My Life Archives - Page 5 of 10 - Toronto Wedding Photographer

January 3, 2014January 3, 2014

2013 // A Year in Photos

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Dear 2013,

What a year you have been. I always feel extra nostalgic at the end of each year and the beginning of a new one. Reminiscing about the things that happened, what dreams did I achieve, what memories did I make? A little less than a year ago, I handed in my resignation and left my full time day job in order to follow my passion for photography, and for the stories they tell. It wasn’t so much a scary time, but an uncertain time. The scary part happened when I contemplated the possibility of being a full time wedding and portrait photographer. Once I made up my mind about it, it wasn’t so scary anymore because it seemed possible. Possible but still so full of uncertainty. I pushed through that though, and focused myself, one day at a time, one session at a time, one wedding at a time. Making goals, checking off to-do lists, trying to maintain some balance in life during the busy summer & fall months, and trying to not get lost in the operation of my business and keep those big dreams in sight.

There were a lot of ups.Working with amazing couples and families who understood my vision, shared that vision and trusted me to document their story in the form of photographs; shooting my first, and then my second destination wedding (those are coming soon!); running a profitable business in my first year full time; but most of all, waking up everyday and not regretting or dreading going to work. That feeling, that was how I knew I was definitely doing something right.

There were frustrations and disappointments too. Lessons learned the hard way, and heartaches. But I also worked through them, a lot of times with the help of my amazingly supportive husband, and some really awesome friends. Perhaps one of the most interesting aspect for me has been adjusting to working from home. all. the. time. I really struggle with a self-imposed schedule, not to mention it gets lonely! This Oatmeal comic explains it all. :)

So many things I have learned. How to let it go when it’s not in your control; how to walk away when I’m too emotional to respond to an email; the realization that some things we need to learn and relearn constantly, not everything is like learning to ride a bike; the importance of saying ‘no’; the importance of carving out time for myself, to rest and to stay inspired; the importance of finding my own way and staying true to it.

I’m not a big New-Year’s-resolution kind of person, but one of my biggest goals for 2014 is to push myself to dare to dream bigger, to continue living with love, intention and purpose, and to find a way to give back to the community.

Thank you 2013.

2014, let’s do this!

Love, me.

But what’s an year-end review without some photos? Here are some highlights, favourite moments, favourite photos. Wishing you a year full of love, laughter, great food, moments that you will never forget, and adventures.

August 15, 2013November 18, 2015

Iceland // Road trip through the most amazing country on earth

Ansel Adams once said: When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence.

His wise words represent perfectly how I felt, and still feel, about Iceland; the landscape, the animals, the people. That’s why I’ve been putting this off for a while.

This is a place that has to be seen and experienced. But for now, here’s the story of our road trip through the most amazing country on earth.

It was my friend Andrew who first inspired my curiosity in Iceland. He described a country with wild and magical landscapes, amazing people and very talented musicians. Before that, I naively thought that Iceland was just full of ice (I was 20…give me a break). As it turns out, Iceland is green and Greenland is full of ice. :)

So I fully expected to fall in love with the country. But the people, I’ve never fallen in love with a nation of people before. I didn’t think it would be possible. Icelanders are some of the happiest, most genuinely kind, and open people I’ve ever met in my life. If you google “why are Icelanders such happy people” or something of that nature, you’ll see that I’m not alone in this observation.

A ~~crazy~~ brave tourist walked to the very edge of this cliff and sat down for her friend to take a photo. I had to look away after I took this photo because I was honestly worried about what might happen if she took a wrong step.

Iceland is famous for their horses, a breed known for its sure-footedness and ability to cross rough terrain. They are smaller in stature but don’t call them ponies. That would offend even the nicest Icelanders. When we get the chance to go back, I’d love to go on a riding trip.

Waterfalls dot the countryside, many from melting glaciers in the Spring & Summer. We visited Seljalandsfoss, on the way to Skogar and Vik. We arrived around 8:30pm but it was still very light outside. There was nearly no one at the site. We climbed up a series of wet wooden steps and behind the waterfall. The sound was thunderous. We were soaking wet but it was incredible.

A waterfall that tumbles into a hidden canyon just down the road from Seljalandsfoss.

