When Joanna emailed me saying she had access to a hazlenut orchard and wanted to use it as a backdrop for their engagement session, I was STOKED for two reasons: 1) Hazlenuts, hello?! LOVE EM. and 2) I haven’t seen it done before! Well at the very least, *I* have never shot in a hazlenut orchard before, let alone BEEN in one! I had all these amazing ideas of shooting at sunset, the rays of light peaking through the orchard…and when we got there on Sunday?…

..rain. Not just rain, actually…TONS of rain. Like, monsoon rain. Boo.

I am glad though that we both planned ahead and saw that rain was inevitable, and still the 3 of us wanted to trudge on and make the day fantastic! And we did. I think the images turned out beautifully. Besides, Joanna’s smile and Jamie’s charm and OBVIOUS love for Joanna could make any day sunny. That was pure cheese, I know, but its true. :)

Joanna and Jamie are getting married in August at Whonnock Lake, and its going to be fantastic! I can’t wait to see them again and meet their friends and family! :) Hope you like the images!

click below to watch their engagement slideshow!

On the ferry ride over I remember thinking to myself “Jeez, I come up to Rockwater so often, we may as well MOVE there!”…and seriously, if it wasn’t for my insane love for the White Rock area where I live, I would definitely consider it. Every time I blog about a wedding at Rockwater Secret Cove Resort I mention how much I love it there, so really why should this one be any different? :) I love it there.

Now, onto Carla and Kevin & Co. :) These guys…well, what can I say about these guys? I can write about how much they are in love with each other, and how great they were to work with…but really, it won’t do any lick of justice to how amazing they truly truly are. I covered their day for only a few hours, (it was an intimate wedding of just over 20 people), and in those few hours there were SO many beautiful moments…the kind that we all would live and die for. One of the most vivid and memorable moments of the entire day was after the ceremony, I was standing behind Carla and Kevin at the receiving line, shooting all the hugs and congratulations, and I looked off-camera and noticed just out of frame was Carla’s dad, who was next in line. He had a little twinkle in his eye and I remember anticipating a tear or two but as I composed the shot I didn’t realize that some of those tears would be my own! I kept as composed as I could (pun-intended) but when he got to Carla I was a mess! I remember after the moment passed they looked up at me and were wiping their eyes as I was wiping my own. I remember someone saying “Hey, you just met them a few hours ago, you’re not supposed to be doing that!”. Something magical happened next…after seeing what was happening and feeling that energy in the air, some people waiting in LINE started even hugging each other and getting teary eyed! It was such a great moment to be laughing and feeling connected with this amazing group of people..they truly are the perfect definition of Family.

Every. Single. One of them.

From the bottom of my heart, Thank You.

Click below to view their slideshow!

(For the slideshow – don’t forget to click on HQ for best quality!)

My first meeting with Ben and Vianne was at an awesome little restaurant called Tea Team near Metrotown.

They had me at bubbletea. :)

Their engagement story involved spelling out ‘Will You Marry Me’ in colorful fire on snow! (yup, they rock.) These guys are such a cute couple, they just love being kids (shouldn’t we all?) and I strongly believe that their July 10th wedding is going to be a par-tay!

Oh by the way, these guys at some point in their life want to own a White Lamborghini, so if any of you have one… :)

It was an absolute pleasure spending time with you guys and getting to know you! You absolutely rocked your photosession, I hope you like the images!

Cheers,

Michael

What a way to start off my 2010 wedding season in Vancouver! Candace and Joel absolutely rocked their wedding day! They live in California so for their wedding photos they really wanted a “Typical Vancouver Feel” to show through… and well, with a wedding on Grouse Mountain you can’t really get more Vancouver than that right? Right! We went to UBC, then over to Stanley Park, then up to Grouse for the Ceremony and Reception. Believe it or not it was my first time up Grouse Mountain…ever! I absolutely loved it and will definitely be going back again… I HIGHLY doubt for the Grouse Grind, but nevertheless in the words of the Governator: I’ll be back. :)

To view Candace + Joel’s Wedding Slideshow, click here.

Hair & Makeup Artist: Jag Dhahan
Venue: Grouse Mountain
Decorator: Lisa Gregory Special Events
Officiant: Kevin Fatkin

Special thanks to Nick B. for being my trusty second shooter! You rock my world!

Yesterday I packed the photo gear into the van and headed through Vancouver up to Whytecliff Park for Brian and Crystal’s engagement session. I arrived a little early because I had never been there before and wanted to scout out some great locations for the shoot. Well, I can now honestly say a whole lotta good that did because there isn’t a single INCH out there that wouldn’t make for an amazing backdrop! Thank you so much guys for showing me this amazing place! You look absolutely fantastic in your images, you were so great and fun to work with and I can’t wait for your wedding this summer!

