“Timothy and I eloped on April 19th, 2013. We wanted to have a very private/romantic day, just the two of us, our witnesses and a photographer. The last thing that I wanted was those posed cliche wedding photos that everyone seems to get. I started searching for a photographer online and I found Janice’s blog. I instantly felt connected to her artistic vision as well as her personality. I’m so thankful that we did find her. Our photos turned out beautifully, and the experience itself made the day so much more special and memorable. We would highly recommend Janice Yi Photography to anyone looking for a photographer. Hopefully we’ll get to use her for some baby photos one day soon :D”
I first met baby Graham when he was just three weeks old, then again when he was 6 months old. And last month, he turned 1. It’s amazing how time flies. Heather & Mark had a little birthday celebration for Graham where he had cake for the first time and had lots of fun with balloons, his favourite.
I loved being able to witness some key milestones in little Graham’s first year and documenting them. What a little man he’s grown into! And those blue eyes and sweet cheeks. :)
Thank you Heather & Mark, for inviting me into your home again and for having me along to photograph the amazing time that was baby Graham’s first year.
This bunny is well-weathered. It also appeared in our first session.
Heather said he loves babies, and these photos are evidence of that.
Then we opened some presents, but I think Graham was more interested in the tissue paper. :)
“He’s more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same” – Emily Brontë
When I got the email from Rona about photographing her and Timothy’s intimate elopement, I just had a great feeling about it. Then I found out that not only did Rona like my photos and feel connected to them, she also felt connected to me from reading about me on this blog. It was an incredible feeling, like finding your kindred spirit.
They wanted their wedding to be simple, romantic and stress-free. And I think what took place was just that.
Thank you, Rona & Timothy. For being so lovely and kind, and for inviting me into your special day and trusting me to documenting it.
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).
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.
I’m excited to share this fun engagement/document love session today!
I’ve known May for almost 8 years now. We went to the same university, shared some common friends, and also worked at the same Chapters together. And now, she is getting married!
May is funny, quirky and playful. Although I have only met Brandon recently, I think he’s the perfect complement to May. For their Document Love session, they wanted something natural and reflective of who they are, and so to the Game On 2.0 exhibit we went at the Ontario Science Centre. Then we walked around the Toronto harbourfront, where they used to go for long walks and try to figure out a way to stop time (I borrowed this straight from May). Well, I hope I was able to do that for them, even if it’s just with a few photos. But that’s what they are right? Time-stoppers.
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!
