My first wedding!

Today marks the 4th year of my business, my birthday and anniversary of the first wedding I photographed. This is also my *first* blog (it’s been a long time in the making 😉  So I’m bringing things back to the beginning, and sharing my very first and one of my very favourite weddings. I’m often asked how I started photographing weddings, well… I owe a big THANK YOU to my sister Heather and now brother-in-law, James.

Shortly after finishing University, my sister was engaged and asked me to shoot her destination wedding in Mexico. I spent the last few years hiding out in the darkroom at the University of Guelph, learning about film and how to be a conceptual fine art photographer. I had shown my work in galleries, put it in nice frames and wrote nice ideas about what it was about. I had little to no idea about wedding photography and working with ‘people’. I had photographed beautiful landscapes, documentary cityscapes and played around with painting with light. I had been shooting digitally for only a year, and did little to no work with people in my photos. SO.. could I really be a good wedding photographer?

I would need to learn to be more personable, how to direct people and shoot more candidly. The hardest part was letting go of all the control I previously I had in the darkroom. After much research, I nervously accepted and was SO glad I did. I wouldn’t have traded this experience for anything and was so glad to be able to capture their special day. Although I was asked to be a bridesmaid, Heather had really wanted and trusted me to do her wedding photos. Retrospectively, I think I made for a much better photographer than I would have bridesmaid.  As sister/photographer there was still lots of “bridesmaids” duties I helped with during the day – dress fluffing, hair primping and shoe swapping (little know fact we traded shoes post-cermony!) Four years later I’ve now photographed 12 weddings, and feel so grateful to learn and grow more each year. Here’s a look at some of my favourites  – enjoy!

PS. If you are looking for a great resort in Mexico, this was at the Barcelo Resort in the Mayan riviera. (Highly recommend them 🙂