Photography Blog

I had been looking forward to Christopher and Shannon’s Albany Club Wedding ever since their Hamilton Waterfalls Engagement session. 

I knew that no matter the weather, they would be prepared and accepting.  In spite of a fairly lousy forecast for many days before the wedding, we did not have to worry about that because it was an absolutely perfect day.

We started off at the Omni King Edward Hotel, where Christopher and Shannon were getting ready in separate rooms and then made our way outside for the bridal reveal.

When Christopher saw Shannon for the first time, he appeared to be stunned into silence.  It took a few minutes for him to take her in, but when he did, it was beautiful.

Afterwards, we headed over to the grounds of the Cathedral Church of St. James for photos of the families, couple and wedding party before the ceremony began at the Albany Club.

 

Shannon had her makeup done when I arrived.

Shannon had a photo of herself as a child clipped into her dress.

 

Sarah was upstairs photographing the groom and his people when I was with the bride.

Christopher’s cuff links say “Grow Old with Me. The best is yet to be.”

 

 

This wedding not only featured a bridal reveal, but also a reveal of Christopher’s mom to his dad, because she is a farmer who doesn’t dress like this for the carrots!  Everyone kept saying his dad was going to “Drop his teeth” I think he came close.

 

Christopher burned off some energy as he waited for Shannon’s arrival.

 

Christopher went into anticipation mode when he realized she was coming.

 

Shannon is ready to surprise Christopher!

 

People were saying this may have been the first time Christopher was stunned into silence.

 

We walked towards the grounds of St. James Cathedral. First, they stopped outside the Albany Club.

 

The two families together.

 

The bridal party. Shannon went to elementary school with Jessica and of course, Stephen is Christopher’s brother.

 

We had time for some romantic photos.

 

Christopher entered the Albany Club and immediately stuck his head of the doors so I could take a picture of him before the ceremony.

 

Shannon asked for some photos of the back of her dress, so we took them just before the ceremony, while she waited in this room with beautiful light.

 

I like how the Reverend is laughing and how Stephen is smiling as Shannon’s dad prepares to hand her over.

 

Looks like somebody is very excited!

 

Sarah ran upstairs to the little window to take this photo of everyone when the ceremony ended. I found myself caught in the middle after I directed the last few rows to move back so they would be in the photo too.

 

We went upstairs to the Albany Club rooftop to take a few family photos.

 

Shannon’s mom and her sisters share a laugh before heading to the reception area.

 

First dance with their parents joining them at the end.

 

There was lots of laughter throughout the speeches!

 

They had their wedding rings custom made for each other. Shannon’s wedding ring is Alexanderite, which changes colour from emerald to ruby depending on the time of day.

 

We snuck outside for some off-camera flash evening photos with the cathedral and city lights in the background. We also got a streetcar photo.

 

It’s always lovely when one half of a couple catches the garter and the other half catches the bouquet. In this case, it was Shannon’s brother and his girlfriend.

 

Most of the guests got on the dance floor and stayed there all night (well, until the party ended)!

 

Congratulations on a super fantastic wedding day, Shannon and Chris! I hope you had an amazing honeymoon in Mexico too! Thank you also for choosing such great times for the photos in terms of the light and thanks to the guests for having such an awesome time!

I was reminded of Thomas and Afsoon’s wedding reception when they invited us to celebrate Nawruz, which is the Persian New Year celebration.  I did find this article about it if you would like to learn more:

https://www.vox.com/culture/2018/3/19/17138516/persian-new-year-nowruz-explained

I mostly tell stories with my camera and I remembered that I had not yet had a chance to post the photos from their wonderful wedding reception, which took place at Gilaneh Restaurant. in North York. Gilaneh has an authentic Persian menu and when you enter, you feel like you may be in Iran. What I love the most about being a wedding photographer in Toronto, is being able to experience so many different cultures. Thank you Afsoon and Thomas, for having me there to experience yours.  It is always a special honour to photograph the weddings of friends you grew up with, friends whom you imagined important milestones with (like weddings!), years ago.

The first two photos are cellphone photos from the Nawruz celebration.

 

Every year for Valentine’s Day, I take a picture of the kids for their Valentine’s Day cards to hand out to their classmates.

This tradition mainly started because it happens to be my eldest daughter’s birthday, so I wanted to do something special for her. Today, she is 10 years old!  I know it is cliché, but it feels like just yesterday that I was adapting to having a new baby, not quite sure of what to do with her. She is my independent, creative, tenacious child.  The truest saying about parenthood is “The days are long, but the years are short.”  Even Julia turned to my friend just yesterday, pointed to her newborn and said, “Time goes fast, soon he is going to be 4.”  Today, he turned two months old, but she is right.  At this point of her son’s life, the days and nights are long and it is hard to imagine, but 10 years ago, I didn’t think this day would come so soon.  Before I know it, she will be entering into adulthood.

