Sometimes a wedding dives deep into to your heart, reconnects you to your roots, and changes you forever.

Emily & Tyson are farmers who grew the vegetables and raised the chickens and milked the goats which made up the wedding day meal of handmade cheeses, wood-fired roasted chicken, and end-of-summer salads. Their friends brewed the beer and baked the desserts.

Their growing family of three children escorted them through the day. And the local farm families who gathered in their honor stayed with them until the sun set and the full moon rose and the fiddles came out.

In the morning I woke up in a tent on the bride & groom’s farm and Emily’s goats came by to say hello.

This wedding day transpired at The Farm School in Athol, Massachusetts. Cristina Garcia prepared the food which was grown at the Farm School and also raised by the bride & groom on their family farm. The bride made the cheeses. The community made the desserts. The bride’s dress was custom made from the fabric of her grandmother’s wedding dress. Members of the chorus at Tanglewood sang during the ceremony.

Many thanks to the bride and groom for inviting my husband and daughter along and for giving us a place to pitch our tent and rest our heads on their farm.

The second shooter for this wedding was Hannah Gunnell.

 Cara Brostrom is an artist who photographs weddings. She lives in the city of Boston, but will always be a farm girl at heart. She photographs throughout New England as well as select domestic and international destinations. Her photographs and writing have been published online and in print and her art has been shown in the United Kingdom, Finland, Canada, and throughout the United States. Book your wedding photography.