wedding photographer

Happy Anniversary Elena + Steve!

Wedding in Tuscany Italy

So this is a big one.

I was so honoured when Elena + Steve asked me to join them in Tuscany for their Italian destination wedding. I’ve known Elena for years now, she’s an amazing Oakville portrait photographer.

The wedding was held at a beautiful villa in the hills of Tuscany called La Sorgente Di Francesca. The wedding had multiple events spread over multiple days and this post is just for the wedding, we’ll get to the cocktail reception, civil ceremony and pizza dinner soon!

The wedding day began with a really nice civil ceremony at city hall… a beautiful Italian city hall… in the nearby town of Pontassieve (blog post on this to follow!)

The entire day, and the entire couple days of the wedding, was super relaxed so we had a break for a couple hours before everyone started getting ready for the second wedding ceremony and wedding reception.

One of my favourite moments of the day was when Elena’s father saw her for there first time, his reaction was so joyful and earnest. It’s was obvious to all the special connection Elena has with her parents.

The wedding ceremony was held just before sunset in the front courtyard of the villa with Elena + Steve’s kids as their wedding party. Hard to top a ceremony at sunset overlooking the hills of Tuscany!

The ceremony was an emotional and tear filled including a really touching sand ceremony involving all the children and Elena and Steve as a new combined family. Since Elena + Steve had already been legally married in that beautiful civil ceremony earlier in the day, all the children were even allowed to sign as ‘witnesses’ during this ceremony.

After being showered with confetti by guests during their recessional up the aisle, a group shot with the everyone at the wedding (including my kids!) and some family portraits in the setting sun it was time for dinner. As to be expected, the food was fantastic and everyone enjoyed a beautiful open air meal under the stars and crescent moon surrounded by the tuscan hills.

The evening continued on with a first dance, a fun sparkler cake cutting and then some intense dancing late into the night. Buy me a beer sometime and I’ll tell you a great story about the DJ. (sorry Steve!)

Check out some of my favourite wedding photographs from this Tuscany destination wedding up above as well as Elena + Steve’s full wedding slideshow below.

I can’t ever thank Elena + Steve enough for bringing me (and two of my kids!) along for the trip of a lifetime. Oh the pizza… I ate so much pizza.

Graydon Hall Spring Wedding in Toronto

Jennifer + Jarvis

Jennifer and Jarvis had a really great springtime wedding at Graydon Hall in Toronto.

Not going to lie, we were all al little worried at the forecast but me being the lucky rabbits foot I am the rain held off and we were able to really enjoy the day and the beautiful grounds at Graydon Hall.

I started the day with Jennifer and her bridesmaids at their new place (they moved the week before the wedding!). Fun fact, Jennifer was referred to me by one of my previous brides who was one of her bridesmaids. Check out Najwa + Trevin’s beautiful wedding at the Art Gallery Of Ontario!

From there we headed off to Graydon Hall so everyone could get dressed and we could have a first look. I’m always such a huge fan of the first look as it gives the wedding day such a nice flow as you can go straight from the ceremony to the cocktail hour without having to to break for pictures!

The ceremony was held at the lovely Lawrence Park Community Church and included an absolutely adorable ring bearer and flower girl duo who almost stole the show from Jennifer… almost. :)

Jennifer and Jarvis also had a lovely tea ceremony at Graydon Hall following the wedding service and then it was time for cocktail hour, speeches and some dancing!

Fun fact, Graydon Hall was the expensive wedding venue from Shitts Creek!

Please enjoy some of my favourite wedding photographs from the Graydon Hall wedding of Jennifer + Jarvis above as well as their full wedding slideshow below!

If you have the password, you can check out the full wedding gallery here!

You can also check out the University of Toronto engagement session I did with Jennifer + Jarvis last summer!



Tuscany Destination Wedding

Elena + Steve

So this is a big one.

I was so honoured when Elena + Steve asked me to join them in Tuscany for their Italian destination wedding. I’ve known Elena for years now, she’s an amazing Oakville portrait photographer.

The wedding was held at a beautiful villa in the hills of Tuscany called La Sorgente Di Francesca. The wedding had multiple events spread over multiple days and this post is just for the wedding, we’ll get to the cocktail reception, civil ceremony and pizza dinner soon!

The wedding day began with a really nice civil ceremony at city hall… a beautiful Italian city hall… in the nearby town of Pontassieve (blog post on this to follow!)

The entire day, and the entire couple days of the wedding, was super relaxed so we had a break for a couple hours before everyone started getting ready for the second wedding ceremony and wedding reception.

One of my favourite moments of the day was when Elena’s father saw her for there first time, his reaction was so joyful and earnest. It’s was obvious to all the special connection Elena has with her parents.

The wedding ceremony was held just before sunset in the front courtyard of the villa with Elena + Steve’s kids as their wedding party. Hard to top a ceremony at sunset overlooking the hills of Tuscany!

The ceremony was an emotional and tear filled including a really touching sand ceremony involving all the children and Elena and Steve as a new combined family. Since Elena + Steve had already been legally married in that beautiful civil ceremony earlier in the day, all the children were even allowed to sign as ‘witnesses’ during this ceremony.

After being showered with confetti by guests during their recessional up the aisle, a group shot with the everyone at the wedding (including my kids!) and some family portraits in the setting sun it was time for dinner. As to be expected, the food was fantastic and everyone enjoyed a beautiful open air meal under the stars and crescent moon surrounded by the tuscan hills.

