One thing I love about being the official photog for family weddings, is being able to spend time with the bride and groom. Normally on the wedding day they are busy with all the wedding guests, so it’s nice to be able to connect with them and document one of the most important days in their lives. Thank you Elsa & Derek for being so wonderful to work with. You made my job easy and fun and I’m so glad I was able to capture and share in your special day.

Side Note: For all you Pioneer Woman readers, doesn’t he remind you a bit of Malboro Man? I know he isn’t wearing his cowboy hat in any of the wedding pics…which definitely strengthens the resemblance, but even without it I think I see a similarity. So what’s your vote? Yes or No?)

Here are a few favorites from their day…

Doesn’t Elsa look amazing?

Everything from her beautiful hair, to the fabulous hair piece, great makeup and stunning dress…she looked amazing from head to toe!

And, just for the record, you’ll see the cutest flower girl ever below.

(In case you didn’t know, it’s my daughter Arden. She was such a trooper all day long, and barely complained even when she had blisters all over her feet from her new shoes!)

The running and spinning shots…totally Derek’s idea. He just did that as we were walking back to the car. I love it!

I should make a special note of his ring. His background is in iron-work, and he had it custom designed using some type of iron.

(I think? I’m not up on all my metals! But it looks fantastic, almost as nice as Elsa’s bling!)

We were heading back to Abbotsford for the reception, and we were nicely on time, until these words left my mouth:

“I’ve been dying to do some pictures with some old cars, but I can never find any!”

Lo and behold, just as I said that, we passed a property that had about 6 sitting out front, with the owner nearby who gave us full permission to use them for pictures. yay!

We didn’t even have to trespass to get the shots (which is normally the case in these kind of situations!)

I heart these shots…some of my faves from the day

Enjoy your sneak peek Elsa & Derek…thanks for waiting so patiently!

We started the day in Abbotsford, and headed to Aldergrove for the wedding ceremony. For pictures we went to South Langley and the beautiful Campbell Valley Park. The day was finished out at the Abbotsford Ramada for a delicious dinner! A big thank you to Alyssa for second shooting for me…it’s always great to have her along as we work together so well. The videographer was Andrew from PurMedia Design, Michelle Dehaas did the hair (if you want her info, just pop me an email…she is awesome!), and my sister-in-law Jen did the makeup.

And, even with the crazy amount of rain that started and ended Julie and Jeremy’s wedding day, we were blessed with clear skies and even some sunshine for the pictures. When I woke up to rain on their wedding day, I started to get a little worried as we were in a fairly remote location with not a ton of indoor or covered options close by. Fortunately the rain stopped just as we were starting portraits, and didn’t start again until after the ceremony. Thank you God!

A huge thanks to my sister-in-law Colleen for coming along and second shooting for me. I know she was a little nervous about it, but she did a great job and I was so happy to have her there to help out…couldn’t have done it without her

Now on to the pictures…I will probably be sharing some more in the next few weeks, but here are a few of my early faves:

Julie had some fantabulous shoes. Love the metallic heels!

We started out the portraits at Julie’s parents’ beautiful farm…she is the 7th generation to live there. How neat is that?

These two are just so darn cute together. That swing shot is one of my faves I think

The flowers were gorgeous, and Julie looked amazing…I thought her hair suited her perfectly!

They were married in the church Julie grew up in…the building has beautiful stained glass windows and is over 100 years old.

I shot the gold colored image through this fantastic grate in the balcony (in case you were wondering!)

The shot of Jeremy, Hudson and my Father-in-Law is because they all the same initials…HJL.

The brutal ugly but oh so perfect loveliness that is the abandoned house. They totally were rockin’ it:

I love this reflection in the old mirror:

Katy looked amazing:

And would a blog post be complete without a foot shot? I think not. Katy had some fab shoes:

Andrea totally inspired me with this shot. We were just about to leave and she grabbed the flowers and started snapping:

And a teeny-tiny little bit of trespassing on the best driveway ever!:

This is what happens when you marry a strapping young volleyball player…push-ups on demand

Katy looking totally gorgeous:

And her equally handsome husband…they are going to make good looking kids one day, don’t you think?

As all women know…the true way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.

And hence a stop at White Spot to keep a smile on Anthony’s face.

