I’m currently sitting at the airport, waiting for my flight to head out to Mexico for a destination wedding. Looking through the images from last night’s wedding, the best way to describe Melissa and Kevan’s wedding is “a whole lot of laughs.” From getting ready right through to the speeches at the reception, there were tons of laughs and happy tears all around.

When he grows up, I think he’s going to love this picture.

I’ve never seen so much laughter during a ceremony. It was great to see.

After finishing up at the Sandman Hotel, we headed over the the Centennial Park Conservatory for our pictures. It was a nice warm-up for going to Mexico, because it was quite hot and humid inside.

I’ll be posting more a little later when I have some time to sit down. These are just pulled from the slide show I played during the reception. For now, I am off to Mexico for another wedding and will have lots to post over the next couple weeks!

I just returned from the Mayan Riviera, Mexico staying at Dreams Tulum with Alyson & Kevin and 36 of their friends and family for one of the best destination weddings I have been to so far. I had a blast with the group and got some great images while there.

We did three days of photos, plus a little bit around the resort. First we did a mini engagement style shoot at the Tulum ruins 10 minutes from our resort, then a Trash The Dress session in a local cenote, and finally the wedding. I’ll post the TTD session photos in my next post right after this one.

The weather really held out for us. For three days it was calling for rain on the wedding day but we had perfect weather for the wedding. A bit of cloud for shade and not a hint of rain.

I love taking large group shots whenever possible. The resort photographer had no idea what I was doing when I wanted to take everyone away from the beach for the photos, but a little shade off the beach makes group shots way nicer.

Sometimes I bring along a specially modified Infrared Camera that takes amazing images.

Corona anyone?

It was an interesting experience because the resort actually insisted that their resort photographer be at the wedding even though I was there. For any couple wanting to see a side by side comparison and the importance of having your special day captured the in the best way possible, I would be happy to share.

I have a booth! Today and tomorrow (Jan 2/3, 2010) at the international center near Toronto Airport I will be at the Total Wedding Show in what looks like a portable version of my living room. This is my first wedding show and I designed it at the same time as my living room because I really don’t like the look of a typical pop up display and a table – so not creative.

So if you are a bride planning a wedding or another photographer at the show, come by and say hi. You can get a bit of a hint of the next big change from the image. My next post in a couple days time will be more on that.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Years. Time really has flown by for me as I race to complete projects and some big changes to my business and life.

Just the other night I was online chatting to a friend of mine, Melanie from m photography – a wedding photographer in Ottawa when she brought up an idea of shooting the last wedding of the season together. Now I thought I had already shot my last wedding the weekend before, but after looking at the venue, I was sold. The Museum of Civilization in Gatineau, Quebec has some crazy architecture that I just couldn’t pass up. I woke up two days later extra early for my 5 hour drive to Ottawa for Emily & John’s wedding.

PS. After reading my comments I realized I made no mention about my sideshow. At almost every wedding I try to put a few shots that I have taken throughout the day and put them on my laptop for everyone to see during the reception. It’s always a hit with everyone, but I had a first for this wedding. Not only did I get Emily to shed some happy tears, but Melanie started crying too. I did take a picture of Melanie wiping away some tears but for fear for my life and for future possible blackmail, I will not be posting them at this time.

The very moment Emily saw John on their wedding day.

This was a really fun shot to get. Below you can see where I was.

Melanie managed to grab this angle of me shooting with the capital buildings in the background. I tend to stand on ledges but it’s always worth the shot.

There were some really awesome places to shoot here. This one required a bit of fence hopping.

Emily being an absolute trooper to get into the caged area. This shows dedication to getting the shot!

Emily is a really creative person and handled most of the decorating/details herself. She’s a designer and operates her own website.

It was a great little trip and definitely worth the drive. I managed to get to see my cousins at the same time which was great! I think it’s safe to say this was my last wedding of the season. I have a lot of new stuff in store for 2010. Expect to see big changes and lots of improvements!

I just got back from shooting Victoria & Rowan’s wedding at the Canoe restaurant on the 54th floor of the TD Tower in downtown Toronto. What a great spot for a small wedding and perfect for some urban wedding photos with some nice architecture.

Luckily it was a Sunday wedding and the streets weren’t as busy as they are during the week or even on a Saturday.

So there is a field of bulls beside the TD tower. I couldn’t resist.

Wire bouquet custom made by Victoria herself. No Bouquet toss this time. Not only because she wanted to keep it, but it would have probably knocked someone out if you weren’t careful.