We stayed at the Hotel Edda in Skogar for the first night of our drive-around-the-country trip. The hotel is on the site of an old school. It was an interesting place. But where else do you stay in a room that affords a view of endless grass and sheep? The Skogar folk museum is just down the street and we headed there early on day 3. It’s an amazing little spot full of local history & artifacts.

a centuries-old ship used for fishing

Not a bad place to have your car battery die on you. Luckily we got a boost from a kind fellow traveler.

Car boosted, we drove towards the Dyrholaey peninsula known for its black sand beach. It was here that I saw my first puffin.

below right is an Artic Tern. They are everywhere in Iceland, and they like to fly in front of cars.

The Icelandic horses are very friendly and will almost always approach you if you walk up to them.

the Vatnajokull glacier in the distance, one of the largest glaciers in Europe.

Jokulsarlon glacial lake. I’ve seen photos of this lake before, and still I was not prepared for the sight of shocking blue icebergs floating in the lagoon as we climbed over a small mound of volcanic soil after parking our car just off the Ring Road.

I hauled a small piece of iceberg near the edge of the lagoon onto the pebbly shore and broke off a small piece. Then I ate it. I’ve wanted to do that ever since reading about a blogger who did the same thing when she visited Jokulsarlon. Tasting thousand-year old glacial ice was pretty cool. It tasted really clean, and cold.

We stayed in the town Hofn that night, it was also the night we found out our rental car battery was completely dead. Luckily it died after we got to the town. The next day our lovely B&B host called her brother, whose name was Thor, to give us a boost so that we could at least get to the mechanic’s place in town. Again, I was amazed at how willing the people were to help complete strangers. We hadn’t left any accessories on or forgotten to turn off the lights. This could only mean that the battery was on its way out anyway. I silently cursed us for choosing a car rental company that rents 10+ year old cars (car rentals are really expensive in Iceland). But M reminded me that a car battery could have died in a new car too (which we saw at the mechanic’s haha). In the end, I realized that it was really a blessing in disguise because it forced us to ask for help. I’m really terrible when it comes to asking for help. I’m always afraid that I’d be disappointed if I do. This little misadventure forced me out of my shell, just a little, but enough to show me that sometimes you can rely on the kindness of strangers and that feeling vulnerable is not a bad thing, but a part of being human.

Day 4 on our drive up to Lake Myvatn in the north, we saw a reindeer from the side of the road. A REINDEER!!

When I researched our trip to Iceland, one of the many things that surprised me was the mention that hitchhiking is not only common, but encouraged in the country. In fact, it’s practically illegal not to pick up a hitchhiker, whether you are a local or a tourist. The country is very safe, and with very few public transportation options to travel around the country, hitchhiking is not a bad option. We picked up a couple from the Czech Republic who was living in England at the time and on a month long trip in Iceland. It turned out that one of them is a wedding photographer! What are the chances?

M with our friends Bosa & Tereza.

After dropping our friends off at Djupivogur. We continued on Route 1 but took a slight detour at the village of Breiddalsvik and winded our way through part of the zigzagging East Fjords. We turned north again at Reydarfjordur and took route 92. Here’s a fun map. It was along here that I drove through the longest mountain pass I’d ever been through. It was such an eerie experience especially with so few cars on the road. In fact, the tunnel was so long that there were evenly spaced Emergency Pull Over stations and phone stations and markers on the road that informed you how far you were from either end of the tunnel. If it weren’t for the modern technologies inside, you could have easily mistaken it as a Dwarf’s cave from Lord of the Rings perhaps.

Finally we arrived in Lake Myvatn. The area is known for their nature bath, which is the Blue Lagoon of the north. We immersed ourselves in the soothing and steaming bath for over two hours. The air was crisp and cold that night. So cold in fact our hair, eyebrows and eyelashes were covered in tiny icicles.

In the summer, Iceland is the land of the midnight sun.

One of the few sunny days we had while in Iceland. The water was incredibly blue. On day 5 we drove up to Husavik, a small town about an hour north of Lake Myvatn for a whale watching tour. It was awe inspiring watching the gentle giants of the sea diving and swimming.

A humpback whale diving.

Day 6: we drove back to Reykjavik after a night staying in Hvammstangi.

Puffins! They are such endearing little birds. Known for mating for life, and to be a little clumsy.

