Let's Talk Bouquet

In our humble opinions, flowers are one of the Most Important Details of your big day. They add a layer of classiness and lots of colour pops. 

(We have a couple of favourite florists if you ever need a recommendation; just ask.)

We loooooove these arrangements, which Meagan made herself. (Are you kidding me?!)

We love working with other talented wedding vendors; but these "homemade" bouquets are some of the best we've seen!

And then Nathan picked this wildflower bouquet for Sarah on the morning of their wedding. 

We loved Sarah and Nathan's sweet Colorado wedding. One of our favourite parts about our job is that we get to travel to faraway places and document love. Lucky us!

So whether you are making your bouquet out of your flower pin collection or hiring out your favourite florist, know that these beauties are going to go miles towards making your wedding photos shine.

Can't wait to see your flowers of choice.

xo.

Words of Wisdom from our past Brides, part I

She's from Idaho; he's from Germany. Caiti and Tobi met in Israel and said their "I DO's" in an old-fashioned church in Idaho last summer. 

Enjoy her thoughts now that the dust has settled.

Caiti and Tobi had a gorgeous DIY wedding in early summer of 2014. We loved flying to Idaho to document their sweet wedding and capture all their special moments.

-things you would do differently: I don't know if i would change so much my decisions over what I had as decoration or the things here and there...but I would change my view and attitude of the wedding. I would have just simply enjoyed it and lived more in the moment. It's so overwhelming and it's all so much, but I worried a lot about our schedule, etc. 

-best planning decisions you made: I don't have to impress anyone. And you can work hard and get a lot more joy out of it. I think buying everything brand new is easy and great, but to be able to create and work alongside your family and friends makes so many amazing/frustrating memories that sometimes last longer than most.

-favourite parts about your day: Favourite part about my day was definitely the party afterwards, just a time to celebrate and dance your face off. Weddings are such a place of joy and really brings the whole family together in a good way! Of course the ceremony was also incredible, I would say the reception is a place to connect and bless your guests! 

-advice to a newbie bride: Have the most amount of fun you can! Count yourself as special! Enjoy the engagement process with your fiance and don't try to wait until the wedding, just enjoy him/her, this season that you're in because you will never get it back. It is once in a lifetime!

Melissa and Travis had a dreamy destination wedding in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic last year. We were the photographers and videographers for their amazing day.

Enjoy hearing Mel's thoughts post-wedding.

As Toronto's Top Wedding Photographers, we love traveling internationally with our work. We document weddings and engagement sessions in the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Cuba and beyond.

1. If I had the day to do over again I would want to do a first look photography session before the wedding. Since we had our wedding so late in the day we could only capture so many pictures afterwards before the sun started setting. (Unfortunately it was my groom that was adamant about seeing me for the first time walking down the aisle-which was pretty perfect in itself :) ). 

I would also spend some more time on my speeches to friends and family. Being so caught up in all of the wedding planning I left my speech to the last on the to do list, thinking I could quickly whip something up a few days beforehand. So I wish I had sat down and really thought of those memories that I wanted to share well in advance. 

2. One of the best planning decisions I made was doing tons of research and finding our venue!  Once we decided to have a destination wedding we hired a travel agent to help us pick a resort and organize everyone together. After researching the options for the wedding at the resort we chose something didn't feel quite right, so I dug a little deeper and found a restaurant down the beach from where we were staying that offered wedding packages that had more options and was comparable in price. It was the most amazing place to have a wedding, everything was taken care of, nothing felt rushed and we had the whole place to ourselves the entire evening!  Always think outside of the box and do your research! 

3. So many favourite parts about my wedding day it's hard to chose! Obviously walking down the aisle was so memorable because I had not seen one detail about my wedding yet, everything had been taken care of. Talk about stress free! So it was amazing seeing all of my ideas that had come together and then looking down the beach to my family, friends and groom waiting for me. 

I loved the moment my husband and I shared our vows. We wrote our own vows and blubbering through all our tears managed to say them to each other, I just remember feeling like it was just me and him standing up there, everything else was a blur. I'm so happy Jono and Laynie got them on film because I tear up every time I watch them! 

