Liberty Grand Wedding in Toronto

Katherine + Kosta

My day began with Katherine and her family getting ready at the Hyatt Regency in Downtown Toronto in a beautiful hotel suite. Kosta began his day at his parents place getting ready and having some family pictures done with my second photographer for the day, Ryan Rowell from Rowell Photography who did an amazing job helping me out for the day

The wedding ceremony was held at the beautiful St. George Greek Orthodox Church in Downtown Toronto. I love shooting Greek Orthodox weddings for a couple of reasons… the churches are beautiful, there’s some great and unique traditions and the priests are always cool with me moving around to get pictures (they usually motion for me to get closer!)

After the ceremony we all piled into the party bus for the short ride over to Osgoode park for some pictures with Katherine, Kosta and the wedding party. Osgood hall is a great option for wedding pictures because of it’s central location, it mix of nature and architecture and it’s free…. a very rare thing in Toronto!

From Osgoode Hall it was off to Liberty Grand for some extended family pictures and a great cocktail hour.

A huge shoutout to Alusha from A Lush Affair. Alusha is an amazing wedding coordinator and one of my favourites to work with in Toronto. The day went off flawlessly and the ballroom looked amazing!

The wedding party made an amazing entrance and then Katherine + Kosta had their first dance followed by dinner and speeches. Once the bride and groom gave their speech everyone headed to the dance floor for some traditional Greek dancing and then a great party late into the night!

Toronto Wedding Photographer Year in Review

2016 was a great year for me. Amazing clients, fantastic moments and some stunning weddings.

I had the pleasure to photograph weddings at some of Toronto and Ontario's best wedding venues including Malaparte, Fermenting Cellar, Langdon Hall, Liberty Grand, Sunnybrook Estates, SteamWhistle Brewery, Paletta Lakefront Mansion, Art Gallery of Ontario, Ancaster Mill and Graydon Hall
 

I had a really hard time picking these pictures, and I'm sure I forgot about a few, but I hope you like them and here's hoping 2017 is just as good!
 

I love this image from Christina + Tim's wedding at Malaparte in Toronto.  All their guests surrounded them as they had their first dance by candlelight.  After shooting over 300 weddings it's always great seeing something new!

This year I've really been trying to capture wedding details that have a human element to them.   I don't know about you but I think a wedding dress looks so much better on then on a hanger. This is Danielle's beautiful dress from her wedding at the Fermenting Cellar. 

I love simple window light.  On any wedding day you'll find me dragging people towards that beautiful soft window light but in this case Jing was already standing there and I grabbed a quick candid portrait of her before their Chinese tea ceremony.

Not the Mediterranean... this is actually Lake Ontario.  We grabbed this beautiful portrait during Laura + Chris' amazing wedding at Paletta Mansion in Mississauga.

It's better to be lucky than good!   (it also helps being good).

Sometimes when you have an uncooperative ring bearer you turn lemons into lemonade.  As we were trying to get a big extended family picture the groom's nephew decided he was going to do his own thing.

This one is from Alex + Bobby's small, intimate wedding at Langdon Hall in Cambridge, Ontario.   

There were only about a dozen people at the wedding but even so it feels like these two are the only ones there.

I love this casual, relaxed portrait of the wedding party from Danielle + Felipe's wedding at the Fermenting Cellar in Toronto's Distillery District. 

Love this portrait of Jenny + John from their autumn wedding at Graydon Hall. 

Even when I'm shooting portraits I try and keep things very relaxed, letting the couples just interact with each other in some nice light and see what happens!

Always helps to have a classic Rolls Royce too!

Always looking for a different angle, I got this picture during the Tea Ceremony at Haidee + Martin's wedding at the Estates of SunnyBrook in Toronto.

Love the joy and laughter on Jing's face after their backyard wedding ceremony in Toronto.

This was one of the best moments of the year as Melanie and David were surprised by their theatre friends with an amazing flash mob at their wedding!

I love this small, intimate moment as Laura + Chris walk back to their wedding at Paletta Mansion after we did some wedding portraits down by the lake.

Christina + Tim dance the knight away late into their reception at Malaparte in downtown Toronto. 

A beautiful sunset portrait from Alex + Bobby's intimate Langdon Hall wedding.

Whenever I can, I always try and sneak my couples out of the reception for a few minutes of portraits during the golden hour.

I'm always looking for a different angle, especially during wedding ceremonies. 

Sometimes you have to get right down on the floor for that different angle.   This one is from Jenny + John's Catholic wedding in Toronto.

Love the look from mom as she looks on during the Orthodox wedding ceremony of Christina + Tim this past September.

