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I’m pleased to tell you that I recently had eight of my images place in the International Society of Professional Wedding Photographers summer contest, giving me an over-all placing of 15th in the world. This is truly an international contest: out of the twenty place-getters, there are ten different countries represented! It’s great to see such a cool diversity and world-wide representation. I am honoured to have placed in among such skilled and talented photographers.

Although this is the summer contest, the deadline for submissions was earlier in the year when wedding “season” up here had only just started, so I am really happy to have done so well. I placed in these categories: Wedding Ceremony, Wedding Reception, Emotional Impact, Bride Portrait, Bridal Party Portrait, Engagement Portrait, Pure Art.

Here are my placing images:

Stephanie and Kyle are a great couple whose engagement session I photographed last winter in the Kananaskis (in a blizzard—but that’s another story). After their engagement session I was really looking forward to their wedding—and not just because it was in summer.

We started the day with Kyle and his groomsmen out on Taber golf course as they played a quick round before coming back to Stephanie’s parent’s house to get ready. Well, to eat burgers and kick around a soccer ball. Same thing, really. Kyle is such an incredibly easy-going guy and the whole time I was with the guys there was a great laid-back feel with no pre-wedding jitteriness.

The property where Stephanie got ready, and where the wedding reception and ceremony were held on, was amazing—equal parts farm and mansion. I could have spent a day just photographing all the cool architectural details and the decor. When Stephanie was putting her dress on, Lindsey from Once Upon a Bride in Lethbridge had a tip for getting the dress on without messing her hair: a plastic bag over her head! It sounded funny to me at the time, but it works really well and was a clever idea.

The ceremony was held outside in a cobblestone courtyard and I have so many photos of people wiping their tears!

After the ceremony we stayed on the property for all the photos. It was a very diverse place, with a vineyard, some cool old stone constructions, and my favourite thing: a bouncing castle for the kids. As soon as I saw the bouncing castle I knew I had to get the wedding party in there. Fortunately, they were a super-fun bunch and felt the same way. It was so much fun in there! At first everyone was just kind of standing around looking at the camera, but I encouraged them to really go for it—which was interesting for my assistant Jessica, who weighs about 20 pounds and got thrown around like crazy—lol! We actually tipped it over at one point when everyone was on one side. Good times. Every wedding should have a bouncing castle.

After the fun reception guessing games and speeches, awesome Lethbridge band Hippodrome got everyone moving out on the grass of the reception area. I’ve seen Hippodrome perform at a couple of weddings this year and they really make the place come alive. It’s not just excellent music, but also a great feel that only a good, experienced live band can bring to an event.

And, best of all, there were no blizzards; just beautiful weather all day and night.

Krister and Susan are a photography duo from Edmonton who run Picture That Photography. It is always cool to work with other artists of any kind and very cool to be chosen by other photographers.

As you will see when you look through the photos, this was a fun session. We met up at their favourite bubble tea place in Calgary to chat a bit before going out to do their photos. I am not a bubble tea kinda guy, but according to Susan and Krister, Bubble Mania is the place to go for it in Calgary. Just so you know. (I can tell you where the best organic coffee is, but that’s not really a part of this blog story).

Krister, in particular, is a big movie buff who has even got them both into major film festivals—the ones where even actors have to apply for a seat—and so we did something fun that was kind of associated with this interest of theirs. I couldn’t get a star-studded list of international actors in time for their engagement session, but an old TV set in a tunnel was just as good. It was even fairly clean.

We hit up a couple of parks around the north side of Calgary. Krister and Susan were great to work with! As we hiked up the side of a hill in one of the parks, getting further and further from the car, I asked them, “How do you guys feel about being blindfolded?” Not really a typical engagement session question, I suppose, so I understand the looks they gave me. But when I explained my idea they got into it really well and the end result was a real heightened connection between them. I have a whole series of images from this segment that show an amazingly loving connection between them. It was very cool.

I look forward to seeing them again on their wedding day.

Congrats to Samson and Donna who were married recently in Calgary! I photographed their engagement session last winter and had been looking forward to their wedding—I knew that it would be a fun day.

Their ceremony was held at Mount Calvary Lutheran Church and after the family photos we took the wedding party to a couple of nearby parks for their wedding party and couple portraits. This was an action-packed wedding, yet Samson and Donna were relaxed and happy all day, which is a big testament to their easy-going personalities.

Donna and Samson both wore a variety of amazing outfits, from a beautiful white wedding gown—obviously, I’m just talking about Donna now—to traditional Indian and Vietnamese clothes, and then into a shorter white wedding dress for the dancing. Samson also wore traditional Indian clothes at their reception as well as a cool suit. There were so many personal touches during the day, but especially at their reception. For example, check out the cake! That’s so funny and so cool!

There were a lot of activities and events during the reception, including some very talented dancing by an Indian dancing team and then a couple who salsa danced. There were also some wedding reception games, such as the Shoe Game (photo below) and some wilder ones as well. I have some very incriminating photos from those other games.

Samson and Donna are great dancers and their first dance was a blur of twirls and dips around the dancefloor. Then the floor was opened up to everyone and it was packed with people of all ages out there having fun.

Here is a small sneak peek of the wedding photos.