The evening continued on with a first dance, a fun sparkler cake cutting and then some intense dancing late into the night. Buy me a beer sometime and I’ll tell you a great story about the DJ. (sorry Steve!)

Check out some of my favourite wedding photographs from this Tuscany destination wedding up above as well as Elena + Steve’s full wedding slideshow below.

I can’t ever thank Elena + Steve enough for bringing me (and two of my kids!) along for the trip of a lifetime. Oh the pizza… I ate so much pizza.

Tuscany Wedding Cocktail Reception

Elena + Steve

This is the 4th post of I’m guessing 5 at this point from Elena + Steve’s destination wedding in Tuscany. check out other posts about their Tuscany destination wedding, Italian civil ceremony and some villa details.

Elena + Steve kicked off their multi day Tuscany destination wedding with a beautiful poolside cocktail reception the evening before the wedding at the villa La Sorgente di Francesca overlooking the gorgeous hills of Tuscany.

This wedding had guests from across Europe and North America so this was a great opportunity for everyone to get know each other over cocktails and a beautiful antipasto spread.

And then there was the moment when I was photographing a group shot of the guys when I finished I
JOKINGLY said ‘Okay now throw the groom in the pool!’ and well, then this happened.

Award Winning Wedding Photography

I had a few other nice surprises in the inbox... One of my photographs placed fifth in the Kids Category  International Society of Professional Wedding Photographers Winter 2018 contest!

Another image from Sabrina + Zach's Toronto wedding was given an honourable mention by the Wedding Photojournalist Association in their latest round of winners!

As always, most of the credit goes to my amazing clients that trust me to capture moments like these for their weddings.

Melanie + David | Toscana Banquet Wedding

We should just start with the obvious thing here.... Melanie & David's wedding had one of the coolest, most impressive things I've ever seen at a wedding.

As the best man was giving his speech he asked Melanie & David to join them on the dance floor for a Seinfeld trivia rematch... once they got down there, all hell broke loose. 

Melanie is part of a community theatre group and a LOT of the guests were too.  All of them proceeded to surprise the couple with a surprise 50+ person flash mob song and dance number!   This thing was choreographed and had original lyrics, needless to say Melanie & David were floored and could barely contain their emotions.   It was such a cool thing to see!


As for the rest of the day, the morning started out with me and the girls for hair and makeup but there were lots of familiar faces since Emilie, who's 99 Sudbury wedding I photographed, was one of her bridesmaids!

A quick visit with the guys, who showed off their monogramed Blue Jays hats, and it was off to the church for a really nice Catholic wedding ceremony at St Josephs Parish in Scarborough.  We then headed off to the Evergreen BrickWorks for portraits with Melanie & David and the wedding party.

The wedding reception was held at the Toscana Banquet Hall up in Vaughan and had some great speeches and toasts as well as.... well, you know.  See above.  :)

Check out some of my favourite wedding pictures above as well as their full wedding slideshow below!

If you have the password to their wedding gallery, you can check out the complete set of pictures here.

Award winning wedding photography

PWPC Winter Contest

It's always nice to have one of my images recognized in photography competitions.  This time it was the PWPC Winter 2016 competition in the Wedding Ceremony category with a photograph from Alex + Daniel's wedding ceremony at the Eglinton Grand.

I actually talked about this image in my 'One From the Portfolio' series here.

While it's always an honour to win a competition, I'm always more focused on providing my clients with images that will be cherished for their lifetime and even generations to come.

Waterloo Region Museum Wedding

Joanna + Kris

Joanna + Kris' wedding at the Duffield Theatre and the Waterloo Region Museum was a special one for me.

I've known Joanna for a couple year through my work with the New Hamburg Community Players, an amazing local community theatre group that I do work with.  Joanna and her family are fixtures with the community players, working every job from actors to directors to hair and make up.  It was great seeing so many familiar faces from the theatre group at the wedding!

I shoot weddings all over Ontario, mostly in Toronto, so I'm always traveling for weddings.  It was a really nice surprise to find out that Joanna would be getting ready at her parents place which happens to be in the same little town of New Hamburg that I live in!  Cheers to a 5 minute commute. :)

Since pretty much everyone at the house was involved in theatre there was a lot of singing and dancing. Once Joanna and her bridesmaids were ready, I met up with Kris and the guys for a few more getting ready pictures.

Everyone then headed down to Cambridge at the Dunfield Theatre fore the wedding ceremony after we dodged a few rain clouds.  Joanna was able to get permission to have her wedding ceremony right up on the stage at the Dunfield Theatre in Cambridge!

Waterloo Region Museum is a great new venue in the south end of Kitchener that has a great modern feel to it.

Joanna decided to have a masquerade theme to the reception so everyone got masks handmade by the bride!  

After dinner and everyone else speeches, Joanna decided to give her speech to Kris in the form of one her favourite songs... and she can really sing!

Everyone then headed onto the dance floor to dance the night away.

You can see some of my favourite wedding pictures from this Waterloo Region Museum above as well as the full slideshow below!

You can see their farm engagement pictures here.

Stirling Room Wedding

Spencer + Jonas

Spencer and Jonas had an amazing fall wedding at the Stirling Room in Toronto's Distillery District.

These two really focused on having the wedding they wanted... a late ceremony (featuring a ring warming, something Ii've never seen before!), a few quick portraits and then straight into dancing and a great party at one of Toronto's best nightspots.   Even dinner at the reception was stand up food stations (mmmm.... sliders & tacos!).   The party and dancing were some of the best yet this year, it's without a doubt my favourite part of the wedding to photograph!

Check out the full slideshow of their wedding photographs below!