This is one of my favourite first dance images from this year, I love the contrast of the Danielle + Felipe with the warm tones in the background.

Plus, check out his expression.... that's one happy groom!

I love a good, classic wedding portrait with some nice window light.

This one is from Haidee + Martin's spring wedding at the Estates of Sunnybrook in Toronto. 

This is from Sherry + Jonathan's wedding during their Chinese tea ceremony during their wedding in Toronto.  I love the expressions and framing in this picture!

I'm a sucker for emotion in pictures so I live this one as Augusto's mom gives him one final hug before he marries Mashael during their outdoor wedding ceremony at Ancaster Mill.

Sometimes you have to go a little abstract... this one is from Jing + Rene's backyard wedding in Toronto as Jing has her makeup done.

I snuck Danielle + Felipe away from their wedding reception at the Fermenting Cellar for some quick, intimate portraits of them.

We didn't go far, this is just at the entrance way to the Fermenting Cellar.  I love their expressions in this one.

This one is from Melanie + David's wedding in Toronto.   Whenever I have weddings in ballrooms I always try to get back from my subject and try and show the entire scene.

In my mind, this kid is thinking 'Dude, don't do it... girls are gross!' but him and his brother were two of the best behaved ring bearers I've ever seen.    The stood still and kept quiet even during a long Orthodox ceremony... better then my kids would have done!  :)

It's not much of a secret that my favourite part of the wedding is the party at the end of the night... I'm one of the few wedding photographers in Toronto that cover the entire day from start to finish.

Haidee is having an amazing time with her friends on the dance floor during their wedding reception at Estates of SunnyBrook in Toronto. 

I grabbed this shot as I was leaving Alex + Bobby's wedding from outside at Langdon Hall.

Indian wedding ceremonies are amazing to shoot!  There's so much going and such vibrant colours.

This image is from Shilpa + Rishi's wedding at Liberty Grand this pst autumn.

MMMMM... Golden hour portraits.

Whenever I can I try to get my couples out at sunset for a quick portrait session.  The light at that time is amazing and we can get so many great pictures in such a short time!

This one is from Savanah + Bernie's wedding at the SteamWhistle Brewery in Toronto.

I love photographing joy.  And I think it's safe to say that Jenny + John are enjoying their big day at Graydon Hall.

This one is from Najwa + Trevin's wedding at the Art Gallery of Ontario. 

I always try to get a casual, relaxed portrait of the wedding party along with a more formal one.

Toronto Indian Wedding

Shilpa + Rishi 

Shilpa & Rishi were married in a beautiful Indian wedding at Toronto's Liberty Grand.

We started the day with portraits in the beautiful courtyard of the Liberty Grand, we even managed to dodge the raindrops.

It's not many times that the bride walking down the aisle can be upstaged, but since Shilpa had their beautiful daughter in her arms we can make an exception in this case. I actually did a newborn photography session with their baby a couple months ago, check it out here!

Indian wedding ceremonies are always so cool, so many traditions and details go into them.

It was great watching the kids at the wedding ceremony desperately searching for Rishi's shoes in order to sell them back to him after the ceremony (it's an old tradition at Hindu weddings!).  Rishi hid them VERY VERY well.   :)

After the ceremony everyone headed up to the lounge for appetizers and cocktails.

I thought it was really great that even with a wedding of over 400 people Shilpa & Rishi made the time to go around to every table and talk to everyone... it really shows how much they value their family and friends. 

Rishi is a very quiet guy when you meet him but he gave one of the most elequouent speeches by a groom I've heard all year... really well done!

The party was great, the DJ did an amazing job of keeping the dance floor jumping and playing a great mix of music.

A huge thanks for Steve from Tara Lilly Photography for helping out and doing an amazing job second shooting.

Julla from 87 Events did an amazing job planning and coordinating both the wedding and the mehndi ceremony the day before at the beautiful Sunnybrook Estates (check back soon for a blog post on this!)

Check out some of my favourite images above as well as the full slideshow below. 

WEDDING FLORIST  |  Berries and Blooms 

WEDDING DECOR  |  Dance Floor Decor

WEDDING PLANNER  |  87 Events

WEDDING DJ  |  Empire Entertainment

Their Favourite Image... Pauline + Jordan

I love it when past clients participate in my Heirloom Photographs project and choose their favourite wedding image and their reason for choosing it.

This time it's Pauline & Jordan's turn!   I photographed their wedding in Toronto last year (Check out their wedding I photographed at the Liberty Grand) and the photograph they chose is from their portrait session we did at Liberty Village.

