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Bronte Creek Engagement Session, Burlington

Bronte Creek ended up being the perfect spot for Sarah and Riley’s engagement session! Riley has spent time here in the past biking and exploring trails, and we got to experience all the highs and lows that nature has to offer (the highs being super cute ponies and donkeys, the lows being a HUGE spider and a squirrel dropping acorn pieces on my head). We had gorgeous sunlight all evening, and I’m so in love with these keepsakes that we created.

It’s been a while since I’ve shared an engagement session on here so thought I would throw one into the mix with all these weddings! I have been shooting so much these last few months and trying to share as much as I can. Every single session that I photograph, whether it’s a wedding or a portrait session, gets shared on Instagram, but truthfully I just don’t have the time to blog every single one. I have a few weddings waiting in line to be blogged, but I’m hoping to keep sprinkling in an engagement session between them every now and then!

Sarah’s beautiful makeup was done by Missy at Costa Chic!

Enjoy!
xo Jenn

September 20, 2018
Gracewood Estates Wedding at Kurtz Orchards, Niagara-on-the-Lake

A wedding day so near and dear to my heart. My fellow photographer and dear friend Deanne married her sweetheart Rob at Gracewood Estates and I’m just SO honoured to have captured it all. It’s a whole other world of pressure, when it comes to documenting another wedding photographer’s wedding day, plus when it’s your friend, the stakes are even higher! This whole day was a dream though, because Deanne and Rob really made sure to enjoy the process leading up to it, and chose not to stress too much about it. They picked their favourite vendors, all of whom brought together Deanne and Rob’s vision beautifully. This talented bride also taught herself how to do calligraphy, so she hand lettered every single envelope, designed and printed the invitations, and then proceeded to make all of the mirrored signs with more calligraphy! She also hand made vow books for her and Rob, as well as the sweet ring dish you see in the first photo. There is nothing this girl can’t do, seriously! So crafty.

Gracewood Estates at Kurtz Orchards has been high on my list of places I wanted to photograph, and it was certainly worth the wait. I think it’s such a treat for guests to dine outdoors under twinkle lights in the orchard! We snuck away for a few sunset portraits and played in the vines for a few minutes, which I always highly recommend to my couples to incorporate into their timeline. A breath of fresh air and a few moments of quiet between newlyweds is always a good idea.

Deanne and Rob, I have so much love for you guys (and Bernie Boy who was definitely missed!) and wish you so much happiness and love in the years to come!
xo Jenn

These bouts by Erin from Mum’s Garden Floral Studio are so sweet and simple- plus she gets these little tags made for every bouquet and boutonniere. Aren’t they gorgeous!

And cue the tears! Seeing Rob tear up watching Deanne come down the aisle, and then seeing Deanne’s face just melted me.

Had to sneak one of us in there!

Our girl Danielle from Shaw Events doing her thing. Having an event pro on board to handle all the nitty gritty details so you don’t have to is the best decision you will make!

Venue: Gracewood Estates, Kurtz Orchards in Niagara-on-the-Lake
Wedding Coordinator: Shaw Events
Makeup Artist: Love Me Makeup
Hair Stylist: Ania Wazny
Bride’s Hair Vine: Blair Nadeau Bridal Adornments
Decor: Simply Beautiful Decor
Florist: Mums Garden Floral Studio
Invitations + Signage + Lettering: Deanne did them herself!
DJ: Rhythm Force
Officiant: License Signing by Lori from Cathy Davis & Co, Ceremony by Allison Leigh Photography!
Wedding Gown: The Modern Bride, by Anais Anette
Bridesmaid Dresses: Park & Fifth
Groom & Groomsmen Suits: Indochino
Rings: Anouk Jewelry from Make You Look
Huge thank-you to my girl Jacqueline from Jacqueline James Photo for being such an awesome wedding day sidekick and second shooter!

