hear from them and their love story

How we met. Patrick is a year older then me and we met in Highschool. The first time we actually talked was at a mutual friends funeral. We all went to what we call the Bin and had a celebration of life for the friend there and that is where Dill Pickle and Old West was created.

Now I really dislike Dill Pickle flavor things, chips, spits, dip. Everything except actual dill pickles. Well I had some Old West Jerky and he had dill pickle spits. He caught me eating some jerky and wanted some and would trade some spits for it. Well I kind of had a crush on Patrick at the time and so I said yes and ate the spits. So anytime either of us wanted jerky or spits we would hollar out in the crowd "Hey yo Dill Pickle!" or "Hey yo Old West" and these became our code/nicknames for one another. We chit chatted a bit there and said that if I ever wanted cuddles to give him a call cause he really liked to cuddle. So one day after the funeral I sent him a message and guess what. I got shut down! so I never tried again. He graduated and went off to Winnipeg, I graduated the year after and went to Grande Prairie. Fast forward to 2015 (3 years later) I move home and run into Patrick, he had moved home as well! I was working a few jobs at the time and one was working at Bowsman bar where it held Chase the Ace. Patrick and his friend Brandon would come in every Friday for this. They came in 21 Friday's in a row and by the 22nd Friday Patrick and I were finally starting to date.

Patrick and I have been together for 6 years now :)

Patrick and I are somewhat a bit of nerds and our favorite "date night" thing to do is to be at home with our two dogs, eating junk food, having a some drinks and playing video games together. Other date things we enjoy are snowboarding, camping, bonfires, going to the lake for a swim day, and if we are out of town - ordering skip the dishes and hanging out in the room of the hotel or going down to the pool and hot tub.

Patrick's favorite thing about Brittany "The way you can make me feel better in any situation. Easy to have fun with, and just how caring and beautiful you are". Brittany's favorite thing about Patrick "My favorite thing about Patrick is him as a whole. I say this because every part of him is what makes him who he is and he is my favorite person, from his head to his toes. His big head that is filled with a beautiful mind that always keeps me wondering. His amazing green eyes that help me see things I normally wouldn't. His amazing smile that can light up any room you walk into. His laugh is so contagious that you just can't help but laugh along with him. His arms that he holds me with and makes me feel safe and melts all the troubles away. His stomach, not a picky eater and loves everything I make. How tall he is, he can always reach the things that I need a chair for. There is not one thing that I don't love about this man. He makes me a better person and has such a big heart and cares for everyone in his life.

This is kind of a bit of a story lol. Sorry!

So I went to Alberta at the end of July in 2020 to do a Mock wedding for my friend because they had to postpone there's due to covid. I came home and Patrick was helping me unload my car. I had just a couple items left to grab and was walking past his truck and he was sitting in it and seen me and quickly slammed his center console. I didn't really think too much of it and just kept on going. A couple days pass and we were getting ready to go camping for the week. Wednesday he was to get the alcohol, Thursday was fire wood and groceries. Well I beat him home on Wednesday which was weird. Then 5:30 comes and he still isn't home and I get a call from my folks saying that he was there getting firewood. I thought that was a bit funny. He gets home and hands me the drinks and I notice there is one can off beer that is my dads favorite. I went to grab the receipt so I knew how much I needed to pay him for mine and on it I see that there was 3 of my dads favorite beer but only 1 in the box. That was when I put it all together. He asked my dad! fast forward to Tuesday night. I had one too many drinks with our friends the Tracy and Austin and we were walking back from their campsite to ours and I told him I knew it all! He just laughed about it and the next day we went on a hike just the two of us and our dogs. I noticed that he forgot his inhaler so I told him we can turn around its ok! he was like NO! we keep going. So we kept going and made it to the top of the Copernicus Lookout Tower. I was looking out over the tree tops and he says "Hey Babe" I answer "whats up" He doesn't answer and then says again "Hey Babe" I start turning around and saying "I said yeah what..." and there he was on one knee with the ring in his hand and the dogs beside him. Of course I said YES!!!!!

Pretty much everyday is a fun little part to our love story and just keeps adding to it. Just when I think I can't love this man anymore he goes and does something that just makes me fall even more in love. Like yesterday for instance. He had the day off. He cleaned the house, did the dishes, put laundry away, hung a TV up in our room and even hung up the two pictures he bought for me as my gift on the wedding day.

We can't just pick one. We loved it all so much! I would have to say opening the gift Patrick got me, seeing his little drawing he made. Walking down the isle and seeing him, marrying my best friend, Dancing, pictures with our wedding party and amazing photographer and just being able to be us and enjoy the day with all our loved ones.

We went on a little mini honeymoon. We went to Tall Pines Lodge. It is located by Falcon lake in the Whiteshell area of MB. We had been there once before in the winter and wanted to go somewhere that was special for us so we decided we wanted to go back there. Then in a few years we plan on going somewhere. We can't decide between Rome, Greece, Jamaica, Bali or others!

Patrick's feelings on wedding day - Happy, excited and relieved. Relieved because of all the build up and prep and it all came together wonderfully.

Britt's feelings on wedding day - Happy, excited, in love, and just overall amazing!

If there is any advice I can give anyone for their special day is that This is YOUR'S AND YOUR FUTURE HUSBANDS special day. Not anyone else's. All that matters is what you both want, not want aunty Marry or cousin Jim want. Its what you both want and what matters to you. You just need to do you!

I had 4 goals for my wedding. 1- That my dad cry's when he sees me for the first time. 2- That Patrick cry's when he sees me walk down the isle. 3- That we actually get married and fill out the paper right. 4- that we have a great and fun time! If I could go back there is not one thing I would change because this day was absolutely amazing and because we were so calm about it all everything worked out how it was supposed to. Also, you picked a wedding party for a reason, use them! they should help you set up, take down, be there to help you pee, take care of any issues guest have, help with anything you need!