I really enjoyed photographing Matt and Andrea’s engagement session. We met up at Milestones restaurant on Stephen Avenue to chat about their session and it seems like every time I mentioned a possible location idea they’d get excited and say something like, “That place is special to us, because we went there on our first date!”. That was very cool. I also noticed as soon as they sat down that they were very affectionate with each other. They held hands across the table the whole time and and it was totally clear that they really loved each other.

Their whole session was very relaxed. We all wandered around Calgary Zoo and nearby areas chatting about various things as we did the photos. They were s-o-o-o-o easy to work with and great fun. We are photographing their wedding at the Rimrock Resort very soon and I’m looking forward to seeing them again.

I always say that wedding photography is all about the people and the wedding of Ryan and Milena is a perfect example of this. Their wedding was a very intimate one, with just family and close friends. As you look through the photos you’ll see the love everyone had for one another—almost every image has someone laughing or crying, or both at once.

Milena, her mom, and her bridesmaids got ready at the El Dorado Hotel and when we walked in that morning Milena’s face lit up with a huge smile—it’s great when brides are excited and not stressed about their wedding day!

Right before Milena’s dress went on we quickly hopped across the road to the Playa Del Sol Resort where Ryan and the guys were getting ready to get some photos of them. That’s where I took the cigar photo. I’m not a smoker, but I liked the ironic juxtaposition between the cigars and the nearby sign.

Their wedding ceremony and reception were both held at the Summerhill Winery, on a terrace overlooking Lake Okanagan in Kelowna. There are only two ceremony images below, but you can feel the emotions in them and we have photo after photo showing their love for each other.

After the ceremony we did the portraits in a cherry orchard and the winery. There are two photos from the portraits that I normally would not include on the blog. One is from the family portraits, where Milena is joking around with her parents. I’ve never put any family formals on the blog before, but I love the interaction between them. The other image is a “smiling at the camera” photo (the first photo in the cherry orchard), but I love it because Ryan has a huge grin and just looks so happy. I didn’t tell him to smile at the camera; it’s a genuine smile.

As Jessica and I were leaving they took the party outside and danced to traditional music from their home country, whirling and laughing on the patio as the full moon rose over the lake.

I am very pleased to tell you that the ISPWP has featured me in a member’s spotlight interview! The International Society of Professional Wedding Photographers is a photography group that I am definitely proud and honoured to be a member of. From their website:

The International Society of Professional Wedding Photographers (ISPWP) is a rarity among wedding photography organizations. Photographers cannot simply buy an ISPWP membership, they have to earn it . . . Our requirements are experience, talent, and professionalism. To be accepted, a photographer must have shot at least 50 weddings, submit their portfolio for review, agree to operate under the ISPWP Code of Conduct, and have an ISPWP Sponsor or four references. And THEN they have to be voted in by current members.

It’s a really cool organisation and I admire the stance that Joe Milton, the founder, has taken in being true to the high standards he started out with and not compromising. And now they’ve been kind enough to feature me as a guest interviewee. You can read about my thoughts on my style and some of my favourite tips for brides who are planning their weddings HERE.

We are excited to be featured on the Wedding Obsession blog! We had one of our Banff weddings feature there earlier this year, which was very cool, and this time we have a very small mix of some our images from a handful of weddings around Canada—Kelowna, Toronto, Banff, Taber, and Crows Nest Pass.

If you are planning your wedding, make sure to take a look around the Wedding Obsession blog! There are so many awesome ideas for couples to draw from, whether you’re after a cool retro vibe or something modern and different.

Thanks for having us on your blog again, Melissa!

We have recently had two shoots featured on the wedding inspiration blog, Beyond Beyond. If you are a regular blog reader here you may remember our previous feature on Beyond Beyond and it’s always an honour to have our photography displayed with them. This time round we have a Calgary engagement session and a Banff bridal portrait session.

Beyond Beyond describes their site as “wedding inspiration for daring bridesters, hipsters, and individuals who dare to be different” and they definitely fit that description! There are so many wedding-inspiration blogs and web sites out there and so many just chase after whatever the current trend happens to be, but Beyond Beyond really does have a very cool, eclectic mix of tasty tidbits and funky photos that stands out from the crowd. Click on the links above to check them out.

We photographed Julie and Jake’s engagement at the start of this year and after meeting them I knew that their wedding was going to be a one-of-a-kind!

We started the day at Julie’s parent’s house, taking photos of the dress and other details, before Julie arrived from the hair salon to get into her wedding dress. Julie was an absolutely stunning bride and her dress had beautiful and ornate decorative stitching throughout, which looked really cool.

Jake and Julie’s wedding was at the Sacred Heart Catholic church in downtown Calgary in a ceremony with smiles and happy tears. After the ceremony and family photos, we went to the high school where Julie and Jake first met, on the south side of Calgary, to start their portrait time and then we drove up to Inglewood to finish the portraits there.

The reception was held at Commonwealth Hall in the north east of Calgary and the decor for the reception was amazing. There was a huge tent set up in the main hall area with bright-coloured up-lights along the floor and a chandelier hanging from the centre of the tent. And check out the cake! That is such an amazingly stylish cake!

Julie and Jake had a game of tossing a big dice to see if they would kiss or whether some other fun event would take place. Each side had a different outcome, but it seemed to land on the kissing side quite a lot.

The reception was a really cool party, with belly dancers who performed and kicked off the dancing. I love it when everyone gets out on the dance floor! Before we left we did some more portraits, because it makes for a great way to wrap up the story of their day together. Here are (quite) a few of my favourites: