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Tag: Year in Review Wedding Post

Year in Review: 2019

New Years Eve has snuck up on us again, so that means it’s time for my yearly ‘Year in Review’ blog post! This is such a great way to reflect on the year I’ve had. Last year I started off this blog post by saying that I didn’t feel like I did much in 2018, and didn’t really celebrate any milestones. WELL. 2019 is a different story friends! I certainly did get to celebrate a few milestones, the most exciting of which was my engagement! Nick surprised me in February on bended knee (scroll to see!) and then I proceeded to spend the rest of the year taking every photo on his left side. I’m that girl now and I’m okay with it. We welcomed THREE more nephews into our family, we kept on exploring and enjoying everything Hamilton has to offer, and also got to celebrate the engagements of many of our close friends. I read 45 books (10 more than my goal of 35, and 15 more than last year!) and upheld my vow to not purchase any books. I rocked my library holds hard this year and saved a ton of money in the process.

2019 brought me 28 amazing couples who celebrated their wedding days with love. I photographed 15 engagement sessions, and 13 mini sessions. It is SO difficult to choose photos for this, especially choosing just one from each wedding.

This year I worked with many incredible friends and vendors, and occasionally it was documented.

Our TuesdaysTogether Hamilton group met up faithfully on the second Tuesday of the month, and we sometimes remember to take a group photo! I’m super grateful to have this community here.

January’s highlights included: volunteering at the Wed Well Showcase, a now annual wedding show that my pal KJ&Co hosts. I was featured on the Social Project podcast alongside my pal Hattie, where we chatted about biz, cuddled puppies, and make french onion soup together. I hosted my first of many mentor sessions at my house, helping other photographers learn new ways of doing things in their business!

February’s biggest event was our engagement on Valentines Day! It was an amazing weekend- since Valentine’s Day was on a Thursday, Nick and I spent the whole weekend visiting as many friends and family members as we could, sharing our exciting news in person. It was also the Family Day long weekend, AND Nicks birthday, so it was a full weekend indeed! Other highlights this month were attending the Love Actually gallery again, photographing a gorgeous styled shoot at the Art Gallery of Hamilton (and it was featured on Weddingbells!) I did a paint workshop, participated in the CrossFit 2019 Open, Nick passed his carpentry Red Seal exam, and a group of photography pals threw a midweek bachelorette spa day for our pal Kayla Yestal.

March looks like a lot of baking! I made an extremely labour intensive unicorn cake for my niece’s 5th birthday, and my girl Deanne taught me how to make sourdough at home. Oh, and we booked our wedding venue!

April brought along TWO destination weddings, which was incredible and a very welcome escape from a lingering winter. Nick came along to Mexico with me, and my friend Kei (our wedding florist!) accompanied me to the Dominican.

May brought along an epic adventure, which was a bit of a fluke but it all worked out in the end! My friend Tamara hooked me up with an amazing elopement with two of the coolest people around, so Nick and I tacked on a 9 day road trip on top of photographing Kat and Kyle’s elopement in Arizona. If you’ve never been to this state, you have to go. It’s incredible- one of our favourite spots in the US for sure! I celebrated my birthday on this trip, and finally got to go horseback riding, after writing it on my yearly ‘to do’ list for practically the past 10 years. The day after we flew home, we headed up to Algonquin for our annual May long weekend camping trip, and we patiently awaited the arrival of our twin nephews! I joined a gorgeous co-working space at the end of my street, which was fantastic for hosting my client meetings!

June brought the arrival of my sweet twin nephews. I photographed my spring mini sessions and wedding season moved into high gear!

In July, I got to spend Canada Day with my oldest pal who was visiting from the US. Nick and I spent a great weekend in Port Elgin, and I also attended my 4th Rising Tide Leaders retreat, which was hosted in Minneapolis/St Paul, Minnesota.

In August, Nick and I celebrated our 7th anniversary, and we spent the long weekend locally for once! I attended a super sweet floral crown dinner with some amazing women, and we snuck away to Almonte for a weekend to hang out with my sister and her family.

September was our 3rd ‘housiversary’ and if you haven’t noticed by now, I like to celebrate even the smallest of things! We’ve been in Hamilton for three years now and are still loving exploring new places here! Hiking and trying new restaurants are some of our favourite things to do! At the end of the month, we rented a 60 foot houseboat for my Dad’s 60th birthday, and wore nautical stripes and pirate paraphernalia all weekend.

October was a whirlwind of a month, which was full of engagement sessions and tons of wedding editing. We managed to find a day to have our own engagement session done, and we are so thankful to Deanne MacRae for taking the time to make these beautiful photos for us! I photographed my last wedding of the year this month!

