One from the Portfolio...

This is the second part in a continuing series called 'One from the Portfolio' where I explain a little of the background of some of my favourite wedding photographs.  

You can see the first image in the series here.

I love this image is from Lisa + Greg's wedding at Whistle Bear Golf Club.  

I was photographing the wedding party and looking for something a little different and decided to put them all up on a nearby ridge (I think the chip & putt was on the other side).  

I had taken a few frames and was just about to wrap things up when their flower girl (and their daughter!) decided she had had enough and walked down the hill towards me.  Never one to give up on a shot, I kept shooting and wound up with this image that was way better than the ones with everyone up on the ridge.  

I love the flower girls expression and the fact that the picture is about her now and the wedding party is out of focus and is just a supporting element in the picture.

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 Proposal

This was a new one for me... I got to photograph a proposal!  (Spoiler alert, she said yes!)

Jay was the master of ceremony at Robert and Kaylen's wedding at Federation Hall back in May so it was great to hear from him.   

We set everything up and I got all bundled up hidden away, ready to take the pictures but of course mother nature had other plans.  Just as they were walking to the spot a snow squall blew in and the snow started flying!

Jay and Sarah are getting married sometime in 2017!

Toronto Wedding Photographer

Maria + Theo

So this is going to be an interesting post. 

Maria + Theo's wedding was amazing... but we'll get to that in a second.

Whenever I meet people and they find out I photograph weddings one of the first things they always say is 'Oh, you must have some great stories and seen some crazy stuff!' and I always have to disappoint them.   For whatever reason, and I'm so happy it's like this, I don't have any good stories... all my couples, and their weddings, are very relaxed and stress free.

That all changed on September 20th this year with Maria + Theo's wedding.  My first hint that something was up was hearing from Theo's brother that when they went to drop something off at the reception venue that all the power was off.   Since we were in the middle of pictures at the Art Gallery of Ontario, I didn't have time to worry about it and assumed all would be well by the time we got there.

It wasn't.

It tuned out that they had had an electrical fire and wouldn't be open in time for the reception.

I've worked with a lot of wedding planners over the years.... some good, some bad.  But none of them has ever worked as hard as Jodi Gagner from Simply Perfect.  She made the call to wait until after the pictures and ceremony were over to break the horrible news to Maria & Theo to let them enjoy as much of the day as possible.

By an amazing stroke of luck the church, Orthodox Cathedral Annunciation of the Virgin Mary, where the ceremony was held offered the use of their community room in the back for the reception.  From there it was all hands on deck as guests, staff, priests and even a photographer lent a hand unloading the trucks and setting the reception up.

From there, it was a great reception featuring some great speeches, a Columbian dance troop to help open the dance floor and a great wedding DJ to keep everyone dancing.

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

Toronto Wedding Photographer

Jennifer + Alex

Jennifer & Alex had a great wedding this past summer with locations all over the Greater Toronto Area.  Alex is an actor and along with his groomsmen are in an improve troop so they kept everyone laughing throughout the day.

The day began with Jennifer and the girls getting ready at Alex moms place, the house was filled with lots of laughter (and some great porridge).

For the ceremony, we headed up to the Alex's family church, the RevivalTime Tabernacle, in the north end of Toronto. 

After the ceremony we headed up to the Peel Art Gallery + Museum for some pictures with the wedding party.  I really liked this place as it had a great combination of new and old architecture, which is great for wedding photos!

The wedding reception was held at the Mississauga Convention Centre.  As a special touch, Alex's brother is a DJ and did an amazing job keeping everyone moving on the dance floor.  A nice packed dance floor makes it so much easier for me to get those great party pictures!

You can see some of my favourite wedding pictures above as well as the full wedding slideshow below.  You can also see their engagement pictures we did at York University here!

---

• WEDDING VENUE  |  MISSISSAUGA CONVENTION CENTRE
• PICTURE VENUE   |   PEEL ART MUSEUM & GALLERY
• WEDDING DECOR  |  ELEGANTE DECOR
• WEDDING DRESS  |  THAT'S MY DRESS
• CEREMONY VENUE  |  REVIVALTIME TABERNACLE
• WEDDING CAKE  |  CAKE LUXE

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.

Tobermory Wedding Photographer

Joohee + Joel

I hope you enjoyed the pictures from Joohee + Joel's rehearsal!  And now it's time for the wedding post!

I've been to the Tobermory area a bunch of times so when I got an email from Joohee + Joel I was really excited to be going up there for a wedding!  We decided to make a little family trip out of it and rented a cottage for the week!

Joohee is originally from Korea and her family made the trip over to Canada for the wedding which was great!  I really like weddings where it's two cultures coming together.  You get to see the differences but even better you get to see all the similarities in the cultures.

Joel's mom has a beautiful property right on the water outside of town (little bit jealous) so everyone gathered there in the morning to start the day.  There were actually two wedding ceremonies, the first one was in the morning right on the windy waters edge with Joohee and Joel wearing traditional Korean wedding dress.

This wedding also had a first for me... a break in the middle of the day!   So I met up with the wife and kids for lunch before the second afternoon backyard ceremony with everyone changed into traditional western wedding attire.

We hung around for a nice cocktail hour and some pictures we then loaded up the school bus and headed into town for the reception at the Tobermory Community Centre.  I know many photographers out there would shudder at the thought of shooting a wedding at a community centre but I loved it.   So much of my photography is about the emotions, moments and people at a wedding that it really doesn't matter to me what the venue looks like.   Plus, the decorator did a fantastic job making the community hall look great!

Check out some of my favourite pictures from this Tobermory wedding above and the full slideshow below.

Copper Creek Wedding

Olivia + David

Here's a great wedding I shot at Copper Creek Golf Club just north of Toronto.

Olivia and Davide actually live in Dubai so other than a phone call before the wedding I didn't get to meet them until the big day.  But it really didn't matter since Olivia + David, and their families, are some of the friendliest people you'll ever meet!

During the reception, the wedding in the room the next door was kind enough to provide a full fireworks display for us!

Enjoy some of my favourite images from the day above as well as the full slideshow below!

 

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.

One King West Toronto Wedding

Danielle + Eric

Still catching up on blogging all my weddings after a busy 2015!

This was such a great wedding that Danielle + Eric had at Toronto's One King West Hotel!

I love when the bride and groom get ready at the same location, it means less running around which in turn means more time to let great pictures happen.   I really try to capture moments at a wedding, and the more down time or relaxed a wedding timeline is the better the chance of photographing those little moments that happen in between the big moments!

I had a great time hanging out with the guys and girls in the morning, heading outside the hotel (and even the pub across the road!) for some portraits.  

Once the ceremony was over, the wedding party and I headed out for a little walk around downtown and found some great spots for pictures.

The reception at One King West was stunning... I've heard some photographers don't like the uplighting but I think it looks great and would love to see it at all my weddings!

After all the wedding formalities, we settled in for one of the best parties of the year.  The dance floor was packed all night long!

Check out some of my favourite wedding pictures from Danielle + Eric's wedding above as well as the full wedding slideshow below.