Tag Archives: documentary toronto wedding photographers let’s grab each others’ hands and go gather up experiences together, not things. let’s laugh a lot. let’s stew through problems together and let’s push each other. let’s dream and explore the unknown and together make an adventure out of our one life. ok? toronto in the springtime, 2013. these guys get married this weekend…  You know, we say to the couples we get to meet with who want to have us there to photograph their wedding, how it’s kind of crazy that two people decide to love each other the rest of their lives and all of a sudden you are thrown into a whole other world of planning… The best piece of advice I can remember being given before our own wedding six years ago was to take specific times during the day to actually just stop and think about what’s happening… actually count to ten in your head and let yourself take it all in. The day goes by so fast as it is, you have so much on your mind, so many people to see & I’m so happy I did that at a few points. Helped me to actually remember & savour the day as it was happening! Dave & I didn’t have a dinner reception, and so that evening after our friends & family had sent us off, we had a quick late night bite to eat at a bar close by and spent the evening just reliving the day, laughing about the funny things that had happened, telling strangers in the bar we’d just gotten married… I remember it as fondly as the actual wedding :) Wedding planning can take up a lot of your time… it can become a second full-time job if you’re not careful, and often that means when the wedding is over it leaves this void in your life. So if I could give one piece of advice it would be to make sure that during the whole planning process you take time to connect with each other, to talk about things other than the wedding and plan for things beyond your big day. When we got married we knew that we were going to spend our second year of marriage overseas, so in the months leading up to the wedding, whenever we found ourselves getting a little too absorbed in anything wedding related, we stopped and allowed ourselves to dream a bit about our upcoming adventure… there will always be a little bit of a letdown after the wedding is over, but if you take time in the planning process to make sure you are planning for a life together beyond the day itself, that letdown can be lessened a bit. After all, although the wedding day itself is important and exciting, it is the marriage, and the life you are choosing to have together that really counts! It sounds really cliché but try to take some time throughout the day to really take in everything that happens – kind of like a mental snapshot. Everything goes by so fast and after months of planning and thinking about your wedding day, it’s over before you know it! Making sure to appreciate everything that is happening while it’s going on is important! (edit: I’ve just read Jenn’s post, and it’s the same! but it just shows how important it is to take everything in and make sure you have fun on your day!) On a planning note, I (Shannon) would say that don’t stress out about all the little details – most people won’t notice/remember those anyways and you don’t need to upset yourself over them. Of course there’s tons of personal and beautiful little touches you can add, but don’t get bogged down if it’s not working the way you want. As long as you’ve got your significant other, your marriage license, and your officiator then you’ve accomplished what you’ve set out to do, and you’ve got the rest of your lives ahead of you to celebrate! Our advice is that your wedding should be fun and be reflective of who you are as a couple. For example, the only flowers we had at our wedding were bouquets and boutineres. Some of our relatives found that strange but that was something we liked. We chose the music and a friend DJ, we used movie posters to decorate and had theatrical MCs because that is what we like and that is who we are. My other piece of advice is similar to the previous posts. Take time to enjoy, to thank and to hug everyone! Talking with and dancing with family, friends and my new in-laws was amazing. I know they appreciated us coming over and hugging them and or dancing. Our wedding was fantastic because we were relaxed, in love and having fun! I wouldn’t change a thing. I think one of the things that helped us have such a smooth, fun wedding was neither one of us expected to get stressed. Everybody talks about how stressful wedding planning is, but really it’s no different than planning a dinner party or night out. Make lists and have fun! If you’re getting stressed out, change something! I (Julie) totally agree with the comments above, but just to mix things up a little, here are a few specific things we learned along the way… • Accept the fact that weddings are expensive. There will be moments where you’ll feel incredibly irresponsible for spending so much cash on one day (especially if you’re on a budget, like we were). Remember that this is one of those big life moments that you’ve been saving for, and enjoy the thrill of it instead of stressing out. It helps if you can set aside the money you’re planning to spend in it’s own account right away. You won’t feel like you’re dipping into your day-to-day expenses every time you need to make a big purchase. • I know it’s also money related, but I can’t help it! Before doing anything else, figure out where the cash from your wedding-fund will be coming from. If someone has offered to help you pay (parents, for example) sit down with them at the beginning and clarify exactly how much they’re planning on giving you. Asking people up-front about money might seem rude or unnatural, but it’s better than making assumptions and ending up in an awkward situation later. • Your wedding day should be about you, but not at the expense of the people you love. This day is a celebration for your friends and family too, and being considerate towards their opinions and values will ensure that everyone is at ease on the day of. This doesn’t mean you should forgo your champagne-coloured bridesmaid dresses just because your bridesmaids think they’ll look washed out in them – just be mindful of their feelings when you tell them what your final decision is. (That being said, if all four of your closest girlfriends are balking at your colour choices, maybe it’s worth considering some other options? After all, they’ll look their best if they’re comfortable in what they’re wearing…) • Get a group photo with ALL of your guests! We did this in the church, right after our ceremony before anyone could sneak away. I mean really – when are you ever going to have all of the people you love most in the world together in one place again? Take advantage! - To start, thanks again SO much for capturing our day for us Jenn and Dave, you did an amazing job. That said, my biggest piece of advice it to hire an amazing photographer (like you guys) as the photos are what you have in the end! Without them there would be so