At the end of August 2019, a Michigan bride named Morgan lost her bouquet to a wild white-tailed buck in the middle of her wedding portraits. The deer jumped a wooden fence on the grounds of the Felt Estate near Saugatuck, nibbled at the flowers, then simply took them. Photographer Laurenda Marie Bennett kept shooting, and the resulting pictures travelled around the world. Here is the full story, the place where it happened, and what wildlife experts would want couples to know before trying to recreate it.
What happened at the photo shoot
Morgan and her new husband, Luke, had just finished their ceremony when Bennett took them out to a field by an old split-rail fence for golden-hour portraits, the soft light shortly before sunset that photographers love. A young buck wandered over, clearly curious, and quickly focused on the white and pink flowers in Morgan's hands.
Morgan told local radio she tried to pull the bouquet away, but the deer got pushy, so she let it have the flowers. The couple stepped back and left the buck to its unexpected meal. Bennett, after a moment of disbelief, did what good wedding photographers do and kept working.
The photographs, frame by frame
The first approach. The buck, still in summer coat with velvet-covered antlers, pokes its head through the fence rails towards the bouquet while the couple laugh. Bennett posted the sequence on her studio's Facebook page with a scoreline joke: "Deer: 1, Bouquet: 0."
Over the fence and face to face. The deer is now on the couple's side, stretching for the flowers as Morgan holds them aloft. The open field, dune woodland and overcast sky are typical of the Lake Michigan shoreline in late summer.
The buck rears up on its hind legs as Luke lifts the bouquet out of reach. Deer often stand this way to browse high branches; here it gives the scene the look of a playful dance, though it also shows how strong and quick even a small buck can be.
The video and the "final rose"
Patrick Hellenga of Patrick James Films was filming the wedding and captured the encounter in motion.
(The video originally embedded here is no longer available on YouTube.)
About fifteen to twenty minutes later the couple went back to the spot where the bouquet had ended up. The buck was gone and only one white rose remained. Bennett later recalled that the bride picked it up and quipped, "It's the final rose," an apparent nod to the closing ceremony of the reality show The Bachelor. Morgan carried a bridesmaid's bouquet for the toss; with eleven bridesmaids holding similar flowers, there were spares to go round.
The "Saugatuck Buck"
This was not the deer's first appearance. Local radio station WFMK reported that an eight-point buck known as the "Saugatuck Buck" had been approaching beachgoers near Saugatuck Dunes State Park all summer, once licking a woman's legs, and had already photobombed at least one engagement shoot. Staff at the Felt Estate said they had contacted the Michigan Department of Natural Resources about the animal.
The Felt Estate itself has an unusual history. The inventor and industrialist Dorr E. Felt, who made his fortune with an early mechanical calculator, built the mansion as a summer house in 1927 and 1928. It later served as a Catholic seminary and then a Michigan State Police post. Laketown Township took over the house and 44 acres in 1995, and volunteers have restored it; it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is now a popular wedding venue.
Why a wild deer would eat a bouquet
White-tailed deer are browsers. They eat leaves, buds, shoots, wildflowers, fruit and, in suburbs, a great many garden plants; a single adult can get through roughly 900 kilograms of vegetation a year. A bunch of fresh roses held at nose height is, from a deer's point of view, an easy snack.
Deer living near people often lose their fear. Gardens and parks offer food and fewer predators, and noises that once scared them away soon stop working. That is how a buck ends up strolling up to beach towels and wedding parties.
Timing matters too. The photos were taken at the end of August, when bucks still carry soft velvet on their antlers. From autumn, during the rut, bucks become restless and can turn aggressive, sparring with rivals and occasionally charging when they feel threatened. A deer that is cheeky in August can be dangerous in November.
If wildlife joins your photo shoot
- Keep your distance and let it go. Do what Morgan did: release whatever the animal wants and step back slowly. Flowers are replaceable.
- Do not feed or hand-feed deer. Feeding teaches them to approach people, raises the risk of road collisions and can concentrate deer in ways that spread disease and ticks.
- Watch for antlers and hooves. Even a small deer can kick or strike hard, especially when startled or cornered.
- Tell the venue or local wildlife agency if an animal is repeatedly approaching people. Habituated deer are a known problem that wildlife officials prefer to hear about early.
- Keep shooting from a safe spot. Unplanned moments often make the best pictures, as this couple's album proves.
Why these photos struck a chord
Wedding photography is usually carefully staged. These pictures caught a couple doing exactly what everyone hopes they would do when plans go sideways: laughing. The contrast between formal clothes and a hungry animal, the soft evening light and the single surviving rose gave the story a shape that people loved to share. It is a reminder that the moments nobody scripts are often the ones guests remember.
Continue with a related feature: A Brazilian Bride Invited Her Engineering Friends Into the Photos.
Sources: Photographs by Laurenda Marie Bennett, Laurenda Marie Photography; video by Patrick James Films; WFMK, September 2019: Saugatuck buck eats wedding bouquet; FOX 5 New York, 11 September 2019; Wikipedia: Felt Mansion; Wikipedia: White-tailed deer.
COMMENTS