It seems that the idea of adventure elopements has gained extreme momentum with weddings throughout 2020. I’m sure when most think of the term “adventure elopement” they imagine a couple hiking through the wilderness and climbing a tall mountain to enjoy a quiet moment overlooking an otherworldly sunset fall behind the peaks and valleys. Undoubtably the sight of mother nature during its finest hour would make for a breathtaking backdrop to remember your wedding day by, and the adventure of the hike and ascending the mountain, an unforgettable experience. Although this is an incredible option it’s not the only way to organize an adventure elopement. People living in a large city, very much like me here in Toronto, don’t always associate their own personal narratives and story with the great outdoors. Like me, many individuals find themselves living in the heart of a vibrant city during their most impressionable years, creating moments and memories that shaped our lives.
For these two, their story began here in Toronto, the city where Evan grew up and the one where Eleanor became Lenny Bull. Lenny Bull is actually Eleanor’s music stage name and the name of 70’s inspired vintage rock’n’roll band oozing with character and flavour that spearheaded by Lenny’s stunning voice and authentic aesthetic. Not to mention, Evan is the lead guitarist in the band so when I use the term rock’n’roll elopement it’s definitely not being used as a loose term and is as matter of fact as any other wedding that could possibly grace the covers of Rolling Stone Magazine. Lenny and Evan worked directly with Ryanne and I to create the ultimate urban adventure elopement experience that paid homage not only to Eleanor and Evan’s romantic relationship, but also paid an honest tribute to Lenny and Evan’s direct on stage relationship as musicians and artists themselves. These two didn’t want a traditional wedding or elopement, not by a long shot, so we put our minds together and completely allowed ourselves to be engulfed by our mutual influences and artistic tastes.
Although I don’t discuss it very much on this blog or website, my career as a photographer goes well beyond the wedding industry in the other branches of work that I do. I have spent time on major sets and concerts with Country Music Television as a staff photographer and have produced commercial work for some major record Labels including Dine Alone Records and Universal (I’ve even directed some official music videos) (www.brjann.com / @brjann.bb if you’re interested). I directly translated those experience to this elopement and my love of music help shape the concept for this urban adventure elopement and fulfill a vision for the badass bride and groom. The role Ryanne and I played in this shoot went beyond just being photographers however. We were directors and creative directors (wedding planners?), building a team of creatives and artists to come together to bring an extremely stylized vision come to life for Lenny and Evan to experience their commitment to one another. With the help of a dedicated stylist, a hair and makeup artist and jeweller, we were able to create a cohesive and genuine vision for Lenny and Evan to celebrate and experience throughout an entire elopement day. We took their influences, blended an ideal aesthetic and what we were left with was an enhanced urban elopement experience that created an unforgettable experience for the bride and groom with a few one-of-a-kind wedding photos to look back on in 50 years.
We already have a handful of our 2021 couples shifting their wedding to adventure elopements after we showed them what we managed to pull off for Lenny and Evan, and I couldn’t be more excited to start offering this sort of enhanced and stylized experience for couples who really want to go above and beyond the normal trends of weddings and elopements and create a cinematic and movie-like experience for their own wedding photos and adventure elopements. Naturally, these experiences (and this elopement) are absolutely meant to be captured on analog film. Using our Leicas and vintage lenses along with our medium format cameras allowed us to capture a mood and feeling to these images that went hand in hand with the overall theme of the experience and it rung true with the souls of Lenny and Evan. A raw and fleeting experience is best captured on a medium that is prone to quirks and tangible elements that are synonymous with nostalgic memories.
On that note, this day had a bit of everything, but a major and primary influence for the day was directly lifted from Eleanor and Evan’s band and musical aesthetic. Although it seemed we really went above and beyond helping Lenny and Evan create an over the top style and look for their wedding day, we really just played up who they already were and turning it up to 11. To them, their elopement was rock’n’roll fuelled tale of young love in the city, careless and expansive, thrilling and dangerous, sexy and stylish, playing on their musical influences and the genuine chemistry they share on and off the stage. Our roles as creative directors (or wedding planners to keep things more on track connected to urban elopements) was to do what wedding photographers don’t normally do, create the atmosphere and environment for the couple ourselves, directly have an impact and choice on locations and other small details for the elopement and stylizing the entire vision. The goal for us at least was to handle the aesthetic and plan out a day orchestrated in such a way that genuine opportunities and moments would organically manifest themselves. Naturally it helped that Lenny and Evan were entirely onboard and in-line with the concept and vision from the first time we discussed it together and fully leaned into the adventure elopement concept and quickly revealed that their stage personas aren’t far off from their true selves.
So what we did was source a small team of fantastic vendors who would help enhance the vision of the elopement with their own artistry and creativity, help the bride and groom figure out their style options and plan out a day full of excitement that started off with us meeting at a vintage subway station to hitch a ride to their next ride… a vintage 1970’s Cadillac! The Fox Theatre was the next destination for the bride and groom to exchange vows and a few quiet moments in complete privacy, away from everything and everyone.
And this is where part 1 ends…. For the second half of the day, and to see how Lenny and Evan capped off their elopement day (hint- it’s awesome) check out Ryanne’s blog post - here!