November was a month spent editing wedding photos, but also finally having some free time on the weekends to see my friends! Summer gets away from me so quickly while shooting weddings, so November was a great month to resurface. I took a train to Montreal to celebrate my girl Jacqueline’s bachelorette weekend and we had the best time! We headed to the Kawarthas to a friend’s cottage, where we played games and stayed cozy by the fire. Also I put my Christmas tree up extremely early and enjoyed the lights every single day.

December was full of fun and parties! I attended a launch party for a new venue in Hamilton, went to my first drag show, threw a potluck Christmas party at my house for my TuesdaysTogether group and went to our annual Kris Kringle friends Christmas party. Tons of time with family and friends, holiday tunes and warm magical Christmas lights is all I need from this month!

I put this together rather quickly today, as I’m heading out to a New Years Eve party very shortly but wanted to make sure I got this finished before the year was out! Thanks for making it this far along, and I hope your 2019 was one you can look back on fondly. Cheers to 2020!
xo Jenn

December 31, 2019
Year in Review: 2017

I try to post a ‘Year in Review’ post each year, as a way of looking back and reflecting on how many wonderful things can happen in just 365 days! Some years have more ‘epic’ moments than others (huge trips, buying a home, birth of yet another nibling), but even the small moments and achievements should still be celebrated. I went on some smaller trips this year, had a wonderful wedding season with a lot of great couples, worked on updating the look of my business with some new branding, and kept on painting this house white and adding plants!

So grateful to Caitlin Free Photography for capturing so many sweet moments of me and my family at my pals Sarah & Greg’s wedding this summer!

Behind The Scenes: Snippets and Highlights!

-Went to San Francisco for the 2017 Rising Tide Society Leaders retreat! We are gathering again in one month for the 2018 retreat which is in New Orleans this time. I can’t wait!

Photo by: Laura & Rachel Photography

-Went on a long awaited family vacation to Cuba! Nothing out of the ordinary, just a week hanging by the pool, reading books, indulging in some drinks, and hanging out with all my siblings and niblings (the official term for nieces and nephews, in case you didn’t know!)

-I transitioned from the TuesdaysTogether leader of GTA West to finally lead a chapter in the city I live in, Hamilton! Hosting closer to home and getting to know the creative business owners in this area has been so rewarding. Plus, I get to co-lead with my biz bestie Christine!

-Went on a branding journey with EM Branding + PR! In the process, I learned a lot about myself and my business, and that I really, really like pink. So much so that I have THREE versions of pink in my new branding colours. I haven’t released much of this yet but in the new year, I certainly will be. Here is a sneak peek- check out a snippet of my brand style board!

I got to stand beside TWO of my BFFs on their wedding days! Putting down the camera and being in the moment for an entire wedding day was so refreshing. Two of my talented pals were in charge of capturing the day so I could rest easy! Thank you Caitlin Free and Christine W Photography for taking all of these wonderful shots of my besties and also so many of me. Ha!

Nick and I celebrated our FIVE year anniversary (holy cow, where does the time go!) and our first full year in our #littlewhitehamblyhouse. Still no major renos, but we did make some small improvements and tried to learn how to keep our front lawn alive (and failed miserably, if you must know). The garden did amazing and my indoor plants are still alive, hooray!

We finally got something up in that big empty space above the couch! @sonderwood made these simple butternut shelves with IKEA brackets. And now I have all the room for plants 🌱🍃🌿 just need some prints to fill these frames! (Ps @christine_w_photography your little plant is doing a-okay. One week down!)

A post shared by jenn kavanagh photography (@jennkavs) on Dec 20, 2017 at 7:07am PST

✨ 1000th post! ✨ This weekend we are celebrating one year as homeowners! I can’t believe how quickly this year flew by but we are still smitten with #hamont and all the exciting changes that are happening here. Our #littlewhitehamblyhouse is looking very bright and clean today so I thought I’d share some before and afters! This house is full of hand me downs from our parents and grandmothers, IKEA decor and lots and lots of white paint. We haven’t really renovated much yet, just took down all the fluffy curtains (I literally spent my first 10 minutes in this house doing that) and did A LOT of painting. It has a ways to go, including getting rid of an unholy amount of old, mismatched and hideous tiling (not shown 😂) and perhaps a kitchen that wasn’t built in the 1950s. We’ll get there 🙈 @sonderwood time flies heh? 💕

A post shared by jenn kavanagh photography (@jennkavs) on Sep 15, 2017 at 8:35am PDT

Flip through to see some drastic before and afters. All you need is a little paint and less curtains!

-Nick and I travelled down to Jamaica, Vermont to witness one of Nick’s best friends Curtis marry his love Tessa. I photographed the day and Nick actually officiated the celebration (legally!) There were 11 of us there, and we spent the week hiking, cooking and cooling off in the river (it was that week in September that was like 40 degrees!)