Six nights and five days was not nearly enough. While we managed to drive around the Ring Road, and thus around the country, in five days, I would not recommend it for anyone else. It was a lot of driving, but since we took advantage of Icelandair’s stopover offer we only had limited number of days this time around. When you are driving that much, you just don’t have as much opportunity or time to actually get out of your car and explore. This is definitely the country to be outdoors.

Being in the wide open, expansive spaces in Iceland, I felt calm, at ease, a deep sense of wonder, and happy. The air was always fresh, cool and clear. I can’t explain that feeling. I read an article while we were traveling from a blogger who, along with her husband, sold everything they owned and are permanently living and traveling in a camper van. She feels that we as humans are meant to be outdoors, and not be sitting in front of a desk all day long. And I believe her.

Here are a few more (random) reasons why I love Iceland (in no particular order):

1. It’s a very safe country

2. There is Wi-fi pretty much everywhere where there is people

3. Almost no need for cash, credit cards are accepted everywhere

4. Widespread use of geothermal energy

5. I love that their language is so ancient

6. Flying Icelandair

7. Seafood is amazing

Dear Iceland, you have captured my heart (like so many before me), I hope to return again soon, and one day, I’d absolutely love to photograph a wedding there.

August 6, 2013November 18, 2015

A long weekend in Prince Edward County

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I’m trying to get better when it comes to personal work. Trying is the operative word here, as I still have to share some photos from our Iceland trip in June and some from last year’s trip as well. But I’m working on it!

As a wedding photographer, summer weekends are a luxury. While M and I work hard at scheduling quality time together outside of the weekends, it’s nice to be able to have a weekend all to ourselves once in a while. So this past long weekend we packed the car and headed to Prince Edward County (known just as “The County” apparently). The rain followed us the whole drive out of Toronto, but luckily the weekend was a beautiful mix of sunny & cloudy.

It really is a picturesque region, and unlike other pastoral countryside of southeastern Ontario, there is an extra layer of charm to The County. I’m not sure what it was really. Throughout the weekend I was constantly ooooh-ing and ahhhh-ing over the scenery and can’t help but think that it’s a gorgeous area for a wedding. There are many charming inns and restaurants; perhaps a private cottage on the lake; one of the many wineries; and of course, vintage country barns.

We visited Sandbanks Provincial Park and felt like we were transported to the Caribbean.

Dunes beach at the park was filled with rolling hills of sand dunes, some as tall as 10 meters.

Does this tree not look like a lion?

I’ve never been to a drive-in movie theatre before and so we went to the Mustang Drive In in Picton. It was a lot of fun! The best part was watching the movie as more & more stars filled the sky.

The County is known for their wine so we visited a winery that was recommended by our B&B (Nine Gables), Devil’s Wishbone Winery. They had a wooden deck half-way down the vineyard for a rustic picnic experience. So that’s exactly what we did. Their rosé was delicious, so was their Riesling & Pinot Grigio. The people there were so nice & friendly, and the best part is that it’s a small family-owned & run business.

A walk in the country.

Being city kids, we don’t get to see the stars often. So one night we drove out to Lake on the Mountain just outside of Picton and even though there were some lights around, we were amazed at how many stars we saw.

May 17, 2013May 21, 2013

Planning a DIY Destination Wedding – Our Wedding {Part 4}

Alright so I’m a bit of a procrastinator when it comes to personal work. But I’m getting there. This is Part 4 in a little series documenting how we planned our destination wedding in Provence from an ocean away. Part 1, 2, and 3 is here, here, and here. In this post, I write about how we arranged the other big items for the wedding, after the venue, and the photographer.

Invitations

I won’t go too deep into this topic, because after all, the invitation is common to all weddings, not just destination weddings. I think like all things associated with a wedding, there seems to be a lot of traditions and what seems to be must-do’s when it comes to invitations. However, M and I firmly believed that you can make up the rules as you go and be adaptable when it comes to weddings…and many other things in life. Before I start, let me just put it out there that I love paper goods. It’s almost unnatural…I’ve loved paper goods and stationery items since I was little, from erasers and pencils to journals and special letter sheets (what are these called?! They are themed letter paper material often with illustrations and such…is this only an Asian thing?! You will see lots of these all over Asia). I also love a good hand-written note or letter, and I used to have pen pals when I was younger.