We found this most amazing abandoned house…and they totally rocked it. I think I was squealing with glee the whole time we took the pictures, not to mention the entire time I edited them. Fabulous grungy location + fantastic couple who are naturals in front of the camera = pictures that I love. Katy and Anthony…I hope you like these as much as I do! Thanks for being so easy-going and awesome to work with. More to come next week hopefully

I rented a Tilt-Shift lens for the weekend…and had fun playing around with it. This is one of the resulting images:

Katy has some of the best eye expressions. I was quite sad I missed the eye-roll she did during the ceremony!

Last one for now:

But I’m so glad that he didn’t arrive before the wedding, because I love the shots I was able to get of this couple. Who are not only gorgeous, but super duper nice and down to earth. Plus they happen to live in our suite, so I’m hoping these pictures will help make up for the occasional noisiness that filters down to them courtesy of my kids. haha.

Anyways, here are a few of my faves…Enjoy:

One of my favorite shooting locations…Westminster Abbey in Mission.

Karin in action (rockin’ my Shootsac that she borrowed for the day):

A bit of vintage lovin’:

Is she not stunning?:

My husband gave me very strict instructions that I was not allowed to perform any ‘photographer acrobatics”. Seeing as I was 9 months pregnant and all. Um. I don’t know if acrobatics would have included laying on the ground. But maybe that’s why I had false labor that night!?! LOL.

While Karin was busy with the bride & groom, I was able to work with the very accommodating wedding party. Can you guess which ones are siblings to Arenda and Jeremy?

We snuck into the Abbey to take a few shots…the stained glass is stunning:

The weather was amazing that day, as were the fall colors that were just starting. It was perfect!

And one more of Karin in action (because every photographer needs a few shots like this!)

Anyways, on to some pictures! (and I hope to have some more image shares, of both clients and of Hudson) soon, as well as some information on Christmas Cards, a Storyboard sale, and more. Stay tuned!

Lucky for Darlene, her new sister-in-law is a makeup artist, and she did a fabulous job. Michelle did all the girls’ hair, and they looked amazing!

I love this pensive shot of Dar:

Darlene and her bridesmaids got ready at her sister’s (the one on the right) house…their back yard was especially gorgeous!

We had some fun while we waited for the guys:

Darlene and Larry had their pictures before the ceremony, and I love these images from the first time they saw each other:

Some fabulous sun flare. I think this is one of my favorite images from the day:

The bridal couple showing how it’s done (the bridal party is sure looking on intently!!)

Some rockstar action:

Someone’s ticklish!:

Darlene’s dress required a few stitches before the ceremony…I love the light in this shot:

When there’s two year old’s involved, it can take some serious coaxing to convince them to walk down the aisle, but the cuteness factor is worth it

Larry looking a touch nervous before Darlene walked down the aisle:

and one last fave:

I really wanted to share these to show what troopers they were. Neither of them so much as blinked when I asked them to lie down in this patch of dried grass right besides a busy intersection. And even after discovering that tiny pieces of said grass were stuck in Dar’s veil and hair, she was still totally cool with it all and totally trusted me. Thanks so much for being so accommodating to my crazy requests, I think the resulting images were worth it. Thanks for such a fun day, I truly enjoyed being a part of your wedding!

I hope the two of you had a few wonderful and relaxing days away before getting back into the grind. Enjoy your sneak peek, and I’ll be back soon with some more images to share here.

(and yes, I’m still playing around with some vintage post processing, but I’ll have some of my standard color and B&W in my next more detailed sneak peek.)

The beautiful couple:

I can’t get over how incredibly beautiful and serene she looks here:

A shoe shot I’ve been wanting to do forever! I was so glad that the wedding party came along with black socks and the right shoes for Larry so we could grab this shot at this location:

hmmm mmmm mmm. love this shot:

I’ve known Tricia for quite a few years through work, but I loved having the chance to get to know Bryan better, and to meet their kids. It was so neat to see this blended family together, and seeing just how much fun they were! They all had me cracking up on more than a few occasions (and you’ll see a few reasons below).

Here are a few sneak peeks from their wedding, which was held in beautiful Harrison at the Harrison Hot Springs Resort. Tracey at Cinderella Chair, not only arranged all the decor, she also coordinated the entire wedding. Everything ran so smoothly and without a glitch.

