Vinelands Estate Winery & Niagara on the Lake wedding

by Ryan Rowell

This Niagara on the Lake Wedding took place at the stunning Vinelands Estate Winery, where the couple got ready together at the Oban Inn.

This year we have been really lucky to travel to so many beautiful places together. The short list this year, just to name a few locations is London, Iceland, Paris, Prague and Canadian East coast. But the very first place we ever traveled to together was Niagara on the Lake. About 6 years ago, Ryan and I took the train to Niagara Falls from Toronto. When we arrived we had no car and had to rely on public transit. We ended up taking the touristy shuttle bus to the Butterfly Conservatory and then walked from the Falls to Niagara on the Lake.  At the time it didn’t seem like a long walk, but it was. 3 hours in the rain and it is still one of our most favourite memories together. Finally we were too tired to keep walking so I decided to try and hitch a ride. A very nice couple from the States picked us up and drove us the 2 minutes up the road to Niagara on the Lake. We were so close! our plan was to stay the night at the Olde Angel Inn Hotel, one of Niagara’s most haunted hotels. Of course it was full. Luckily a friend of ours was in town as part of a civil war reenactment group and let us stay in the old barracks at Fort George. This place is even more haunted than the Angel Inn Hotel. We slept on the floor with about 30-40 band members. So uncomfortable, but free. The next day we photographed the civil war reenactment and checked into our haunted hotel room. That night around 3am Ryan and I could not sleep with all the people running around on the floor above us, just running back and fourth, non-stop. The noise got so bad I had to call the front desk.

Me: Hello this is calling from room 4, sorry to bother you so late, but I was wondering if you could ask the people running around upstairs to please stop?

Front Desk Clerk: Ma’am, you are on the top floor. There is no one above you and no one making any noise down here, everyone is sleeping.

Turns out there is a really cool and creepy civil war story about the ghosts living at the Angel Inn Hotel you can read here. Apparently they were the ones keeping us up late that night. That morning the front desk clerk gave us both a certificate of congratulations on making it through the night in the most haunted hotel in town. Ever since then Ryan and I have been fascinated with Niagara on the Lake ghosts stories. We have always wanted to shoot a Niagara on the Lake wedding because it is one of the most beautiful small towns in all of Canada. Its been on our wish list for years and we finally got to shoot there a few weeks ago.

Check out the beautiful backdrops for this Niagara on the Lake Wedding and Vinelands Estate Winery, and this beautiful couple!

& Ryan