-Spent some time (but not as much as I would have liked!) with my business besties. These ladies are so important to me (although we are missing a few faces here) and I value their friendship and guidance so much.

Best Nine

As always, I share so much of my work on Instagram, as well as a decent amount of behind the scenes insights and the occasional food photo. Here is my #bestnine for 2017!

Year in Review: Weddings

Another awesome year full of sweet, supportive couples! I value nothing greater than having clients who fully trust in my vision and know that I’m always looking out for what’s best for them with their photos and their wedding experience. This year, I was lucky enough to welcome 24 couples into the Jenn Kavanagh Photography family, and each one was beautful and meaningful in their own way. I shot 21 engagement sessions, some for folks who are getting married in 2018, and a few who already walked down the aisle later in the year!

I thought I would feature a few more aspects of my work this year, including some of my favourite parts of wedding days!

Bridal Portraits

I try to get these timeless photos of every bride, and thought I would feature my fave of every bride I photographed this year. I imagine her granddaughter in years to come having this framed in her house, and cherishing it.

Bridal Party

Here are the best of the best. I love how many photos I have of groomsmen laughing- I tend to love those more than the standard ‘standing in a line’ shot!

And of course, I always have such a soft spot for bridesmaids photos. I spend way more time with the ladies on a wedding day than I do with the guys (since I’m with the bride in the morning during her prep). So many beautifully supportive women stood beside their BFFS and sisters this year.

Florals

Where do I even begin…florals add SO much to wedding photography. Before I became a wedding photographer, I thought flowers were a waste and never thought I’d be interested in them. But here we are, I’m a floral fangirl and I know how much time and knowledge went into these bouquets by all the wonderful florists I have the pleasure of working with! A few of my faves from this year.

First Looks

These are some of the best reactions and photos of my couples seeing each other for the first time! Melts my heart every time.

Second Shooters!

So thankful to the incredible women who work alongside me at weddings! Deanne, my main squeeze! We can communicate with just crazy eyes and I’m so grateful I got to spend so many weddings days with you this year! Jacqueline, Caitlin, Allison and Brittany – you are all sweethearts and I appreciate you loving my clients and putting so much care into your work. And thank you for grabbing these behind the scenes shots of me working! Many crazy faces and double chins were sifted through to find a few keepers, haha!

And thats a wrap! I’m looking forward to spending the next week with Nick and our families, and then ringing in the New Year and looking ahead to 2018! Time to start thinking about those goals!

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas to anyone who has made it this far down this post.
I appreciate you reading and each and every loving comment is read with a smile on my face!

Cheers,
xo Jenn

December 21, 2017
Year in Review: 2015 Behind the Scenes

Finally, the third and final Year in Review blog post! This time I’ll be shedding some light on all that goes on behind the scenes…when I’m not photographing weddings and being a #girlboss! Read last year’s recap here! This year brought many new wonderful opportunities and challenges, and while it’s so hard to sum up an entire year in just a few sentences and some collages, I’ll do my best!

California
First off, early in the year I headed to Ben Sasso’s FOSTER workshop in California! I met a lot of great people, learned a lot, and became very envious of California’s light and landscape. View that blog post here!

Thanks to Tamara Lockwood, Ben Sasso and Benj Haisch for the shots of me! And Ryan Longnecker for the group shot!

After the workshop, I met Nick at LAX in our big campervan rental and headed up the coast through Big Sur to San Fran. We camped along the way and hugged the coast for a good week and a half before ending up in San Fran. My pal Sarah and her ‘fiance/husband’ Brad showed us the ropes and gave us a place to stay, and in exchange I photographed some engagement photos for them! See their session here!

Part way up the coast, I hooked up with Monika Greenaway in Carmel and we did some photos of each other. Such a sweetheart and I’ll cherish these shots forever! View more of my photos from that session here!

Orchard Row Styled Shoot
The day after my birthday, I photographed this incredibly beautiful wedding inspiration shoot. I can’t even express how blown away I was by the talent of all the vendors involved. It was published on the Ruffled blog and it’s something I am still so proud of. See my blog post about it here!

Aisle Academy
Later in the year I was super honoured to be featured in the Aisle Academy’s newsletter! This year I really embraced being a creativepreneur and small business owner, and I’ve enjoy sharing my learnings and advice for up and coming wedding industry folks. My feature can be seen here!

Thanks to Christine W Photography for my new headshots (and for being such a wicked person in general).

