After the Ceremony: Celebrating in Prince Edward County

The best post-ceremony hour in Prince Edward County happens in a winery tasting room with a pour of the estate’s Pinot Noir or Chardonnay. I tell every couple this. The session ends, we walk in from the vine rows together, and the winery pours the first glass. The transition from ceremony to celebration in PEC is built into the landscape in a way that few destinations I photograph can replicate.

Vineyard Tastings and Estate Lunch

Several PEC wineries have full restaurant service alongside the tasting rooms, and a long lunch on the winery terrace overlooking the vine rows is the natural next chapter after a morning ceremony. Huff Estates, Drake Devonshire at the water, and The Grange of Prince Edward have kitchen operations that use the County’s agricultural products alongside the wine program, and the experience of sitting down to a slow lunch at a winery table with the elopement morning behind you is specific to this place. I typically photograph the toast and the first moments at the table as part of the coverage before stepping away and letting the couple eat.

Sandbanks Beach Afternoon

After the winery lunch, Sandbanks Provincial Park in the late afternoon gives the day a second location and a completely different character. The dune beach in the four o’clock light, when the sun comes from the west over the lake and backlights the fine sand, gives the most photogenic conditions of the day at Sandbanks. I have ended multiple full-county elopement days at Sandbanks in the late afternoon with the couple walking the dune line in the low backlight, and the images from those last forty-five minutes of the day at the beach are consistently the ones the couple chooses for their wall print. The vineyard morning and the beach afternoon together are the complete PEC elopement story.