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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:

A little over two years ago I photographed Mark and Melissa and their dog, Luke, and they recently got in touch to tell me the exciting news that they have gotten another dog! Oh, and they also had a baby. Their baby boy, Ryder, is super cute and has such great expressions.

We started their family photography out in Fish Creek park in Calgary, which is where we went for their first portrait session, though this time we used different spots. It’s a great place for photos, with wide fields for the dogs to run around in and a little stream running through not far from where you can park your car. After this we went back to their home and photographed in Ryder’s room. I love the bright colours they’ve chosen for his room!

Here is a small selection of my favourite images from their photo session:

I recently got a call from Corey and Krista asking if I would photograph their newborn baby, Conner. Of course I was honoured to do it! I love being able to record new additions to our clients’ families.

We photographed Corey and Krista’s wedding back in 2008 and their engagement session in 2007, before this blog was even born. I did the portrait session with Corey, Krista and Conner in their house in Calgary, which has lots of nice big windows to let in the sunlight. Some babies will let you put them into certain poses while they sleep, with their head resting in their hands and that kind of thing, but Conner was determined to sleep in his own positions! Lol! I actually much prefer these shots, because they have so much personality to them. And he may have a modelling career ahead of him, with those Blue Steel expressions.

Mountains! Forests! Caves! Dragons! Goats!

And the most important thing: a happy couple in love.

From my very first lengthy and chatty phone call with Ngan, in response to her enquiry email, I knew this was a wedding that I wanted to photograph. I book most of my couples without meeting up first and I’m used to getting right into the swing of things on the wedding day itself, so it’s such a good thing when you can click so well and have such a cool connection right away.

John and Ngan were married at the Juniper Hotel in Banff, which is a stylish, modern-rustic venue away from the main town. The place has an eco-friendly focus and is entirely wind-powered, which is pretty cool. Ngan and John were ably assisted in many things throughout their day by wedding planner Sonia and her assistant from Cornerstone Events. They did a fantastically amazing job and I highly recommend them.

The first event of the day was John and Ngan’s Vietnamese tea ceremony. We’ve photographed a number of Asian tea ceremonies (Vietnamese, Chinese, Cambodian, etc.) and they have to be some of the most challenging things we photograph. So much happens so fast! And it’s all important! Lol! If you’ve never seen one, imagine a western ceremony where the first kiss happens in the blink of an eye every few seconds for half an hour and that will give you some idea of the timing of it all. Of course, there aren’t actual kisses happening constantly in the tea ceremony; they exchange gifts and greetings and have other traditions.

At the end of their tea ceremony they had a surprise for their guests: traditional dragon dancers! That was so cool! There were eight of them and there was so much sound, colour and energy in the dancing! Then John and Ngan snuck off with us for some quick portraits in their traditional Vietnamese dress.

Their western wedding ceremony was outside on the Juniper’s terrace area and, although the weather had been threatening snow, the sun popped out just for their wedding. After that we visited a few locations around Banff for their portraits. They were so easy to take photos of. In fact, their whole wedding party was very easy-going. And John has to be one of the smiliest grooms we’ve ever seen! He basically didn’t stop smiling all day!

Their reception was full of laughs and there was a touching moment when Ngan gave a speech to her family in Vietnamese. I have no idea what she said, but there was so much emotion in the room that I nearly cried, too!

Thanks for having us at your wedding. Here are some of your photos.

Mike and Elva are such a fun couple! I have so many photos of them laughing. I love it when our couples are fun or obviously in love and these guys fit both categories, so it was a blast hanging out with them to take their photos. Although they live in Calgary, their wedding is taking place in Waterton and they asked if they could have contrasting engagement images—something with a more urban feel compared to how their wedding photos will be. So we visited a few locations in the city, often just walking around and taking advantage of whatever presented itself as a good idea. They even danced to a busker’s music in the middle of Stephen Ave! It was a pretty easy-going time.

Thanks for being so fun and up for anything!

Congrats to Dan and Caitlin who were recently married at Toronto’s Liberty Grand, in a day filled with laughter and tears. If you are a regular blog reader you may recognise Caitlin and Dan from a bridal fashion shoot I did last summer in Kelowna. A lot of people thought that they were models I had hired to act the part of a couple when in fact they are actually a real-life couple and were engaged at that time.

This was such a cool wedding in so many ways! The entire day was based in the Liberty Grand complex, which is a really beautiful wedding and event venue down near the waterfront in Toronto. The combination of the bright colours of the cherry blossom theme for the wedding and the Liberty’s own classic elegance gave a great look, both timelessly classy and fun as well.

Caitlin was such a stunning bride! And her Lazaro dress and ornate veil were amazing also. The guys were a lot of fun to photograph, with Dan and the groomsmen all joking around. There was also a very touching moment when Dan received a special gift and card from Caitlin.

Their ceremony was held in the dome area of the Liberty Grand, which is a very beautiful room and they augmented it with cherry blossom decorations. After the ceremony I had only a few minutes to do all of the portraits and I took most of Dan and Caitlin’s portraits in literally two minutes! But that’s ok; it doesn’t take long to capture some great moments when a couple are really in love.