Document your children before they grow up.  It happens way too quickly.

This is Julia’s card. She chose the pose.  She wanted it to be heart shaped. We did the dotted lines to make them easier to cut, but her classmates will get cards with no dotted lines surrounding the heart.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Emily’s Valentine’s Day card.  She wanted a heart shaped balloon in her hand, so I downloaded a vector and put the frame around the card so it would look like she was jumping out of it with excitement.

I was looking forward to Stephanie and Doug’s wedding since I first met them. They were up for anything at their engagement session and they were getting married at the beautiful King’s Riding Golf Club.

We did their engagement session in the winter, since they wanted to incorporate skating as Stephanie was learning how to do it, thanks to Doug. They also each brought their favourite book to the engagement session, since they like to read.  Doug is very into Harry Potter and Stephanie likes all kinds of fiction.

Doug has Scottish ancestry, so he incorporated Scottish items and outfits into their wedding.

The groom and groomsman had some fun before their wedding. They were all quite comfortable in their kilts. Notice how Doug’s is a different colour than the kilts the groomsmen are wearing. He wore the colours of his family’s clan.  I like how the street sign and Doug’s kilt are almost the exact same colours, but different patterns.

Stephanie’s bridesmaids all looked stunning in their green dresses and of course, she was a standout in her beautiful lace wedding gown. I like how excited she looks just an hour or so before her wedding.

Every couple hopes for this type of weather on their wedding day.  Stephanie and Scott picked an absolutely perfect day.  When I took this photo, all of the guests had entered and Stephanie and her bridesmaids were just about to arrive.

Always composed, Doug keeps a calm look as he watches Stephanie walk down the aisle, while the officiant and groomsmen cannot contain their excitement.

Stephanie and Doug had a hand binding ceremony to officially join them together. Is this where the phrase “Tie the knot,” comes from?

I love the genuine smiles from Stephanie and her bridesmaids as she is about to officially be married.

The bridal party looking good in front of King’s Riding Golf Club.

We had some fun asking the girls to primp up Doug so he would look his best for Stephanie. He didn’t seem to mind.

I always love the photos of two families joining together on a wedding day.

One of my favourite parts of the day was when we were asked if we wanted to take photos on the golf course and somebody let us drive our own golf carts to get there.  I loved the photo locations and I also loved driving the cart!

The moments just before and after a kiss are even better to photograph (in my opinion) than the actual kiss.

The only way for a bride to see the back of her dress is for someone to take a photo of it.  We made sure we did that at Stephanie’s wedding!

Rolling hills, back lighting, a stunning bride in a beautiful gown, fantastic weather, what more can you ask for?

We let them pretend we weren’t around for a few minutes.

The emcees had a lot of fun. They met Stephanie in kindergarten!  I love that they had so many friends they had known for a very long time at their wedding.

They did their first dance right after they entered. Don’t you love how the cake has a tartan that matches Doug’s kilt? The figure on top of the cake matches Stephanie and Doug quite well too!

The right girl caught the bouquet, because she seems pretty happy.  Feel free to call me when you get engaged!

Ditto for the groomsman who caught the bouquet. He made an effort and succeeded!

You know it’s time to party when the animal bandanas come out.

Congratulations on a fantastic wedding day, Stephanie and Doug!  Thanks for allowing me to follow along in your romance from your engagement session to  your wedding day.  It was all perfect, “until the very end,” (to quote James Potter).  Enjoy Disney and please post lost of pictures and let me know how you like The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios!  Thank you so much for having Sarah and I there to document all these precious moments (and many more).

I wish you many magical moments in the future.

 

 

 

I was honoured when Belinda came to me for her headshot.

I love photographing headshots because it is really fun to help people feel comfortable in front of the camera.

I also love hearing that someone whose photo I took for LinkedIn helped them get that interview or that job.  Professional images show a person values themselves, which in turn makes interviewers and companies more likely to invest in hiring them.

Doug is teaching Stephanie how to skate, so they decided they wanted to do their engagement photos in the winter, on a skating rink.

We chose Colonel Sam Smith Park in Etobicoke, because it is a picturesque skating figure 8, it is refrigerated (so we knew there would ice) and there is a beach area close by to offer us a variety of ‘looks.’

Doug has been doing a fantastic job teaching Stephanie, because she stayed on her feet the whole time. More importantly, they looked they were having a great time on the ice.

We went inside to warm up and decided to take advantage of this area. It looks a little like a school and Stephanie is a teacher and of course, the water fountain is prominent and Doug is a plumber, so we incorporated both their professions in this photo.

I asked them to bring their favourite book, since they both like reading.  Doug brought Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Stephanie brought The Notebook.

We went back to where we started for a few more photos.

Congratulations again on your engagement! I can’t wait to photograph your wedding!