Montreal Wedding Planning: An unconventional glossary for memorable wedding celebrations: : Letter L: Leisure & Laughter
Your wedding day is often described as the “best day of your life,” but it can also feel like one of the busiest and most stressful. Schedules, traditions, timelines, guest lists. It’s easy to forget that the heart of the day is to simply be present with the people you love. That’s where leisure and laughter step in.
“Inject laughter into tense situations to save the day; laughter calms tempers and soothes jangled nerves.”
The antidote to stress
Laughter isn’t just a reaction to a joke. It’s a release! A genuine laugh softens nerves, loosens the jaw, and steadies the breath. Leisure works hand in hand: slowing down, pressing the pause button, and giving yourself permission not to rush. Together, they calm the whirlwind of emotions and keep you grounded in the moment. Wedding days are naturally packed from morning makeup to late-night dancing. To offset this long day, build in leisure so you can enjoy it all, and let off steam by allowing yourself some comic relief.
Why leisure and laughter make for great photographs
When nerves ease, faces soften. Shoulders drop, smiles spread wider, and eyes crinkle in the most genuine ways. Leisure allows for natural pauses — the kind that give space for candid photos to unfold. Laughter adds life to every frame, transforming an ordinary picture into a memory you can feel.
When you plan your wedding, leave space in your timeline. While there is a lot to capture on the day, a leisurely pace planned intentionally often allows for small delays without affecting anything. But it helps for you feeling relaxed! As a photographer will many years of experience, I can help with planning around any friction points.
Where leisure and laughter live on your wedding day:
Ready and Steady
The best laughs often happen over small hiccups: tricky buttons, missing socks, or the playlist on shuffle. Let them happen.
Even better, let your besties help release the nerves. They aren’t the ones getting married so the pressure is off, and they can have fun! Give them some instructions that you need them to fan the flames of fun that day. I promise, they can do their jobs well!
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Fun toasts can trigger laughs, as a wedding is a chance to relive the nostalgia of the good old pre-marriage days!
Who can entertain their nerves when they have bridesmaids that bring the fun?
These groomsmen garnered lots of laughs with their touchy-feely cuddling poses. This wasn’t me, it was fully them!!
Lucy is a
Montreal WEdding Photographer
I’m here to photograph your joy, and [hopefully] make you ugly-cry (even if in private or just on the inside!)
My mission is your dream wedding.
Ceremony baloney
The ending of a ceremony is always different! A dance, a high-five, a fist in the air!
A stumble, an unscripted giggle or a funny vow can all be in stride. These are moments that remind everyone this day is about real people, not perfect performances.
Increasingly, couples are opting to have a non faith-based ceremony and prefer to have a relaxed exchange with their own vows. This gives opportunity to say how you will care for each other, even making comfort-food “mac and cheese” when the other was feeling down! Cute and funny vows mixed in with some serious ones can help diffuse nerves.
While ceremonies are often a source of stress because all eyes are on you, they can be injected with comic relief. It hasn’t yet happened to me but bridal parties have danced down the aisle! But I have witnessed rings that don’t fit (causing hilarious attempts to put them on), jokester officiants, and favourite song lyrics as vows!
Reception Relief
Receptions are the playground of laughter. Once the formalities are behind you, the room fills with jokes, stories, games, and dances that bring out everyone’s lighter side. Here are a few of the funny (and wonderfully photographable) moments to expect:
Speech Surprises — A best man’s roast, a parent’s story that turns into a punchline, or a sibling pulling out an inside joke from childhood. These little surprises get the whole room laughing together.
Games & Guest Participation — Shoe games, trivia quizzes about the couple, or even a round of “who’s most likely to…” bring out playful competition. Guests love seeing the couple answer — and sometimes disagree — in the funniest ways.
First Dance Shenanigans — Some couples plan a dance mash-up, others have a dip that turns into giggles, and sometimes it’s simply stepping on each other’s toes (which photographs beautifully when you laugh it off).
Dance Floor Magic — From grandmas showing off unexpected moves to kids spinning until they fall over in giggles, the dance floor is where the silliest and most memorable photos happen.
Photo booths and Props — Anything goes!
Toasting to the couple
Everyone is up for a good time on the dancefloor!
Reception laughter isn’t just entertainment — it’s connection. It pulls everyone together, dissolves nerves that linger from the ceremony, and creates the kind of shared memories that live far beyond the day.
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Featured photos: Wedding at Chateau Vaudreuil
Photographer: Lucy Baum Photography