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Cindy & Ryan

Some of you may remember the images I had posted a few months back on Cindy & Ryan’s engagement session. I had so much fun during our session wine tasting and spending some time at the beach that day.  I was really looking forward to some good times with these two on their wedding day.  

Hats off to the priest at St. John the Apostle Parish on Trafalgar Street. I thought he did such a great job keeping the audience engaged throughout the ceremony and keeping things very authentic & real.

We then went downtown for some photos with the couple & their bridal party.  First stop was Le Soleil hotel…

The thing I love about Cindy & Ryan is their ability to be so natural in the front of the camera.  They did what felt natural to them and their display of love was so genuine!

One of my favourite images came during the reception.  We love documenting the emotion & little moments during a reception and we had the opportunity to grab a quick tete-a-tete that Ryan had with his Grandmother during the tea ceremony.  

The wedding cake, courtesy of Cindy’s mother, the Baker.  How talented!

Of course, there were games throughout the evening!  Here’s a glimpse of their ‘sing-off’ (boys against girls). 

And my favourite dance shot of the night…

 

 

 

Website Redesign is LIVE!

We’ve finally completed the redesign of our new Yaletown Wedding Gallery website!  

I’m very pleased with the results – a very clean yet elegant layout providing larger views of our images. Our Team section has also been updated with a profile of all of our photographers. You’ll also notice some newly updated images in our photography section so don’t forget to check it out and give us some feedback on what you think!

The Buckley’s

As a gift for Dad, one of the Buckley brothers contacted me to do a family portrait session for the Buckley clan (no relation to the cough syrup Buckley’s by the way).  We shot near the Hoover Dam on a clear sunny day to capture some great moments with this fun Irish (infused with Asian influences!) family.

Grandma Buckley receiving a pretty flower from her grandson, Aidan.

More of the cute little monkeys Aidan & Connor with Grandma & Grandpa.

Here’s brothers & sister goofing off a bit.  

The weather was perfect that day with a beautiful view of the Lions in the background.  We did a great series of fun shots with the family and then continued on with some really cool shots of just the Buckley brothers.  

This image was a huge hit with the family and we created beautiful panoramic canvas wraps for the brothers to hang on their walls at home. It’s so great to see siblings, Mom & Dad getting along so well.  Definitely lots of laughter throughout the shoot and some funny moments with Aidan being introduced to gummy bears for the first time.  To say the least, he behaved for most of the session!

Change is Good

I’m excited to let all of you know that we’ll be giving our website a new face lift and the launch of version 3.0 will be happening very soon.  We had tremendous feedback on how well our existing site was designed and it was hard to let go of the old look.  But like many things in our lives, change is good and it was definitely time for a change.

We’ve also been busy wrapping up a new photoshoot for our new promotional ads, which will be launching in 2009 and in time for the next issue of The Complete Wedding Directory and the 2009 Spring/Summer issue of Real Weddings.  I’m excited to show you some of these stunning images and we’ve got some really great things coming down the pipeline on our blog and website so stay tuned!

Janice & Dave

Everyone needs cheerleaders in their lives.  People who believe in what you do and give you positive support, cheering you on from the sidelines.  Janice is one of those people.  I met Janice about 4 years ago at her brother Jeffrey’s wedding (those who have read my old posts will remember Jeffrey & Karen Colobong who recently took some family photos with their cute little baby girl, Sophia). Janice was engaged two years ago and contacted me almost immediately to book me for her wedding.    After waiting two years, the day finally came.  And I can say it was well worth the wait.  Check out these photos!

The kiddies were oh so adorable!

 

This group was one of the most fun-loving group of people I’ve had the privilege of photographing.  The groomsmen were so hilariously funny.  

I just have to show you all these cute little wedding favours.  [on the left]These are hand-knit REVERSIBLE dolls made by Janice’s sister-in-law’s mother.  The skirt flips over and you have the choice of either displaying the bride side or the bridesmaid side.  Isn’t it so adorable???  I love these dolls! [on the right] Cute little measuring spoons with catchy baking phrases.

And finally, the highlight entertainment of the evening – a Colobong Family tradition.  The entire Colobong family (mostly consisting of cousins and spouses) get together and perform a dance & song routine for the bride and groom!  This time, it was a dance & song routine to “You Can’t Stop the Beat” from the Hairspray musical.  I was seriously impressed with this group!

We had an incredible day with Janice and Dave.  After the wedding, we received the most touching email from Janice:

“Just wanted to send you a quick note to thank you and Cindy again for everything!  You were absolutely fabulous (as always) on the day.  Although we didn’t even look at other photographers, we know that the wedding wouldn’t have been the same if you weren’t the one shooting it. From the “lurker” pictures that the bridal party were taking of the shots that you did, we know that you captured our personalities and the emotions of the day. We’ve seen some nice pictures from the day, and we can’t even imagine how amazing yours will look!”

(blush) Thank You Janice:)

Thanksgiving

I can’t believe that October is already here.  As we enter a time of thanksgiving, I just want to say how thankful I am to each and every one of our clients we’ve photographed this year and also in previous years.  I am truly blessed to have such amazing clients and each of you make it so rewarding for me to capture your life and the people that are a part of your lives.  Thank you!  