Pauline had actually chosen a park for portraits but after spending a little time there I felt it just wasn't working as a great location... so I asked Pauline if she trusted me and we headed off to Liberty Village!

In their own words, here is the wedding photograph they chose as their Heirloom Wedding Photograph.

 "Humour is what brought Jordan and I together when we first met.  Throughout all the preparation leading up to the wedding, we told ourselves not to take everything so seriously on the day of because if anything were to go wrong, it would be beyond our control.  During our portrait shots after the ceremony, Jordan and I were true to form and giggled ourselves through it."

                                                                               Pauline + Jordan 

A year in review....

As we begin 2016 I thought it might be nice to take a look back at how great 2015 was!

I had a bunch of amazing couples and weddings at some of the best wedding venues in Toronto and Ontario including Fermenting Cellar, Hessenland Country Inn, Bruce Hotel, One King West, Liberty Grand, Waterloo Region Museum, One King West (again!) The Tannery, Copper Creek Golf Course, The Stirling Room, 99 Sudbury, Ancaster Mill, Federation Hall and WhistleBear Golf Course as well as weddings across ontario including Tobermory and Windsor.

Now, usually I do a slideshow for these year end posts but this year I thought I'd try something different and post 10 of my favourite images.  Wow... it was way tougher to pick 10 than I thought.   So many great moments from the year but I finally managed to whittle it down to my favourite 10 (in no particular order!)

I love this portrait from Josh + Paul's wedding at the Bruce Hotel in Stratford, Ontario.

The best light is always around sunset (or sunrise... but that's not happening!) so I always try to sneak my couples out for a quick portrait session to take advantage.  

To me this image feels really natural, not forced at all... which is exactly how I like to work.  I put the people in the nice light and then let things happen!

I really like this photograph from Spencer + Jonas' wedding at the Stirling Room in Toronto's Distillery District.

During the wedding ceremony, they had something called a 'ring warming' where the two wedding rings were passed around to all the guests before they said their vows.

Having shot over 300 weddings, it was nice to see something new and unique!

For me, a great moment will always trump a great portrait but there is something about this photograph of the wedding party from Emilie + John's wedding at 99 Sudbury in Toronto that I really like.

I think it has that timelessness and elegance to it, something I'm always striving to achieve!

Plus, I photographed it vertically so that makes it pretty rare for me.  :)

I'm always looking for a different angle when I photograph a wedding.  It's a hazard of the job that you're essentially photographing the same events week after week so you have to keep looking for new ways to see things!

This picture is from Rebecca + John's wedding up at the Hessenland County Inn in Ontario on the shores of Lake Huron.

Here's another one from Rebecca + Jeff's wedding at the Hessenland Country Inn (what can I say, it was  great wedding!)

I like everything about this picture... the look on Rebecca's father's face as he dances with his daughter... the guests looking on in the background... the contrast  of tones between the subjects in the foreground and the warmth in the background.

This wedding photograph is from Jennifer and Alex's wedding in Toronto.

The speeches during the reception were really great, and really emotional.  

Somewhat surprisingly, this image was captured as the best man was giving his speech and talking about how Alex and him had a bond closer than brothers.   This really touched Jennifer and I managed to capture this just as she wiped away the tears.

 

This image is from Andrea + Chris' wedding at One King West.

I love the connection they have as Chris listens to Andrea's speech.

This is a portrait from Joohee + Joel's wedding up in Tobermory. 

We had just finished the civil wedding ceremony, right on the water at Joel's mothers property, and paused for a few pictures. 

I love the colours in this picture, from the traditional Korean hanbok to the brilliant blue of the sky.

I love it when people are smiling in wedding photographs (I'll take happy crying as well) so obviously I love this picture from Kaylen and Roberts wedding this spring at Federation Hall in Waterloo.

You can see the joy on Kaylen's face as she enjoys their first dance during the wedding reception.

Photographers love the soft light of overcast days and golden hour sunsets.  Unfortunately, wedding portraits sometimes need to be made during the middle of the afternoon under harsh sunlight.

This was the case during Maria + Theo's wedding this fall in Toronto as we met for portraits near the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Liberty Grand Wedding

Ana + Adam's Wedding Album

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Finished the album design of Ana + Adam's amazing wedding at the Liberty Grand in Toronto from last summer.  The Liberty Grand is an amazing wedding venue down in the waterfront of Toronto.  Although they have several rooms, I've never once ran into another wedding party... they do an amazing job with making the bride & groom feel like they are the only ones getting married that day!

A huge thanks to my good friend Sam Wong of Visual Cravings for second shooting this wedding with me and getting some killer shots!

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