September 11, 2018
Earth to Table: The Farm Wedding in Flamborough, Ontario

I’ve been patiently waiting for this Earth to Table: The Farm wedding since Anna and Mike booked with me in January of 2017! Before now, I’d only been to Earth to Table Farm in the winter for a styled wedding shoot, so I was SO excited to get back here for a real wedding in the summertime. And it did not disappoint! This place is so, so beautiful. It’s owned and run by Pearle Wedding & Events, who also have 5 other venues around the GTA.

Anna + Mike had every detail planned to a tee, and it was all executed perfectly. Some of my favourite moments were shared between Anna, Mike and their families, who they have such a special bond with. As you scroll through, you’ll come across emotional images with Anna’s parents as they see their only daughter as a bride for the first time, you’ll spot Mike and his Mom having an absolute ball on the dance floor together, and Anna’s brother delivering the most heart-felt words to his sister during the reception (cue all the tears).

Special days like this are such a pleasure to witness! Check out the talented team below the post who brought Anna and Mike’s vision together seamlessly!
Enjoy!
xo Jenn

Vendors:
Venue: Earth to Table: The Farm
Church: St Matthew Parish
Hair & Makeup: Jen Evoy Makeup Studio
Decorator: Siren Designs
Cake Artist: Molly Cake
Florist: Designs by Law
DJ: AMV Productions
Wedding Gown: The Modern Bride, by Allison Webb
Bridesmaid Dresses: Park & Fifth Co
Groom & Groomsmen Suits: Empire Customs
Videographer: Cinema Works
Photo Booth: One Tree Studio Inc.

August 15, 2018
Bright and Airy Barrie Engagement Session

Emily and Matt’s bright and airy Barrie engagement session was scheduled on the perfect July evening. The heat wave had finally broken, and we enjoyed a beautiful sunny evening with the perfect breeze. Just as we arrived down at the beach, everyone was clearing out for the evening, taking the kids home for bed, leaving us with a perfect and nearly empty beach. From where we stood by the water, Emily and Matt pointed out to me the direction across the water where they had grown up, gone to school, and even the little bay where her parents live. They had a little laugh when I set them up in an apparently very ‘typical Barrie photo spot’, with a bit of the Barrie skyline behind them and the water glistening. Even though it might be a good ‘go to’ spot, I love that these guys kept their locations meaningful and familiar, and all within about 10 minutes of where they’ll be getting married next summer. These two are tying the knot in exactly a year today, on July 13th 2019 and I’m super stoked to be documenting it for them! Emily and Matt are such kind and sweet souls, so I know their families and friends are going to be equally wonderful and I can’t wait to meet them all.

Enjoy!
xo Jenn

July 13, 2018
Where to Get Ready for Your Wedding + A Crosswinds Golf & Country Club Wedding

I’ve decided that Steph and Dave’s Crosswinds Golf & Country Club wedding is the perfect time to revisit this old question- where should you get ready for your wedding? I wrote about this four years ago on my blog, but I’m going to assume that you haven’t dug quite that deep into my archives. So, where should you get ready? A hotel? Your house? Your parents house? In the venue’s bridal suite? Sometimes there are lots of options, and sometimes, there aren’t- particularly when your wedding is over an hour away from where you or any of your family live! Hotels seem like the obvious choice a lot of the time- usually you have stayed over the night before or are planning to stay there after the wedding. However, these may not always be the best choice! Hotels are often very dark, small, and decorated in, well, hotel style. Often you’ll see 10 different patterns happening at once- the curtains, carpet and bedspread all have something funky going on and it really doesn’t match the style of the rest of your day. On top of the crazy colours, patterns and generic paintings and photos that are nailed to the wall (wait, what?!) worst of all, there is often very little natural light to work with. This is key for the ‘getting ready’ photos. I try to leverage natural light as much as I can, so I can use it to photograph all of those little details you’ve spent months curating. Your dress, shoes, rings, flowers, invitation suite, veil and jewellery all need to be captured and its so much nicer when there is space to work with and light coming in the windows. On top of that, if your hair and makeup team are coming to you, they also need lots of light to make sure everything is applied evenly and beautifully. So how many people do we now have in the hotel room? Say 5 bridesmaids, a bride, bride’s Mom, me, and 2 hair and makeup artists. That’s 10 people in one tiny room! And that’s assuming your aunts and flower girls aren’t hanging out either.