So that probably explains why I spent almost as much money on our invites as my dress. I say I because M couldn’t really understand why I’d spend so much money on paper items that we are only going to use once…He had a point to a certain extent but I just couldn’t help it and so I happily paid for them myself. I won’t talk about the normal etiquette behind wedding invitations, you can easily google these. We ended up making our own Save the Date cards since we were having a destination wedding – it was fun coming up with the idea. Then for the invitation, I hired a custom invitation designer based out of New York called Swiss Cottage Designs. I had stumbled upon her work online (the internet is a great place indeed) and then got in touch! We didn’t get everything that could come with a “normal” invitation suite (such as a RSVP card), which definitely helped with the cost (it can cost a lot more with all the bells and whistles). But then I splurged on having a custom illustrated map. Did I mention I also love maps? Especially vintage maps.

So that’s what we did with our invitations, but there are lots of other options available. You can use template designs if custom is out of your budget or is just not something you greatly care about. There are lots of template invitation design companies, and you can even find great designers on Etsy. P.S. instead of an RSVP or Reception detail card, you can put that info on your wedding website (if you are doing one) and include a link to that on your invitation. There are so many options to building your own site now; you can use Blogspot or WordPress. It’s super simple.

Here’s how everything looked all put together (photo by me). The invitations really wasn’t DIY since we hired a professional but nevertheless I felt we “hacked” the process since we didn’t get everything you are “supposed” to get, we also hand assembled everything together (thankfully our guest list was teeny tiny) and sat for an hour or so sorting through stamps. Oh yea I also used to collect stamps when I was younger, so I bought these fun vintage stamps from Send More Mail. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find anything nice for international mail so they just got a regular printed label from Canada Post :D And yes that is a heart shaped rock, there is a story behind that.

Catering

Alright, I think one of the pieces of advice I read about the most while planning our wedding was to prioritize what’s most important to you and spend your funds accordingly. Easy to say, but hard to do. Everything seemed important to us, as least the big things. We wanted a beautiful location that was quintessential Provence but not a castle or chateaux. We definitely wanted delicious local food, after all, you are in France. And then there is music, and of course, the photographer. I have to say that right off the bat, the photographer was the most important to both of us. I am a photographer after all ;) But honestly, after all that’s said and done, the photographs are the only things you will have to remember this special day by. It would have been nice to have a cinematographer, but that wasn’t in our budget. Luckily, my uncle recorded our ceremony for us and that was really special. Food, where were we going to find a catering company without the help of a wedding planner, from an ocean away? Luckily (we did get quite lucky), the property manager for the vacation house we rented has a colleague who works for her and cooks meals for guests upon request, as well as offering cooking lessons. It felt a little strange to hire someone whose work we couldn’t see, or rater, taste. It felt very strange. In the end, we decided to trust our guts once again. After all, Beverly was more than welcoming and accommodating with my numerous emails (she later admitted it drove her a little crazy, hahaha…) I didn’t think she would recommend someone unfit. Not to mention, it’s really more of a family & friends gathering, not a proper large wedding that requires 10 servers and so on and so forth. My final line of reasoning was, she’s French! Her cooking has to be good. :) I know, this could haven been a total load of crap. But I did say we went with our guts.

We ended up spending about the same amount as the average cost per plate of food for an average wedding in Canada. This also included dinnerware, glasses, utensils, linens etc. The house had enough outdoor furniture that we used for both the ceremony and the dinner afterwards, no rental necessary. I don’t have any photos of the food unfortunately, but we had Provençal Chicken/Provençal Beef for the main course and they were probably some of the best chicken and beef I’d ever had.

