documentographer » life photographer

You can plan an engagement shoot, you can scout, you can even practice.  But the truth is, when you are shooting, the magic happens on its own, and you can expect plans to fly out the window.

Don’t ask me how/why/where Devika + Dennis + I ended up shooting where we did for the engagement shoot.  We started at their condo, and found ourselves discovering the area with new eyes.  It was so much fun.

Can’t wait for your wedding!

It’s Friday!

And it just doesn’t get cuter than the Telpner family baby.

Here’s my favourite thing about Fran + Elliott’s wedding : They loved every minute of it.  Despite the chaos, despite the rain, nothing phased them.  It is my favourite thing in the world to see a couple truly enjoy every second of their wedding day.  Isn’t that the whole point, after all?

I made a slideshow to share with you. Hopefully, you will enjoy each of the five minutes and 19 seconds, too.

(***NOTE!  Press PLAY and then immediately press PAUSE.  Let the show load.  Then press PLAY again, to watch the show smoothly)

Fran+ Elliott were married at the Bishop Strachan School (our Alma Mater), and celebrated at the Toronto Hunt Club.  Congratulations, my friends. Thank you for trusting me to document your day, it meant the world to me.

Yesterday Aliza got ready for her wedding(s) with her Mehendi celebration.

Tomorrow Aliza marries Hitesh with a Muslim ceremony.

On Sunday she marries him with a Hindu ceremony.

On Monday we go through withdrawal.

A couple of weeks ago a friend asked me when the weddings were going to start being posted on my blog.  There were so many engagement shoots on the blog in May, she said, stating that she was ready to see weddings.  While I appreciate the feedback and request, I can’t help her out just yet.  Last week I shot three engagement shoots.  (And a wedding on Sat — to be posted soon…)

Hopefully you will find these couples as delightful as I do, and will think that engagement shoot photos are as fun to look at as they are for me to shoot!

This is Brett + Sarah.  We re-enacted the morning of the engagement shoot, which of course, included gelato!  You’ll see them again in August.

This is Alison + Matt.  They love the Distillery District, so that was the obvious location of choice for them.  You’ll see them again in July.

This is Abigail + Gustavo.  We took a trip to Kensington Market — one of the best places in Toronto.  We’ll be taking more trips together, as they get married in two weeks, and again in Rio in August.

Thank you all for all the fun.  After these shoots, I am even more excited to document your weddings!!  Til soon, xo.

Sunny afternoon. Sister makes cake and does hair.  Friends do make up.  Baby steals the show.  Backyard ceremony. BBQ. 100 friends and family. Finished by 6pm.

That’s it, that’s all.  A perfect wedding — that simple.

If anyone knows how to bring out the beauty in simplicity, it is designer Virginia Johnson. (We all know what I think of her from my post last summer HERE) She has mastered this art in her designs, it should come as no surprise that her wedding would be with the same beauty, without the fuss.

A hunched grey shape
framed by leaves
with lake water behind
standing on our
little point of land
like a small monk
in a green monastery
meditating

almost sculpture
except that it’s alive
brooding immobile permanent
for half an hour
a blue heron
and it occurs to me
that if I were to die at this moment
that picture would accompany me
wherever I am going
for part of the way

–by Al Purdy

It is sad to say Goodbye to Finnigan’s, my friend’s beloved cottage.  This is my tribute to the memories shared there, and the trust in the wonderful times ahead elsewhere, as the future unfolds itself.