On the other hand, when you get ready at a house (even if its a small one) it will likely mean a few things: there will be lots of rooms for everyone to spread out in, and plenty of places to photograph your details and candid photos of you and your wedding party. I’ll be able to pick the room that has the best light where we can get you into your dress, instead of using the foot and a half between the bed and the window like in the hotel. If you don’t have access to a house nearby and hotels are looking like your only option, consider checking out an Airbnb! I decided to rewrite this post with photos from Steph and Dave’s wedding because Steph ended up putting quite a bit of thought into it- her room had lots of light, lots of room, and very clean and neutral decor. She even went the extra mile and had some beautiful glass boxes and trays (heyo HomeSense!) and loose pieces of florals to help me style her details. You’ve spent months and months planning your wedding, and this is one last detail not to overlook, as it can really help make sure the images we take during bride and groom prep flow nicely with the rest of the day. If you have the choice, think about it!

This wedding day was one for the books- careful planning by Steph and Dave ensured that we had lots of time to take photos outside before the ceremony, and they got to spend almost their entire cocktail hour mingling with their guests. They had SO much fun with their first dance (see the photos at the bottom!) and it was truly a pleasure to document this sweet couple. Steph is lucky enough to have the wonderful Lindsay from Blooms & Flora as a sister-in-law, so her blooms were looking pretty fine all day!

Check out the bottom of the post for the awesome vendor team.
Enjoy!
xo Jenn

Vendor Team | Venue: Crosswinds Golf & Country Club | Makeup: Mobile Makeovers | Hair: Nicole Graftner | Bride’s Gown: Ballett’s Bridal by Jacquelin Bridals Canada | Florals: Lindsay + Robyn, Blooms and Flora | Wedding Rings: Charm Diamonds | Cake: Wellington Cakes | Calligraphy: Creations by Korga | Seating Chart: the bride! | DJ: DJ Charlie Clean | Invitations: Basic Invite | Videography: Life’s Reel | Officiant: Nancy Collett | Chair Rentals: Made with Love Decor | And a special thank you to Jacqueline for being amazing and working along side me and always complimenting my memory and grabbing us gingerales 🙂

June 29, 2018
Lavender Field Engagement Session

I can’t think of a more magical place than a lavender field to have your engagement session done! When they are in bloom, the little rows of lavender are truly a sight to see. We choose Bonnieheath Estate Lavender and Winery for Chanel and Shaun’s engagement session. The staff there were so wonderful to work with, and we even had a little wine tasting afterwards and bought some lavender products! If you are looking at doing your engagement session at a place like this (meaning a place of business and not just a park) you can expect to have to book a photography permit. We felt that the price of the permit at Bonnieheath was more than reasonable, and they were also flexible with us in terms of inclement weather- they would have let us reschedule if it came to that! Some of the other lavender farms we looked into were pretty steep in terms of permit price, and they also had zero rain flexibility and claimed to have almost no availability for the whole summer (on weekday evenings…) so I’m so glad that we stumbled across this gem in Norfolk County! We also had to incorporate their gorgeous pup Willow into a few photos, who is a gentle and magnificent Newfoundlander!

Chanel and Shaun are hosting a boho themed wedding in August, up north on their family property and I’m SO excited to photograph it, and work with some super talented vendors like Lindsay Plank Events and Makeup Worx.

Hair by Pure NV Salon & Spa, Makeup by Missy at Makeup Worx

Enjoy!
xo Jenn

June 25, 2018
Managing Your Wedding Day Timeline + A Summer Royal Ambassador Wedding

Kyla and Phil had the perfect day for their Royal Ambassador wedding this weekend, and I’m so excited to be sharing these sweet memories today! I am also going to be sharing some tips on how to manage your wedding day timeline, and what to do when things go a little sideways!