Music

I’m more of a live music type of gal, and I think M agreed with me on this. So we wanted to hire a live band for the evening. Most likely a little jazz quartet or something. Just live, mellow, lovely music. This, beyond all else, was the most challenging part of the planning. I almost gave up. At one point, we thought we would just come up with our own playlist, and sync one of our iPhones into a couple of wireless speakers. Beverly also recommended a band to us, but after a few emails, we realized he wasn’t what we were looking for (he insisted on playing Today’s Top 40 songs, which I didn’t care for too much – I hear them enough on the radio when I drive). Then I tried searching for “jazz quartet provence” in google.fr in French…I used Google Translate, ha! Seriously good luck finding anything if you don’t speak French (which I don’t, beyond bonjour, au revoir and how to buy 2 tickets…don’t ask) Of course, I did manage to find one by typing in that very phrase in English into google.fr and found these guys. I checked out the sample tunes on their site and fired an email off. Aurelien was really nice and we hit it off right away and settled on that. I felt really at ease just from emailing with him, it’s funny, but trust can be established through email too. And here I will say that it was through Aurelien that I finally felt at ease with the venue. Aurelien had asked about potentially visiting the house, so I put him in touch with Beverly and he went in late March and sent me a couple of photos. And voila! I should note that when we finally found them, it was early February, just 4 months before. They were the sweetest guys, and very talented. Everyone enjoyed the music that night. (Photos below by Chloé of Caught the Light)

These were the rest of the big items to be squared away. I felt considerably better after that. And then I would say I kind of obsessed over the smaller details for the next 3 months or so. Just a little. I knew all the wedding blogs, read all of them, and constantly saw new and creative ideas to do for our wedding. Oh, an outdoor movie screening complete with floor cushions and a projector? Sounds amazing! and I love movies! (Where in God’s name was I going to find a projector in the country side?! hmm) A welcome goodie bag for our guests stuffed with local goodies and other useful stuff complete with a hand screen printed canvas tote? Sounds like fun! (Ok, they are our guests, not children, they are probably more than capable of figuring out things on their own and really I didn’t have the time) It was just a cycle of blog surfing and more and more details. Finally I realized how overwhelmed I felt and worse, I was starting to feel like our wedding wasn’t going to be very pretty or blog worthy. And as soon as I thought that, I said to myself, what is wrong with you?! Who cares about these things? No one is probably even going to notice if you had mason jars or stripped paper straws, why am I driving myself crazy with these details? That wasn’t why we were getting married, didn’t you know that? The worst part was, I did know that, I just lost sight of that reason a little somewhere along the way. So I stopped visiting the blogs, and went to a blog I hadn’t visited in a while. One called A Practical Wedding. Their motto is “weddings. minus the insanity, plus the marriage” Just what I needed. Then I read The Mason Jar Manifesto by none other than one of my favourite photographers, Jonas Peterson. He hit the nail right on the head. So I stopped visiting the wedding blogs and concentrated on the reason why we were having this wedding at all – a commitment and manifestation of love, a celebration of family and friendship, and focused only on the details that were meaningful to us.

Looking back, the way our funds were allocated (we still have the spreadsheet of everything) reflected our values and what we considered to be most important to us. A beautiful but intimate venue and amazing photos took up about 50% of our budget. Followed by great food, terrific music, my dress, and invitations.

In the next instalment, I’ll do a run-through of the day and maybe recount some funny stories and fond memories.

April 26, 2013May 15, 2013

Planning a DIY Destination Wedding – Our Wedding {Part 3: The Dress}

Ah the wedding dress. So much romance and ideology and expectations on one single item. Growing up, I wasn’t one of the girls who dreamed about her wedding day or have always known what kind of dress she would wear. After we got engaged, I actually fretted about the impending wedding dress shopping. In my mind, wedding dress shopping was associated with going to boutique after bridal salon, trying on tons of different dresses and pushy sales people. The very thought of that made me cringe a little. I’m sure my opinion of this is a bit exaggerated but nevertheless I didn’t want to be in that situation.

So that was one of the reasons why I bought my dress online (gasp!) The second reason was that I couldn’t believe how expensive wedding gowns can be. Let me explain, I enjoy fashion and love a gorgeous dress as much as the next girl, but actually dropping thousands of dollars on one was another thing. I love the designs of Monique Lhuillier, Carolina Herrera, Vera Wang, Ralph Lauren (swoon!) but knew I wouldn’t be able to actually afford one. On the other hand, I didn’t want anything with bad quality either. All that is to say I believe in paying a little more for a quality product, there had to be middle ground somewhere right? I also didn’t want the typical bridal gown either…you know, strapless, A-line poufy ball gown with some sort of random beading or embroidery. Not that there’s anything wrong with them, they are just not my cup of tea and most bridal boutiques seem to have an abundance of them in slight variations. In the end, I bought a used wedding dress on Once Wed, a popular wedding blog that also has a dress boutique where past brides can sell their gently used wedding gowns. This is actually a great way to buy a designer dress if that’s what you really want. The dress I ended up buying was a number from Priscilla of Boston (the boutique was closed in 2011 by parent company David’s Bridal), a bridal boutique based out of, of course, Boston.