Rising Tide Society
One of the biggest shakeups this year was the arrival of the Rising Tide Society in my life. This movement was born in May, and by June I was appointed the Toronto leader for TuesdaysTogether, and welcomed over 50 creative entrepreneurs to our very first meetup. Since then, we now have over 200 members in our Toronto group and the Rising Tide Society is home for more than 13,000 members. Interacting with such like-minded people who thrive in the spirit of community over competition has changed the way I run my business day to day and how I interact with other wedding professionals in my area (a.k.a I have a lot of new and amazing friends!)

Thank you Sara Monika for capturing our June meetup!

lululemon Ambassador Photos
One piece of my business is very near and dear to my heart, and it’s one that I don’t share about too often. I am an approved photographer for lululemon’s ambassador photoshoots, and this means I get to hang out with more like-minded folks who love to sweat and have smiles on their faces most of the time. I love being a part of these shoots because it’s so different from my typical wedding or engagement shoot, and it’s usually an activity I’m passionate about (yoga and CrossFit…) These are some of my faves from later this year with Upper Canada Mall!

Sonderwood
Nick has started building me photo boxes this year, and I’m so proud of him and how far he has come in such a short amount of time. Glue and tung oil practically run from his veins at this point but his final products just feel so amazing and are a great combo for storing prints and USBs. Today we finally shared this on Instagram (follow him @Sonderwood!) and he is hoping to start offering this to other photographers in Canada. I’m adding these boxes + prints to my 2017 wedding packages and they’ll be available for 2016 wedding clients a la carte. Aren’t they beautiful?!

Behind the Scenes
As always, I love including some behind the scenes shots of me from weddings! I had some incredible second shooters this year, who captured these moments and many more. Thank you to Caitlin, Steph, Christine, Kayla, Alana, Noelle, Janna and Cari!

Creating for Creation’s Sake
After wedding season wrapped up and I finished editing my final wedding edit, I decided to shoot something just for the purpose of creating. My pal Ashley is always up for shooting with me and has a killer wardrobe, so she was my go to! I had some techniques and posing ideas that I wanted to try out, and I’m so happy with the shots we got!

Family
I’ve also officially become that Aunt from that Buzzfeed video, who doesn’t have any kids of her own but is obsessed with her niece and nephew, and talks about them like they are her own. Abby and our newest arrival Hank are my favourite people! So much of my free time is spent hanging out with them and Facetiming daily. #obsessed

Instagram
Best nine on Instagram this year! I share a pretty good mix of my wedding work as well as behind the scenes photos here- follow along @jennkavs!

A snapshot of what 2015 looked like on Instagram!

December 31, 2015
Behind the Scenes: Year in Review – 2014

This is the perfect time of year to reflect on the past 12 months, and to start looking ahead to the next 12. Setting new goals, learning from mistakes, and refocusing where I want my business to go is an important part of celebrating the new year, but reflecting on the past year is also equally as important. This year, I grew my business far beyond what I had set goals for, and along the way got to photograph more than 20 amazing weddings and almost 30 engagement sessions. I had the chance to connect with a lot of amazing couples, and am already set to go for 25 weddings in 2015! I connected with some amazing local wedding vendors, made lots of new wedding photographer friends, and traveled to some new places and venues. I’m almost fully booked for this coming year and I’m so grateful for every bride and groom (and bride and groom to-be’s!) who have trusted me and allowed me to share in such a special day in their lives. During the course of the wedding day, I wear a lot of hats: wedding photographer, time keeper, schedule organizer, dress fluffer, flower holder, bobby pinner and sometimes even a chauffeur for some extra bridal party members! I am really lucky to do what I do, and the fact that my couples have faith in me and let me photograph their wedding the way I see it is so humbling. I love getting to know families and friends, making my couples laugh and feel relaxed, and helping them to fully enjoy their wedding day.

2015 is looking grand so far- I have some time to regroup and refocus after a very busy wedding season. I’ll also be heading to a photography workshop in California where I’m hoping to get inspired, recharge my batteries with some days off, and drive up the coast to see some new places! I’m looking forward to photographing a destination wedding in the Dominican Republic, and connecting with all of my awesome couples.

I just wanted to send out some huge thank you’s to my couples from 2014- you helped make this such a great year and I’m so grateful to have gotten to know you and spent such an important day with you! I also wanted to thank my second shooters- Noelle, Caitlin, Erin, Kara, and Steph- having a friend by my side during the wedding day is a dream come true and you all helped me tremendously this year. Thank you! And lastly, the awesome wedding vendors I have met and worked with- you are all so talented and getting to photograph your work makes my job all the more rewarding.

Cheers to an amazing 2014, and looking forward to an even better 2015! Here are some behind the scenes photos from some of this year’s weddings!

Happy New Year!
xo Jenn

PS I don’t often wear rain boots to photograph weddings- only when we’re heading to a wet and rocky waterfall!

December 29, 2014