First of all- let me just say, the love these two share is the sweetest thing (sidenote: Kyla and her Dad chose to do their Father-Daughter dance together to U2’s Sweetest Thing- cue the tears!). All day long, Kyla and Phil were side by side and Phil kept sneaking in kisses on the top of Kyla’s head, a hand on the small of her back, all those perfectly romantic movie moments come to life! And the tears, oh the tears! Handkerchiefs and Kleenex were always within reach, from the moment I turned around to see her two bridesmaids clutching their hearts and holding back tears as Kyla got ready, to the sweet moment when Kyla’s parents saw her as a bride and read her heartfelt cards to them. And then, when Kyla and Phil saw each other during their first look, when Phil’s mom was looking at her son as a handsome groom during our family photos, and when the real weight of the day was felt- the aisle walk. Phil watched Kyla descend every step at the Royal Ambassador, and greeted her with a perfectly placed kiss on the temple. A few more tears during the first dance, and plenty more during their family and friend’s touching speeches. All in all- it was one of those days where you can just feel the love in every moment. It was a pleasure to be there documenting it all!

Now, onto our little chat about wedding day timelines. Kyla and Phil made a great choice and made sure to have a wedding planner on board, which is a huge step towards making sure your day goes smoothy and all the nitty gritty details can be handled by someone else on the day of. Jackie Penner Events and her associate Alicia did a magnificent job of handling the coordination of the day, and ensured everything looked perfect. They also took my requests and suggestions prior to the wedding in stride, making sure I had enough time to capture the memories and portraits that I knew Kyla and Phil wanted. Not all of my weddings have a planner to help them out with this, so that’s where I am happy to step in and assist in the timeline management! I certainly cannot do the job of a planner, but I love helping out pre-wedding to make sure we are setting ourselves up for success with a realistic timeline and one that allows my couples to really enjoy their day. Often, this means doing a First Look and portraits all before the ceremony. Kyla and Phil opted for this structure, and it meant that they could be at their entire cocktail hour and also to avoid feeling rushed on their big day. I could go on and on about First Looks and the advantages they offer, but I feel like I talk about it all the time so I won’t say anything more on that specifically! In the morning, as hair and makeup were wrapping up, I realized that Kyla was the last gal in the makeup chair and that things were starting to look a little tight on our ‘getting ready’ timeline. She still had about 10-15 minutes left of makeup, and we were due to be leaving in 25 minutes. We had wanted to get a photo of Kyla and her girls all in their matching robes and shirts once they were all done hair and makeup, but I knew we had to prioritize. We decided together to scrap that photo so we could maximize our time, and we instead got the bridesmaids all dressed and ready so we could quickly get Kyla dressed and have those nice moments with her girls and her parents. We even had enough time to grab a few quick portraits outside of her family home, in the beautiful greenery covered archway! We ended up leaving her parents’ house 15 minutes later than planned, but in the end I knew we didn’t need to stress because we had padded the timeline for portraits a bit and we still had hours until the ceremony. I think the main takeaway from an experience like this is that it’s important for couples to recognize that even with the most careful planning, things just happen and the timeline can start to run behind schedule, but we need to be flexible and make decisions on the fly sometimes. This obviously isn’t an extreme example but I’m confident that an even greater delay still could have been managed and dealt with, with very little added stress and we still would have had a wonderful wedding day!

See below for the complete list of talented vendors!

Enjoy!
xo Jenn

A huge thank you to Jacqueline Sy for photographing along side me!