many special moments from our day that I wouldn’t have remembered (as the day is SUCH a blur). We were told by many that we needed to stop and take in all those special moments that would together, create the most memorable day of our life. If we could give advice to anyone planning a wedding, it would be to have a wedding that is reflective of who you are as a couple and don’t sweat the details. We got married in a beautiful rustic barn and that setting is very ‘us’. We did away with traditional things like the receiving line, the cake and the bouquet toss. We wanted to create a wedding that was really fun for our guests and not about traditions, but rather about being with the people who are most special to us in the world and having a great party. Personal touches that make your guests feel special are a great way to show them that they’re important. The only other advice we would give would be to allow people to help. Anything that can take away from the stress of the planning and preparing is so wonderful and will allow you to enjoy it all the more. Enjoy planning, all the events along the way and don’t stress when it comes time for the big day. Don’t let anything ruin your wedding! Relax and have fun! We would echo a lot of the advice given above. Hiring photographers that you feel comfortable with (looking at you, Jenn & Dave!) makes the day feel so natural and easy. Lots of great advice here. Firstly, hire awesome photogs (the Starks!) Do: live in the moment, smile, laugh, be calm, make lists, ask for help. DIY is awesome and easy, as there are tons of websites to show you the way. And be gracious, your guests and vendors are all here for YOU and want the day to be amazing, so show your thanks for everything people do for you. When you look back on the day, you want to remember being calm, pleasant and respectful of everyone. Don’t: invite guests with a penchant for crazy that will stress you out immeasurably. It’s not worth the hassle. (Unless they’re family, then you have to invite them! I’m referring to peripheral friends here) Enjoy the process, if you’re not enjoying it, you need to delegate, loosen up or simplify. What made our day so special is that we didn’t caught up in what we thought we ‘should’ be doing or what others might want, but really focused on what would make us most comfortable on our wedding day. This way we could just be ourselves, have fun and enjoy what truly turned out to be a perfect day! We ended up going with a smaller invite list of only our closest friends and families (which we’d definitely recommend!) and what we loved about this was that we were able to spend time with all of the guests and take in the moments as they happened. In terms of the wedding planning, we think it’s so important that you sit down at the beginning and create a budget together – deciding on how much you’ll spend on each item (e.g., invitations, music, venue, photographers). Phil and I have very different philosophies when it comes to spending and the months leading up to our wedding could have easily turned into one argument after another over finances (not to say it didn’t at times!). But having agreed upfront on what we would spend we could avoid a lot of ongoing discussions about the not-so-romantic topic of moolah. What was also helpful about doing this was that it really highlighted early on the areas of the wedding that were most important to us and those that really didn’t matter so much in our opinions. Finally, if pictures are important to you (which they are to me!) then make sure you love your photographers. Going with Jenn and Dave was one of the best decisions we made :) The best advice we can give is to… Having been married for a whole six months (woohoo!), we hardly feel qualified to give anyone advise, but here are a few hints we can share with other happy couples who are planning their memorable day…. Thank you Jenn and Dave for giving us the most beautiful wedding photos, and for being so supportive throughout our wedding day. We could never have asked for kinder souls or more gifted photographers to forever capture our beautiful wedding in photos. D&N  Amy & Steve have a fun beginning to their story… it’s more like a prelude, actually, an added on part before the story really starts :) On the same day of the same year, two couples (strangers) arrived at the same hospital in a town by the river and separated by a few hours, one… love this story, love these images! xo.  We were greeted with such huge smiles, hugs, excitement and emotion on the morning of Ashley and Jeff’s wedding… they were some of the most excited people I’ve ever seen and that energy was just buzzing around the entire day… which I hope you’ll see in the following images :) You’ll also see two empty… We can’t say enough positive things about Jenn and Dave. To begin with, not only are they extremely talented at what they do, they are wonderful people. When we met with them at a coffee shop in Toronto, we knew they were the ones who would be there to photograph our wedding day. They are warm, kind and so easy to work with. We were nervous at our engagement photo shoot but they made us feel so comfortable, it felt like we were hanging out with our friends who happened to have cameras. It was totally fun! We got this amazing package in the mail that had been put together with such thought and care, even a handwritten note was included. It just showed us that Jenn and Dave were not your run-of-the-mill photographers but rather, two very special people who truly love what they do and put their hearts and souls into it. On our wedding day, we weren’t stressed or anxious about whether we would get all the photos we wanted, we knew Jenn and Dave had it covered. Looking at our wedding photos, they captured the most special moments, times when we didn’t even realize they were there. They kept us at ease and helped us create such beautiful photos. They aren’t bad dancers, either! They were with us from the beginning of the day, right up until the end. They go over and above the call of duty as photographers. If you’re looking for photographers that go that extra mile, treat you as friends instead of clients, and take incredible photos, then you’ve found them. Thank you so much Jenn and Dave, we couldn’t have asked for better people and photographers to capture our most special day. xo  The girls helped Susie load the van with the flowers and overnight bags, we all squeezed in and started the half hour drive out of the town where the wedding would start later that afternoon, to the cottage Susie & Greg had rented for their wedding weekend. This is where the girls would grab a… that shot under the umbrella is pure gold. i love every drop of it. Can you please tell me where this wedding took place? It looks gorgeous! |
|
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg)
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
by JENN
Hannah Nicole - Oh, wow. Some of your best. I just adore these. :) xx
Allison - This is simply fantastic. You guys never cease to amaze me!