Now, I know what you are thinking, how could I have bought a dress without trying it on and no way of knowing how it would look on me?! And it’s not refundable; like buying things on Kijiji or Craigslist. This is definitely not for everyone and I did worry considerably about it. In the end, I decided to trust my gut! Plus, my close friend, and maid of honour said to me, well if you end up hating it for some reason, you can always re-sell it. True that! A note here about buying used wedding dresses on Once Wed, they highly recommend you use the service of companies like escrow.com to protect both the seller and the buyer. It’s even better than PayPal – the buyer sends the money to escrow.com, which is essentially a mutual third party who will hold the funds and notifies the seller, who will then ship the item. Once the item is received by the buyer, s/he will have to actually accept the item and notify escrow in case the item wasn’t what it was supposed to be and the seller was a scammer. Once the buyer officially accepts the item, then and only then is the funds released to the seller. There is of course a fee attached to the service, but it’s only $100 and can be split between the buyer/seller and in my opinion well worth the money when making this type of purchase. I spent $700 on the dress and after shipping, alterations and dry cleaning, came to just under $1,000.

When I got the dress (after considerable delay at the border and some fun times with FedEx), I was ecstatic! It was only about 1 size too big on me and I just loved it! I felt really giddy and I didn’t want to take it off. I didn’t cry though, and for someone as sentimental as me, I was a little surprised that I didn’t cry. But it didn’t bother me at all, I don’t think every bride-to-be cries when they’ve found “the dress”. I also don’t know if there really is a dress that’s “the dress” for you. I think you will find one that will be the best fit in all aspects: look and feel, material, quality, price etc but there isn’t necessarily one that is “perfect”. I got the dress in the mail in July, just 2 months after our engagement. In fact, this was the first big purchase I made for the wedding. A couple of friends were really surprised by that and asked what if I fell in love with other dresses afterwards? Well, I figured if that really happened, I will deal with it. In truth, I still enjoyed looking at wedding dresses online and liked lots of them, even loved a few perhaps, but I knew this going in and accepted that was probably going to happen. So it wasn’t a big deal even as I found myself liking other dresses, I knew I loved the one I bought. I think there were quite a few dresses that I liked as a dress or liked the idea of them, but they probably wouldn’t have worked out as a dress for me. Does that make sense? A few months after I bought the dress, Randy of Say Yes to the Dress fame released a book called It’s All About the Dress and I flipped through it out of curiosity. His book went beyond the ordinary advice and actually explained his philosophy when it comes to choosing the right wedding dress for every bride. This was a very interesting read indeed. In addition to taking into consideration what silhouettes are most flattering for you, the venue of your wedding, the season, the budget, and to keep in mind the question “what is the dress that makes you feel the most beautiful?”, I think the most important tip he offered was to figure out the story of you as a couple and as an individual, which will naturally also be the story you will tell for your wedding. This really resonated with me and it all made sense. We had determined what we wanted our wedding to be: relaxed, intimate, romantic with a sense of simplicity. I felt the dress I chose was just that: romantic, but without being overly girly or too sweet, and elegant but simple.

Then there was just one final consideration, since I had to take the dress onto a plane, not choosing a poufy ball gown was definitely the right choice for me. I can’t imagine trying to do that. I bought a travel garment bag for this specific purpose. It was $40 plus shipping and duties but was worth every penny. You can see it here. I was able to fold the bag in half after putting the dress in, and we also fit in M’s suit. There is a lock system at one end for the hangers so everything stays together! Genius. The best part was nothing was wrinkled after a transatlantic flight (even though I had to lay them flat on top of our bags in the overhead compartment).

Photos by Chloé of Caught the Light

So there you have it. Wedding dress shopping doesn’t have to be stressful. It doesn’t even have to be a “wedding” dress. It could be anything you want to wear in my opinion. And if you are having a destination wedding, consider how you will transport the dress before and after the wedding and invest in a good garment bag. Next up I will talk about how we found the other vendors we hired for the big day, such as catering, and music.