Michelle + David were married last year under the nice warm sun in Mexico. They had a wonderful idea of having another shoot around their one year anniversary but this time to try something a little different…Michelle has done some figure skating and David has played hockey so they thought it would be a lot of fun to meet up and have a photo session at the new Robson Ice Rink! There was SO many people but it was so much fun! The second I left after the session I called my brother-in-law and told him we were coming back in the next few days (except he can skate…I will be the only adult with one of those blue plastic push-y chair-y thingies…). Michelle and David pulled out all the stops, I was SO impressed with how warm they looked in the freezing weather (-1C…Calgarians please don’t hurt me!), and matching fuzzy hats? Come on… it doesn’t get more awesome than that! We had quite the crowd watching us shoot and we couldn’t help but have an awesome time! On top of that, the rink was playing Bony M Christmas songs all night!

I had a blast with you guys! Happy Anniversary and I hope you like the images! :)

Update: Annnnd just for fun I’ve added a cute slideshow at the bottom :)

To continue with tradition, here are my favorite Engagement Session images from 2009! Enjoy.

CANS FOR COMMENTS EXTENDED UNTIL SUNDAY DEC 13th!!
Don’t forget to leave a comment! Every comment until Sunday = One can of food I will donate to the food bank!

Happy Wednesday everyone!

Yesterday I posted a Part 1 of my favorite wedding images of 2009. Today, I give you Part 2! I can’t decide which one I like better!

P.S. Don’t forget to leave a comment! Every comment until this Friday = One can of food I will donate to the food bank!

Hey everyone! Last year I posted several “TOP 25″ lists of my favorite images I shot in 2008, which was an absolute riot, but this year there’s a bit of a problem… I have 260 favorites. :) To fix this I have put my personal favorite images  of 2009 into the form of a slideshow!

*ahem* ok, so because of the volume of images I kinda had to split it into 2 equally cool slideshows! I selected all of my favorite images and placed them in chronological order as if it were all one wedding day (getting ready images with getting ready images, ceremony images with ceremony images etc). I have personally watched this slideshow three times already, and I still can’t believe how lucky I am to have such amazing people in my life. Every image has a story that I hold near and dear to my heart, and will remain with me forever.

Tonight I am posting Slideshow 1 of 2. I will post the other tomorrow. I literally took every second image from my list of favorites and put it into another slideshow, so both slideshows will have a full “wedding day experience” from start to finish. You will see what I mean.

The song choice for this slideshow is my little homage to the late and very great Haydain Neale of Jacksoul.

P.S. Don’t forget to leave a comment! Every comment until this Friday  = One can of food I will donate to the food bank!

I have a confession. When it comes to blogging photo-sessions, I always have problems with the writing part. I am pretty sure that there are a lot of photographers that agree with me on that one. It’s not that I have nothing to say, I just struggle with WHAT to say. I’m a photographer, not a writer. Plain and simple.

Today though, I had an epiphany…I think. ;) There are so many moments from each and every wedding that believe it or not I will cherish forever….so with that, for today’s post I thought I would share with you a few of those moments from my perspective of Walt and Deadee’s wedding. After all, I can only write what I know, right? Here we go, in point form of course:

- First off, having the amazing Kyle Perison second shoot for me the whole day was enough to make my head explode (in a good way… if your head could explode in a good way, that is).
- Moments like the door games, when Walt and his crew had to dance like MC Hammer (and I of course was ‘volunteered’ to show them how).
- With the MC Hammer ‘tutorial’ came the video of me showing how (ya, thanks for that Kyle).
- The few quiet seconds in the room with Deadee just before Walt walked in to see her for the first time, and then stepping back while they embraced.
- Tea Ceremonies always get me because of the deep, sincere best wishes each family member and friend give to the bride and groom.
- Watching Deadee come down the aisle, and the look on her father’s face as he hugged Walt.
- The victorious ‘fist to the air’ Walt did as he and Deadee were announced as Husband and Wife :)
- Watching the waves crash on the beach as I snapped away.
- Climbing some really tall, weird playground-thingy to get a different perspective. (I like to climb.)
- Getting a High-Five from Walt after my dismount of the really tall, weird playground-thingy.
- Realizing Kyle shot video of me while up in the really tall, weird playground-thingy (I’m sure I’ll post it at some point).
- Entering Kirin Restaurant (starlight location) for the first time, I was in photo-location heaven ;)
- The look on Kyle’s face when one of the ladies at our table told him that the food he is putting into his mouth was beef tongue… when it was really just pork. He went white, it was awesome I’m pretty sure I high-fived her.
- The ‘Grab the Butt and guess which is my husband’s’ game :) Classic.

Walt + Deadee, thank you so much for everything. The day was absolutely amazing, and filled with love and memories that will be cherished forever.

To view Walt + Deadee’s slideshow, please click here.