2019 seemed like the year that everyone was looking forward to getting over with. 2020 has a special ring to it and undoubtably the pursuit of bigger and better things were on the horizon for all in the upcoming decade. A fresh start for most but an opportunity for me to reminisce on what was arguably my best and favourite year as a Toronto wedding photographer.
2019 was full of opportunity for Ryanne and I to explore ideas and creative concepts outside of the wedding industry and outside of Toronto altogether with a few key weddings booked in Los Angeles California and Canmore, Alberta. I don’t think either of us would label ourselves as destination wedding photographers by any stretch of the imagination since we consider Toronto our home, but we have always looked forward to international travel with the purpose of documenting someone’s wedding and we’ve enthusiastically said yes to amazing destinations over the years. To jump back an extra year , I remember 2018 being thought of as “the one” for us to beat going forward in our wedding photography careers, with weddings booked in the Baja California Sur in Mexico AND a wedding in the southern part of Spain, I had a hard time imagining that 2019 would bring forth new adventures that were equally if not more memorable for us as photographers. (You’ll see more of our time in Southern California and the wedding we shot at the Grassroom LA in downtown Los Angeles in Ryanne’s “Best of 2019” blog post that highlights the overall experience during our time there and in Malibu.)
Bringing things back to Canada, I can’t forget about the incredible opportunity to return to Alberta and photograph a wedding in Canmore among the mountains and forest, I was eager to return to the quintessential Canadiana after shooting a wedding in Waterton National Park back in 2017.
Naturally, photographing weddings in exotic locations is extremely amazing in itself and I’m beyond grateful for such once in a lifetime opportunities but I don’t ever overlook the uniqueness and special atmosphere that the very city I live in has to offer. Toronto is probably one of the best places in the entire world to be a wedding photographer. Seriously, think about it. It’s one of the most multicultural, inclusive and largest melting pots of any major city across the globe. Being a wedding photographer in Toronto means I get to photograph 30+ weddings a year and never feel like I did the same thing twice. The weddings venues as unique and alternative as the couples getting married in them, Toronto isn’t short of beautiful locations and amazing people. For the first time ever I got to explore the historic Campbell House in Downtown Torontoto take some wedding photos of the bride and groom, giving me a level of vintage and nostalgia that represents the timelessness of the wedding photography I try to create.
Of course I got to re-visit some of my favourite Toronto wedding venues including The Chase, The Gladstone Hotel, the Drake Commissary, Graydon Hall Manor,The Doctor’s House,Junction Craft Brewery and so on which are all incredibly unique and beautiful wedding venues that infuse the personality and aura that Toronto has to offer. Equally as beautiful were the weddings set in intimate locations that highlight the beauty of Ontario including the Toronto Island Association, a bride and groom’s very own backyard, which was more of a forest than backyard, and a family cottage that held a lot of memories. Each and every single place had its own story and each had their own beautiful details worth capturing providing me with endless inspiration and creative fuel.
To honour my photojournalistic roots and current role as an editorial documentary photographer, I decided to present the images as a cohesive narrative, encompassing an artistic storyline through my own eyes and experiences of being the photographer at all these weddings. What’s left from my curated selection of 30+ weddings is a series of candid emotions and beautiful portraits of couples in love but more importantly, couples who were living in a moment together.
I’m often introspective when the years come to an end, I often revisit key moments throughout the year but mostly I feel nostalgic about the good times I had with the people who matter most to me. I’ve always been a firm believer that understanding the past is one of the best way to pave for the future and as a creative, an artist and photographer I’m constantly pushing myself to a place of analysis to perfect my craft and to exercise my third eye. Having these sort of experiences and memories to draw inspiration from is priceless to me. 2019 will be a tough act to follow and having a brief look back on the amazing moments and people that have entered my life I cherish the ability to recognize how amazing of a ride it was.