The reception was in the Liberty’s Renaissance ballroom and so much care had been taken to ensure a good time for everyone—they even had chefs cooking your food as you chose it! After the speeches everyone got out onto the dance floor and I love it when people get into the dancing! Caitlin’s bridesmaids are all professional dancers—Caitlin was actually in the opening ceremonies of the Vancouver Olympic Games—and as well as the bridesmaids there were tons of people out on the dance floor giving it everything they had. As the dancing continued, Valerie Stanois, an amazing singer from hit Broadway musicals such as We Will Rock You, sang live for Caitlin and Dan while they danced and did the bouquet and garter tosses. She was accompanied by the lead from the current Dirty Dancing musical and as a duo they totally rocked the place.

So, thanks for having me along, Dan and Cait! All the best to you both!

Click on the play button below to see a slideshow of some highlights of the wedding day.

I’ve been wanting to take a couple into a car wrecking yard for nearly a year and a half now. About a year ago DQ Studios did portraits of Sherri and I in a wrecking yard, which was really cool, but it’s different being in front of the camera to behind it, so when Julie told me that she wanted something kinda edgy for their portraits I saw my chance.

Jake and Julie are a great couple and so cool to work with. It would be hard to get a bad photo of them! They were so easy in front of the camera and just so relaxed with each other and in love. We hit a few locations in Calgary, starting with a car wrecking yard and then heading north to see what cool locations we could use in the city centre. We ended up at Stephen Ave, which is such a rich location for photography, especially when they have the lights up in winter. Plus, the pubs and restaurants have really nice ambiance for indoor photos.

We are looking forward to their wedding this year. Here are some of their engagement images.

I don’t usually blog family portrait sessions, but I’m going to add a couple of sessions from this year, starting with Jill and Jeff’s family portraits.

We did their session on a beautiful property just outside of Lethbridge owned by friends of Jill. It was an awesome place for family portraits, with a couple of areas where the kids could mess around as well as a great little stream at the bottom of the hill. We also raided a chicken coop, with their dog watching excitedly through the fence at us. As you will see from their photos we shot this at the end of fall and the leaves had a bit of colour, which is always nice. This was a relaxed and fun photo session with only really one set up for posed images. And even then they were quick to play around and have fun.

The river where their dog is swimming in to fetch thrown sticks was really cold! I waded out to get a few photos of them skimming stones in the water and, man, my feet froze! Ah well. Anything for the shot, right?

Hot on the heals of the Banff wedding we did for Jordan and Leanne is a Banff engagement with fun couple Samson and Donna. Kudos to them for braving the cold for the outside photos! That wind was a killer!

We started out in the Bow Falls area before heading to the Fairmont Banff Springs to shelter from the wind and also get some indoor portraits. Samson and Donna are great dancers and we were able to get the Mount Stephen Ballroom totally to ourselves. (I’ve never seen that before!) So Samson got to twirl Donna all around around whole the floor—a private moment in a normally very public place. It was pretty cool, actually.

We only had a limited time for this engagement session, so we made the best use of the nearby areas around the Mount Stephen Ballroom for the whole time we were there. Donna and Samson were a great, open couple and I really look forward to their wedding day.

Thanks to Leanne and Jordan for having us at your wedding! Jordan is actually an accomplished photographer himself and it is always an honour to be chosen to photograph the wedding of another photographer. Their wedding was in beautiful Banff and they flew up from their home in San Francisco to get married here. Aside from the ceremony itself their wedding was a bit of a break from the more typical, traditional schedule, with a reception lunch right after the ceremony and then a casual dinner in the evening. I think that this is the best of both worlds for a wedding, where you can still have all of those heartfelt moments during the ceremony and reception speeches and then later you can freely mingle with your family and friends and enjoy their company without having to sit through a set list of things to do.

Their wedding ceremony was held in the Banff Park Lodge’s Castle Room, with their reception and evening after-party at the Glacier Salon. Both rooms are very nice, with lots of polished wood in them and a decorative wall of molded glass showing a mountain landscape in the Glacier Salon.

Leanne had the biggest smile ever! She smiled so much, especially during their ceremony. Everyone else smiled too when she slipped up during her vows to her “awful wedded husband”. Poor Jordan. Lol! Jordan and Leanne had asked that I get photos of all of their guests as they entered the reception, so I set up a little area and quickly had them pose as they came through. I always get candid images of people laughing during speeches and that sort of thing as part of the day’s coverage anyway, but this makes sure that there is a professional photo of everyone who was there.

After lunch they had speeches and a slideshow, which alternatively had everyone laughing or wiping tears. Actually, I’m going to interrupt myself a bit and say how much I like weddings where the speeches are after the meal. That way all your guests are happy and relaxed and can pay full attention and you don’t end up with photos of them laughing with food in their mouths. As a matter of fact, although there was definitely a very relaxed and easy-going attitude at the wedding, I have to say that this was also one of the best-scheduled weddings I’ve been to. We never felt like we were rushed for time. From what I heard during the speeches, this was probably due to Jordan’s preternatural spreadsheeting abilities.

For our photo time we visited a few locations around Banff, capturing the gorgeous scenery of the mountains and the river. We also visited the Fairmont Banff Springs, which is an wonderfully elegant location for photography. I love it in there and it was a welcome break from the cold wind outside! After their photos we headed back to Melissa’s Missteak across from the Banff Park Lodge where the two met with their families for an intimate dinner before crossing the road to meet back up with the rest of their guests for the evening. We stayed to catch some candid photography of everyone having a great time there.

Congrats, guys! Here are a few of your images.

(P.S. Thanks to photographer Trent Ernst for assisting me again).