I love my job. At times, it may sound like a very glamorous job but it is a lot of hard work.  Along with the photographing, there’s aspects of running a business and making sure your clients are happy with your work and your service.  Last week, I was reminded that if you have passion about something and truly believe in it, you will bear fruit.  Here is an email I received from a couple who’s wedding I photographed last year:

Hi Sandra,

I just had to send an email to say that Chris and I were looking at our
wedding photos the other day again and found them just amazing even over a
year later, the pictures brought back all the fond memories that day. You
are so very talented, your style and ability to capture our special day
with all those photos still blows us away and we were so glad that you were
there as our photographer.

Take care,

Verna and Chris Morrison

 

I was so touched by the email.  More to be thankful for.  I hope everyone has lovely thanksgiving – eat lots of turkey for me!

p.s. We’ve had an incredible year of weddings and portraits.  We still have a tonne of images to share with you so stay tunned!

Baby Jassmone

Kasandra has been a very close friend of mine for many years.  We met in university and graduated together with a marketing degree.  Over the years, we’ve developed a special bond.  Both of us made a decision to leave the corporate world behind to pursue our passions.  My passion was photography and hers was Flamenco Dancing.  Kasandra is a very talented Flamenco dancer and now runs her own dance company called Al Mozaico Flamenco Dance Academy .  Along with a busy dance career performing and teaching, Kasandra recently had a baby and we had the wonderful opportunity to do a newborn session with her beautiful daughter Jassmone.  

We got some great images from our session, although I’ll spare the details of showing you shots when we had Jassmone wrapped around a blanket and no diapers.  As you can imagine, we had a few accidents from that series!

We’ve been busy with a lot of family portrait sessions this past month and despite the unexpected fall weather, it’s still a great time to book your session especially if you’re wanting your photos for the holiday season (yes, we do Christmas cards too!).  Contact our studio for more information on our portrait sessions.

Diem & Hartley

I am always honored to be a part of every wedding we have the opportunity to photograph.  I feel especially privileged when the couple books well in advance.  I met Hartley the summer prior to his engagement at his cousin Gerald’s wedding which we were so happy to be a part of.  I love this family!  They are so wonderful to work with and everyone is so caring and fun to be around.  Diem & Hartley booked me two years in advance from the day of their wedding.  I know to some of you two years may seem like a lifetime, but when you’re given that amount of time to plan a wedding, you are also given more choices with available vendors and venues.  I know that there was a lot of thought that went into planning and executing every little detail of their wedding day.  Hartley arrived at Diem’s house in the morning where they had a traditional Vietnamese Tea Ceremony.  Diem wore the exact same Vietnamese outfit that her oldest sister wore at her wedding more than 10 years ago.  Eventhough the sisters aren’t the same size, the outfit surprisingly fit her like a glove!  

Corpus Christi, the catholic church that Hartley grew up in, was the location of their ceremony.  I love the stain glass windows in the background.  The colours matched perfectly with the tiffany blue/brown & white color theme.

This is probably the first bridal party where more than two of the bridesmaids were pregnant!  But they still managed to make this shot work, despite the fact they weren’t able to run very fast:)  Thanks for the effort!

While on location, we stumbled across a turquoise wall that was so close in color to the tiffany blue bridesmaids dresses.  I love this shot with the ladies!

And then we did something a little bit more chic with the gentlemen…

This was one of my favourite parts of their wedding – a candy station!  And not just any usual candy station…they had personalized candy bags and beautifully designed signs for every candy available.  The candy station was a definite hit at the reception and I really love the stationary they designed for the wedding.

I was extremely impressed with the entertainment that evening.  Hartley’s cousin Casey is an amazing singer.  I had the chance to hear her for the first time at Gerald’s wedding and she has definitely matured and grown into a brilliant singer.

And then we had other sorts of ‘talent’ that evening, including a little band action from some of Hartley’s old high school buddies and some serious dancing from Hartley’s cousin.  It really felt like a mix of Star Search combined with America’s Best Dance Crew!  All in all, a very entertaining evening that really went by much too fast, especially since we all waited two years for it to happen:)  Congratulations to an amazing couple!

One Lucky Guy

We had the opportunity to shoot a boudoir session for one of our brides this past spring.  It was her wedding present to her new hubby and I had such a blast at the session. It was so creative and we had some pretty crazy ideas for the shoot! We had to keep it on the down low because she wanted to surprise him with the album from the session on the wedding day.   The photos were breathtaking!  Sexy, sultry, and too hot to show anyone but her guy!  Sorry folks, pictures are for his eyes only!  But I will show you the beautiful sizzling red album cover that was presented to him on the wedding day.  He was completely blown away and absolutely loved the gift.

For those couples who have booked with us for the Fall or next season, you should definitely consider doing a boudoir session.  It’s such a creative gift and it’s a great excuse to let out your wild side!  Contact the studio for more information on our Boudoir Sessions.