A Minimalist Wedding in West Palm Beach (With Surprise Announcement) by Josh Kane [RF Wedding of the Week]

We see so many big-budget weddings with brides donning intricate or bulbous dresses, that it’s so lovely to see a pared down, minimalist wedding with clean lines and lots of heart.

All photos @ Joshua Kane Photography

Such was the nuptials of Janeane and Adam, Brooklynites tying the knot in the groom’s (and my!) hometown of West Palm Beach, Florida, at the Ann Norton Sculpture Garden. Photographer Josh Kane so elegantly captured all of the details, giving us a perfect glimpse into the mood and environment.

“The groom is a musician and the bride is an artist; I understood them to be particularly esthetically minded people — they understood that what’s important about a wedding day is the people, emotion and the atmosphere, not so much the details and décor,” Kane says.

“They love simplicity and genuine beauty, and I think my work being mostly documentary and emotionally inspired is what stood out to them as they were searching for their photographer. I was flattered that a couple with such a seemingly sophisticated eye for esthetic beauty would be so attracted to my work.”

Kane says the original location of the ceremony was “far less intimate, visible from the street and had terrible light.” So he “very carefully asked during the rehearsal if the couple would prefer to use this small section of the garden that was much more secluded, and it and offered great symmetry with the red brick sculpture to be directly behind the alter,” he says.

“I felt terrible changing the minds of the couple…but they trusted me enough and liked my explanation of why it would be better for photography and had no problems moving their ceremony site. After that, everything went swimmingly.”

In Kane’s gear bag that day were two bodies: a Canon 5D Mark III and a 5D Mark II, and a combination of his three “go-to” lenses — a Canon 50mm f/1.2 L, Sigma 35mm f/1.4 ART and Canon 135mm f/2.0 L. “And that’s pretty much it,” he says.

Another challenge for this wedding came in the form of emotions: “The bride called me the day before to ask that I be sure to capture some shots of the bride and groom’s speech after dinner, because they had a special announcement to make.

“I knew right away that this could only mean that they were to be expecting (and they hadn’t announced the big news to their family yet), and it then clicked that the emotional aspects of the day would be much more weighted (and therefore photographically interesting),” Kane says. “The nervous energy that surrounded the pre-ceremony photos was incredible as I could only imagine what this moment meant to them and their future.”

To submit a Wedding of the Week, email Jessica Gordon.

See past Weddings of the Week here.