I was playing around with a bit of vintage processing…and I love the feel it gives to these images. Just so soft and pretty:

While I was busy getting some shots of the kids, Bryan was busy carving their names and date into the bridge. A big thanks to Carmen, my second shooter, for this amazing shot!

Doesn’t Tricia look stunning? She made such a beautiful bride that we had people stopping her to tell her so everywhere we went! I know Bryan fully agreed.

And of course the handsome groom, who definitely added his own touches to the wedding, which I thought was so cool. He had some great suggestions for portraits, and the music they chose reflected their love for some great classic rock and played a big part in their day. Such a fun addition to their wedding that truly made it special for them.

They played Bon Jovi as Bryan and his two sons walked in for the ceremony, and they all had their sun glasses on. It was so fun! I love how these two images of Bryan and Tricia with their kids totally captures a special part of their relationships:

And the wedding party…I loved that Bryan’s sons and Tricia’s daughter played such a special role in their day. Dana, a long time friend of Tricia and the maid of honor was a total trooper. She’s pregnant (due close to the same time as me I think, and she looked fabulous!) and wore high heels all day! That deserves a gold star in the maid of honor awards I think.

Even though by the time we took the pictures, it wasn’t actually raining, I was sure glad to have this big umbrella along, and the resulting image was definitely worth it!

Because I love feet shots, and particularly Tricia’s adorably painted toenails!

I loved the beautiful necklace Tricia wore, and for the record I’m totally envious of her freckles (I think I’ve always wanted freckles. That, and red hair too while I’m wishing.)

Did I mention how fun their kids were? They were the best posers ever I think. And this was even with me calling Bryan’s sons #1 and #2 and confusing which one was the older brother and which was the younger (I am usually pretty good with names, but during pregnancy that all flies out the window. Hence the #1 and #2, and I could barely keep that straight! LOL). I think this storyboard totally sums them up:

And I just have to post this shot larger, because it has me giggling every time I see it. See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil:

One last storyboard to end off this post, I wanted to share some of the amazing details and decor of the wedding. I loved the gems in the center of each gerbera daisy in Tricia’s bouquet, the perfect amount of bling! And of course, the fabulous modern cake ,and some of the beautiful details in the ceremony put together by Tracey:

Tricia and Bryan…thank you so much for allowing me to play a part in your big day. It was truly an honor for me to witness your love and devotion to each other and your family. I hope you had a wonderful time in Greece on your honeymoon!

You may remember these two from their fun and fabulous engagement session from earlier this year, and I knew that we were in for a fabulous day capturing their wedding. It was great to have my friend Karin along as a second shooter.

Lynette’s dress was stunning! I just loved all the details, and the beautiful cut suited her perfectly. It had a vintage and classic feel, but yet fresh and modern too.

And yes, her mom really did use a crochet hook to help put her dress on! Totally makes the vintage feel even more authentic.

This was from when they first saw each other….so so sweet and very emotional!

Such a good looking couple!

I did mentioned it rained, right? For probably less than 10 minutes, and just perfect timing to get a few umbrella shots which I loved.

Total happy shot, I can’t help but smile just looking at it!

And of course we had to pull out the Polaroid film. I’m so sad that they are discontinuing the film…I need to stock up!

The tough guys! Three brothers

And the beautiful ladies:

And because we like jumping

Lynette’s Dad…you might want to skip this one!

Leftover bubbles from my son’s 6th birthday party put to good use:


And one last one…I was so excited when I found this little arbor/gazebo/trellis thing. One of my last portrait shots of the day, and also one of my faves:

A big thank you from both of us (My friend Alyssa came along as a second shooter), we so enjoyed our time in Tofino, and being a part of your special day.

Marta & Szymon are leaving for their honeymoon in Spain today, so I promised I’d try post a sneak peek for them before they left…here are a few of my favorites (most of these were taken after dinner…we snuck the bride and groom back to the beach as the sun was setting. It was perfect!)

Marta’s dress was just gorgeous, and so perfectly her. A few from inside the the Wickaninnish Inn, where they had their wedding and reception.

Doesn’t she look amazing?

Marta & Szymon….I hope you have a most wonderful time on your honeymoon! I’ll be in touch soon. And I will try post a few more of my favorite images from your day here in the next week, so be sure to check back if you can!