Planning + Coordination: Jackie Penner Events | Florals: Mint and Magnolia Floral Design Co. | Makeup: Beauty by Alana | Hair: Hair by Day Inc. | Cake: Kyla’s Mom Mara! | Signage + Invitation Suite: Safari Marketing Communications Inc. | Cocktail Hour Jazz: Frank Adriano, 12 String Music | Dinner + Dance Music: Box Social | Officiant: Kelley Potter, Celebrant | Bridal Gown: Enzoani, Promises and Lace | Bridesmaid Gowns: The Dessy Group from Promises and Lace | Suits: Moores | Rings: Ryan Daniels Jewellery Design | Venue: The Royal Ambassador Event Centre

June 11, 2018
Toronto Lakeside Engagement Session

Michelle and Simon are to be wed later this year, in early September at a gorgeous Niagara vineyard. We spent an evening together this week on a trail that runs along Lake Ontario, with beautiful Toronto skyline views and tons of pretty sunlight beaming in! We had a pretty comical ambience surrounding us though, as the lakeside trail runs quite close to the Molson Amphitheatre and while we were shooting our session, a Slayer concert was getting going. It wasn’t exactly the most romantic music to set the tone, but it made for some good laughs and funny interactions with fans. I definitely can’t complain that this job is dull- there’s always somewhere new I get to explore, and new people to get to know!

Enjoy!
xo Jenn

Michelle’s makeup was done by Shauna at Pretty Me.

May 31, 2018
Sunny Lake Simcoe Engagement Session

This sunny Lake Simcoe engagement session was very close to actually being called ‘rainy, drowned out Lake Simcoe Engagement Session’ because as we sat in our cars in the parking lot, the rain was pouring down, the lake water was rising, and the dark grey skies did not seem like they would break. Stress levels were also rising- Laura and Kevin’s wedding date was only three weeks away, Laura had gotten her hair and makeup done, and I had driven an hour and a half to get there. There wasn’t time to reschedule it.

Luckily, I spend quite a bit of time deciphering the weather app on wedding and engagement session days, and as we sat there, I was noticing that slowly, the sky was lightening, the rain was thinning, and the birds had started chirping again. Kevin was pretty skeptical, he knew the look that Laura wanted for the photos and it didn’t involve rain and umbrellas. But, I felt confident that we could at least get some photos in, since we’d come all that way and they’d put so much planning into the day already, and I just knew the storm would break. I always carry umbrellas in my car for this reason (re: unexpected, last minute downpours), so out we went, side stepping puddles and huddling under the umbrellas. In the end, we spent only about 5 minutes doing photos with the umbrellas, and when the sky cleared, the sun came through the trees in all it’s glory, and we had a perfect session!

I’m slowly but surely getting around to blogging more of the wonderful couples I worked with last year, and am hoping to keep on publishing as much as I can until the busy season hits again!

Enjoy!
xo Jenn

March 13, 2018
Georgetown Engagement Session ft. the Showstopper Blue Maxi Dress

Leanna and Andrew’s Georgetown engagement session was one of my absolute faves last summer! Now that this brand new website is up and running, I’m hoping to spend some time sharing more sessions that I’ve been coveting all to myself before wedding season kicks off again! I wish I had more time to share everything I photograph for my couples, but you can always keep up to date over on my Instagram!

These two are going to be tying the knot this November (as my second last wedding couple of the year!) and I seriously can’t wait. The thought and effort that they put into their engagement session seems like just a small preview of what is to come! I’ve had SO many people message me on Instagram asking where Leanna got her gorgeous maxi blue dress from, and she even picked up a beautiful bouquet to bring along for the photos. Plus, they’ve been determined to assemble a dream team of vendors to help their vision come to life, one of whom is the incredible Shaw Events! It’s always such a treat when I get to work with some of my pals. The always lovely Taylor Switzer did Leanna’s beautiful makeup for this shoot!

You might recognize this location from a few of my other engagement shoots that I’ve already posted- it’s the ever popular Scotsdale Farm! This place is just magical, I love it so much there. It’s one of the few places in the Greater Toronto Area where there is some semblance of rolling hills and not just flat land, like most of the landscape around here! Tall grass, open fields, and a light coloured pathways are my jam!

Enjoy!
xo Jenn

February 28, 2018