4. My advice to a newbie bride is don't skimp on the photography/videography aspect! For me photo and video were one of the most important parts of my day and I'm so glad we chose our talented photographers! I'm always looking back at our photos and watching pieces of the wedding video because the day was such a whirlwind it's hard to take it all in at once. So it's nice knowing you always have your best memories documented to look back on!

How to Timeline your Wedding Day

Happy Monday beautiful brides (brides-to-be and my parents.)

We love sunset photos with our bride and groom. It's one of our favourite parts of documenting any wedding day. 

Today we're going to chat about something that most couples struggle with at least on some level-timelining your wedding so that your day is seamless. 

The struggle is real, and also completely understandable. Presumably you've never planned a wedding before, so you don't have a gauge on how much time to allot for what.

We, the wedding whisperers, having planned our own wedding and documented dozens (hundreds?) of others, are here to hold your hand and help you out. 

Obviously we think that the wedding photography and videography is pretty important so this timeline *may* be a bit biased. 

But hey-you're paying us for greatness; give us time to shine.

We believe in excellence and creativity in all we do. We are passionate about telling your story-it's so worth telling. We work primarily in the Toronto and Niagara regions (Oakville, Burlington, Cambridge, Kitchener), but also document weddings in faraway places-like this one in Thunder Bay.

Let's say you've hired us for 8 hours, our standard day package. Here's how we'd suggest using your time.

12:00 Getting Ready & Details (shoes, dress, invitation, flowers, etccc. It's ideal for these to be in a corner waiting for us. Perfect job for one of your hottie bridesmaids.)

1:00 All Hair and Makeup Finished. Put dress on.

1:15 Travel to first look

1:45 First Look

2:00 Bride and Groom Portraits
2:30 Family Portraits
3:00 Bridal Party photos

3:45 Break for you / details, details, Details for us (we especially like this because it's nice to get all the reception details you worked so hard on before your guests stampede in.)

4:15 Ceremony Begins

4:40 Ceremony Ends

4:45 The Couple (it's pretty sweet to document the first few moments of your wedded life. Why not sneak away and relish it together...and let us document the love?!)

5:15 Couple Joins the Cocktail Hour

6 Reception entrance

6:15 First Dance/s (*we recommend scheduling all the important bits on the front end of the reception-at least all the important bits you definitely want documented.)

6:30-8 Dinner/Speeches

7:30 sneak away for sunset photos

8 Cake cutting

8:05 We sneak away to post a sneak peek on our Facebook page and you party the night away

Obviously you need to make this fit your special day and we're here to accommodate in any way we can.

We understand that timelines get off and we gift you about half an hour of flex time; we don't just rush out the door as soon as our time is up. We want to do an Amazing job for you and capture so many special memories from you day.

There is always the option to add an extra hour or two, even on the day of your wedding. 

Andddddd for some couples, a first look is not in the cards. Perhaps your schedule would look more like this:

12:00 Getting Ready &  Details
1:00 Hair and Makeup Finished-dress on
1:15 Dress On; Final Touches

Getting ready photos are a fantastic way for us to document all the quiet, special moments of your wedding day. 

All of our wedding photography packages come with a layflat photo book and having the full spectrum of moments from the day are a way to share the story of your wedding day.

1:45 ceremony

2:15 Bride and Groom Portraits
2:45 Family Portraits
3:05 Bridal Party

Carmens Lakeview is one of our favourite wedding venues in Hamilton.

Another sweet capture from Jessa and Dan's wedding at Lakeview. Bridal party photos are a fun place to get creative and think outside the box.

3:25 Photos of the two of you.

Having lots of time to document all the LOVE between our sweet couples is one of our highlights of the wedding day. We recommend leaving around half an hour for photos of the two of you.

3:45 Break / Details, Details!
4:00 Cocktail Hour begins
6 Reception starts

Either way, we recommend 1-2 hours for getting ready photos, 1.5-2 hours of official photos (family, bridal party, you two), making sure you account for travel time and prioritizing your reception to get the photos that are the most important to you. (***If you only have one photographer it's especially important to add more time for your photos!**)

In addition, it never hurts to pad your schedule with half an hour here or there for more photos or simply to rest and enjoy your day.

It's better to have more time than less.

Let us know if you have any questions. We can't wait to document your day. And we want to do everything we can to help you feel relaxed and peaceful about all the details we can.

xoxo.

L + J