April 18, 2013April 18, 2013

Planning a DIY Destination Wedding – Our Wedding {Part 2: Finding the Right Photographer}

This is part 2 in my mini-series reflecting on planning a destination wedding on our own in Provence, France. I think the term “destination wedding” is most often associated with Mexico or somewhere in the Caribbean, with a ceremony on the beach and a travel agent who takes care of everything for you. It’s essentially a packaged tour but with a wedding. Don’t get me wrong, I think a ceremony on the beach is incredibly romantic! I believe that just like travel, it’s possible to plan it on your own and do it independently. It’s probably easier to have someone else take care of everything for you, but I think doing it on your own is half the fun. And, if something goes wrong, well at least you will have some funny memories ;) (And you’ll be the only ones who will know!) Part 1 of the series is here and I talked about how we booked a venue, which also served as a vacation house for a week where some of our family and friends stayed with us as well. In today’s installment I will cover our search for a photographer. I’ve decided to break the series into smaller, more sizeable chunks as I tend to write a lot.

Even though the venue was the first thing we booked, we were also searching for a photographer more or less at the same time. The question I got asked the most after we got engaged was who was going to photograph our wedding? I even wrote a blog post about how to choose the right wedding photographer. They are just my opinions of course and you might have a different idea about this altogether, which is cool.

When I first started reading blogs online, I stumbled upon this amazing wedding in Scotland and subsequently discovered that the couple was the husband & wife photography duo behind Lillian and Leonard. I fell in love with the soft and dreamy photos and the way they saw the world and a wedding through their lens. So when we realized we needed to get in touch with a photographer soon, they were on the top of my list. But we also thought it might be easier to find a photographer in Canada, someone we can meet before the wedding. This is how I met Alex of Young Hearts. There was something about Alex’s photos that drew me in, I wasn’t quite sure what it was, perhaps the sense of romance but in a subtle and fun way. Unfortunately Alex wasn’t available for our date. I should note here that our wedding was on a Thursday so for a destination wedding, if a photographer was already booked for that Saturday, it would be very challenging, if not impossible, for them to fit in a Thursday wedding in another country. So then I emailed Cara at Lillian & Leonard… And, they also weren’t available :( They already had a wedding booked in the Scottish Highlands for that Saturday. I must say that at this point I had a minor panic attack: eeeek! What if all the good photographers are already booked?! We would have booked a photographer first if we had the choice, but I also knew that we couldn’t narrow down on a date if we didn’t have a venue/location. Most good photographers get booked up 8 – 12 months in advance, if not more. There was another photographer that I had admired for a couple of years but she was based in the United States. Her name is Michéle Waite. I loved her photos from the first time I saw them: she captures all the emotions and those in-between-moments at a wedding. On top of that, she does it so well and so consistently no matter the kind of wedding: big or small, extravagant or intimate, traditional or contemporary. I didn’t think that she would be available for our date but somehow she was! We had a Skype chat and emailed back and forth a few times. In the end though, we realized we just didn’t have enough budget for wedding photography as well as to cover the travel expenses for 2 photographers from the US to France. And here is where the story got interesting. I mentioned to Michéle that we will perhaps look for a photographer based out of the UK as it would be a lot more economical from a travel perspective. Michéle then recommended Chloé of Caught the Light. At the same time, Cara had also offered a few recommendations for other UK photographers and Chloé was also one of them. What are the chances? We checked out Chloé’s website & blog and I looked through wedding after wedding. I loved Chloé’s fresh perspective and bright colours, and the candid photos that she catches without being obtrusive really told the story of a couple’s wedding day. So we got in touch and she was available! And the rest was history as they say :)

So that’s how we hired a photographer for our destination wedding. You can hire a photographer from your home country or you can hire someone at your destination or somewhere nearby. I know with destination weddings in the Caribbean and Mexico, a lot of the times the resorts have their designated photographers…but it is my honest opinion that most of them aren’t very good. But everyone is different! The most important thing is to do your research and know your options! And I truly believe the most important thing is that you love the photographer’s work and feel a connection not only to his/her photos but to the photographer as well.

Next up, finding a dress doesn’t have to be stressful!