For Claire and Patrick’s wedding I traveled to 5 different places around Toronto. The highlight for me was Glendon College for their formals. I love the variety which we were able to capture at the different places. Here are just a select few of my favourites from the day.

Just seconds after the ceremony the couple were escorted into the stairwell until the guests could exit the church, their first moments alone before the rest of the busy day.

While waiting for the ceremony before to finish up, I took the guys across the street for some pictures.

The girls, looking oh-so beautiful. I refuse to pick a favorite

When Claire and Patrick let me know they wanted to do their photos as Glendon College I was ecstatic. I myself am a graduate of York University (photography) and have been to the satellite campus a couple times while I was a student. The campus is gorgeous to say the least. The old architecture and colourful grounds are perfect for photos. I could have spent the whole day there but had to make do with just over an hour.

They gave one of the best gifts out to their guests, home made honey. It was a also a special tribute to the grandfather as he passed before the wedding, and it was his bees that made such a great gift.

I really enjoyed all the kids that were running around. They got the party started before any0ne else.

DJ’s props and the girls.

I put together a little teaser slide show to allow the guests to see some of the images from the day. I try to do it at every wedding I go to as it’s always a big hit with guests.

I headed up to Barrie, about 45 minutes north of Toronto for Ashley and Trevor’s wedding and it was a great time. These two have some great friends and family which made the day a blast. I had so many images I wanted to post on the blog today, I just couldn’t narrow it down any more than this, so it will be a little longer than normal.

Ashley did a ton of the work for the wedding herself. She even made all the flower arrangements and her own bouquet. It all looked amazing and I am just glad she decided not to do her own photography

She also did her own makeup!

Ashley used to be a model, which makes my job easy for posed shots!

She came to the ceremony in style, in a Rolls Royce, escorted by an Escalade.

Sometimes where the location allows I try to do large group shots of everyone at the wedding. Since they had their wedding at Barrie’s Southshore Community Centre we had a great spot to get all the guest in. I have another version where I shot everyone from up top standing on the front concrete pillar. A little sketchy but they both turned out great.

The man of the hour, Trevor. The funniest part about the day was all the people who thought I was Trevor at a glance. I definitely got a few waves from across the parking lot only for them to realize I wasn’t the groom.

I have a bunch more photos up on my Facebook fan page, so please check them out and add me there.

What can I say… location, location, location. Lee-Anne and Tyson got married at the Radisson at harbourfront, right on the lake. To top if off we headed down to  the distillery district for photos.

An iconic shot of The Distillery District here in Toronto.

The girls looked great!

The guys were trying to look just as good.

Jumping shots seem to be a hit on my blog, brides love them.

We headed over to Music Park in Toronto for some more wedding photos. Only a short walk from the hotel.

The funny part about this picture is there was a wedding going on behind them not 20 feet away.

I wholeheartedly think programs like Canada’s Next Top Model have helped brides This was shot during our pose off session.

I just loved this wall at the Radisson.

While you can have great pictures almost anywhere you get married, the location will make a huge difference in your photos. I could have spent all day shooting in the locations we had, but there wouldn’t have been any time for a wedding. It took me a lot of time to narrow it down to just 20 to post here.

This was truly a GTA wedding. Starting off in Mississauga, then to Toronto, and finishing off more in the North York area.

Beautiful bride.

It was such a great looking church with natural light beaming in through the windows.

When I saw the little guy flexing his muscles in every photo, I just knew the perfect shot that would work for him (and the bride and groom).

I love it when there are smoke machines

Earlier in the week before the wedding while playing softball I managed to get a bit of a black eye from a throw to first base. I promised them I would not be in any of their images so not worry about my eye being a sore spot in photos. This is the closest I got to being in any of their photos

Cullen Central Park (formerly and better known as Cullen Gardens) is an amazing wedding venue. There were more photo opportunities then we had time for, and they gave me a good 2 hours to take pictures! Kathy and Jay along with their wedding party rocked every photo and there was nothing I asked that was too crazy for them.

We had some sunglasses dropped from this shot, right into the river below but they were salvaged right after.

This is one of my favorite shots! When I asked the guys to climb up on the sides I had no idea we would get one right up in the rafters. Great work though!

The pink really brought out their eyes.

Guys, I am sorry… But the girls look better with the pink umbrellas.

Kathy asked for a jumping shot like she saw on one of my blog posts earlier this season. This was the largest one I have done to date. 3rd time was the charm! Jay has a great ninja kick going.

Kathy. There is no other way to say it but beautiful.

And last but not least, we have the best man flicking a bee off of the groom’s flower moments before the ceremony.

I had so many amazing and diverse photos from this wedding. It took a lot to work it down to this many.