Photography Blog

Esther and Alan decided they wanted to have their engagement session downtown to emphasize what Toronto does best, which involved lots of super cool graffiti, urban architecture, Kensington Market and the Spadina streetcar among other things.  If you live in Toronto, I highly recommend this type of engagement session (but I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves)!

We found this wall near Queen and Spadina.  It was in an alleyway.  We were about to go around the corner, where there were more walls with more graffiti, but some other people were told to leave unless they worked there, so we decided against it.

This wall was just a little bit north of the other one.  We loved that it said “Paris” since they will be going there for their honeymoon!  This mural was commissioned.

This was on Queen St., close to Spadina.

I’ve always thought the Cameron House would be cool for pictures.  Added bonus-they have fabulous bands!

The construction on the left was in Kensington Market.  The house on the right was across the street from The Cameron House.   Esther really liked the way it looked and it reminds me of Sesame Street for some reason.

This house was in between two stores in Kensington Market and featured beautiful flowers.  We couldn’t resist taking pictures there!

We found this staircase behind Grossman’s Tavern, which also features great jazz.

The Spadina Streetcar, a fixture in Toronto and a very popular way of getting around downtown.  There was even a hit song byt the Shuffle Demons in 1986 called the Spadina Bus (I’m not sure why it wasn’t called The Spadina Streetcar).

Congrats on your engagement, Esther and Alan! I’m looking forward to photographing your wedding next month!

Kristen was in Joanna and Al‘s wedding party, whom we photographed the same weekend last year.  It was a real pleasure photographing many of the same people, again!

Here is Kristen holding out Antony’s ring.

The blushing bride, shortly after her arrival at Sunnybrook Vaughan Estates.

The bridesmaids, watercolour style.  “Bouquets to belly buttons”, as Joanna got everyone saying!

They were lucky to get a perfect day!

Isn’t it sweet how the looked at each other throughout the ceremony?

The bridal party. Don’t you love how the groomsmen ties  match the bridesmaid dresses?

Some portraits of the happy couple.

This is the first time I’ve tried to animate photos.

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At the reception, they had to emulate other people’s kisses in order for them to kiss. As you can see, they got pretty into it!

First dance.

It looks like the right woman caught the bouquet!

Congratulations, Kristen and Antony!!!

Lauren and Ulrich’s engagement shoot took place just two days before the wedding, since they were rather busy jetsetting between Toronto and Switzerland (where Ueli is from and where they will be moving this week)!

This was just after the wedding rehearsal on Ward’s Island.

Ueli’s family was in from Switzlerand and Lauren’s family was there as well!

Just two days later, here is Lauren getting ready.

Thanks to the CN Tower, you can definitely tell this was a Toronto wedding.  The ceremony took place on the Toronto Islands, so they travelled by boat.

Guests were told they could step up and take pictures before the ceremony began. They did a great job following instructions!  Special thanks to Brian Tao of Luxography for guest shooting with us and capturing this moment and many more!

Lauren’s dad hands her over to Ueli.

First kiss and signing of the registry.

Happy together.

They took the Pioneer Princess to Atlantis, which is where the reception was held.

Here is the reception room at Atlantis.

Lauren and Ueli met West Coast Swing dancing, so of course they did it for their first dance!

Congrats, Lauren and Ulrich! Have a fantastic move to Switzerland.

You may remember Nadia and Andrew from the engagement session back in October.

The wedding day finally came and they continued to be one of the most relaxed couples we’ve ever had the opportunity to photograph!

Here, Nadia’s sister is tightening her dress.  Nadia didn’t seem to mind even though if her sister had yanked a little bit harder, she likely would have fallen over backwards.

It didn’t take Andrew long to relax after putting on his suit.

The groomsmen were a fun bunch.  One of them even entertained with a mini ballet performance.

Here are the bridesmaids and groomsmen in front of the golf course at Bayview Golf and Country Club.

Here are both Nadia and Andrew’s families together. Andrew’s family is from PEI.

The ceremony took place outdoors under a shade overlooking the golf club.

Happily married!  Nadia was eager to get a photo in front of the gazebo, because Andrew proposed to her in a gazebo.

Look at all that love.

These two can definitely make each other laugh.

The reception kicked off with a slideshow, which entertained the guests before dinner began.

Congratulations, Nadia and Andrew!

Amy and James met studying political science at The University of Toronto , when James was asked to walk Amy home one night.

It is only fitting that they chose to get married at Massey College on the U of T campus.

Their daughter eagerly watching the ceremony.

Amy and James wrote their own vows, which brought some laughter through the crowd.

The two families merge.

They made time to get in a laugh with their daughter after the ceremony.

They wanted to emulate their parents wedding photos (see left image).  Here is Massey College (right image.)

Guests had to come up with a rather structurally unique poem to get the couple to kiss.

They had a pinata for the numerous children in attendance and children at heart.

The cake was homemade with Guiness and chocolate.  Afterwards, there was an extremely entertaining magic show that was enjoyed by all.

They danced the afternoon away.

Congratulations, Amy and James!

I have had the pleasure of working with Heidi Lange on several occasions over the past few years, so I was thrilled last year when she asked me to do the photography for her debut CD, “Later.”

Statler’s has AMAZING martinis.

Here are a couple of photos from our CD shoot:

Heidi’s a fabulous singer, so you should definitely check out her music here:  www.heidilange.ca . You can see the rest of the shoot and pick up your very own CD while you’re there too!

I’m also pleased to announce she will be on the mainstage of the Beaches Jazz Festival on July 19, 2009 and at the Festival of Friends in Hamilton, on August 7th, 200

I have a feeling we’ll be hearing a lot more of her.

Tanya is originally from Toronto, but she went to school in Newfoundland and fortunately, she did a study term in Chicoutimi.  That is where she met Yves.

Tanya est originaire de Toronto, mais elle a fait ses etudes a l’universite Memorial en Terre-Neuve. Elle a eu la chance de faire un terme d’ étude a Chicoutimi. C’est la où elle a rencontré Yves.

Here are her sisters helping her do up her dress.  It was a  windy day. Ici ses soeurs l’aident à buttonner sa robe. C’était un jour venteux.

Putting on the finishing touches.  Mettant les touches finales.

Her sisters walk her to the wedding car so they can get to the church.  Ses soeurs l’accompagnent a la voiture de noce qui l’ achemenira a l’eglise.

Their wedding took place in the Chapelle-Notre-Dame du Sacre-Coeur, but we had to get to it from the Basilique Notre-Dame due to construction.

La ceremonie de leur marriage a pris place a la Chapelle Notre-Dame du Sacre-Coeur mais due a un projet de reparation, la partie nuptialle a due faire un petit detour a travers la Basilique Notre-Dame

Tanya and her sisters don’t get to see each other too often, but when they do, it seems like they have lots of fun!

Tanya et ses soeurs n’ont pas souvent l’occasion de se voir, mais lorsqu’elles ce rencontrent, elles ont l’aire de beaucoup s’amuser ensemble.

Yves has a twin brother-can you tell which one?  It looks like Yves and the groomsmen have a lot of fun when they get together as well.

Yves a un frere jumeau – pourrier vous le reconnaitre dans cette photo? Il semble qu’ Yves  et ses garcons d’honneurs ont beaucoup de fun ensemble.

Yves and Tanya made each other laugh while I took these photos.

Yves et Tanya se sont fait beaucoup rire pendant que j’ai pris leur photos.

The Cathedral where they got married is right behind them.  There was lots of construction in the neighbourhood.

On peut voir la Cathedral Notre-Dame derriere les nouveaux marries. Il avaient beaucoup de construction dans la Cathedral.

Tanya wanted to take some photos on the Metro.  Tanya voulait prendre quelques photos dans le Metro.

They used Skype to call Tanya’s grandmother in Austria and Yves’ grandmother who could not attend the ceremony.

Avec l’aide de Skype, ils ont contacte la grande-mere de Tanya qui demeure en Autriche et la grande-mere d’Yves.

They fenced.  Ils ont fait de l’escrime.

Tanya is an amazing dancer, and Yves impressed her with their first dance. Tanya’s mom made the cake and the chocolates came from guests all over the world!

Tanya’s uncle from Austria gave Yves a lesson in ironing.  He asked Yves to remove his shirt, then he questioned  “Did this shirt cost a lot of money?”  “Yes.” Immediately after the response, he cut off the sleeves and exclaimed, “20 minutes saved every time you need to iron.”

L’oncle de Tanya, qui habite l’Autriche a donne a Yves une lesson de repassage. Il a demande a Yves d’enlever sa chemise et il lui a demande si elle coute chere. Yves a dit ‘Oui’. Sans hesiter, l’oncle a pris une paire de ciseaux et coupe les bras de la chemise et dit a Yves:  ‘Ce truc va t’epargner une bonne 20 minutes de temps chaque fois que tu veux repasser ta chemise’.

The party went until the wee hours of the morning.  La party nuptiale n’a pas fini jusqu’au petits heures du matin.

Congratulations, Tanya and Yves!

Felicitation, Tanya et Yves!

Herzliche Glueckwunsch Tanya und Yves!

Heather Farmer, of Elegant Faces asked me to come photograph The Clothing Show, because her company did the make-up for all the shows.  There were lots of shows and lots of models, so that’s quite a feat!

I focused mainly on close-ups, since I was photographing for the make-up, but hopefully you can enjoy some of the cool designs too.

This is Heather and one of her colleagues at the EF booth.

Runway showtime!

The men were having a lot of fun between shows.  The graffiti wall in the background started out with hardly anything on it, but it was filled with beautiful art by the end of the show!

Heather is prepping one of the girls to go on stage.

Dania was awesome! She modeled for me between her runway shows.  I need to work with models more often…she was so much fun to photograph (and so easy too)!

Not too long ago, there was a rumour that Jen was engaged.  At the time, it was just a rumour but she did say, “Well, I did meet someone….” a little too knowingly.  Nobody was surprised when that rumour became true.

Jen’s mom and sister did ALL the flowers for the wedding, which was quite remarkable because I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many beautiful flower arrangements at one wedding.

Their ceremony took place at the Light Korean Presbyterian Church.

Pre-wedding prayer with Pastor Jason and the bridesmaids.

The moms lit seven candles each before the ceremony began.  Don’t you love their traditional Korean dresses?

Jen’s father gives Dave a hug after walking her down the aisle as a groomsman looks on.

Everyone was so happy when Jen and Dave finally got to put the rings on each other’s fingers.

Bridal bouquet.

Portrait with the groomsmen.

Portrait with the bridesmaids.

The adults of the wedding party, with the Copper Creek golf club in the background.

Dave and Jen with the extremely well-behaved children of the wedding party.

Close-up of a boutonnier.

Jen and Dave.

Dave and Jen.

Don’t they look stunning together?

Taking a little break from the more formal photos to share in a laugh.

The table settings at Copper Creek.

They lindy hopped the first dance.  It’s really hard to believe that Dave just starting learning how to lindy a few months ago, because he nailed it (as did she)!

This was one of the most terrifying pictures I’ve ever taken, because I had to stand quite high up on a ladder to get all the people in-and I’m a little afraid of heights.  There are around 300 people in this photo!

Happy to be giving their speech as a married couple, at last.

The children all went wild on the dance floor!

Congrats on your marriage, Dave and Jen!!! Thanks for having Rabbat Photography document your special day 🙂