We love it when there is a knock at the door and the FedEx guy hands us a box. It feels like we’re little kids at Christmas with such a feeling of excitement and mystery, what could it be this time… a wedding album… an engagement album? We get to see our amazing clients dream albums become a reality and all of our hard work and design come to life. We feel so incredibly lucky that we have the ability to supply our couples with some of the most gorgeous wedding and engagement albums in the world! We absolutely LOVE our album company – The Amazing Finao – and so do our clients. We were on the look out while at WPPI (Wedding and Portrait Photographers International) in Vegas last year, for a company to provide the high level of quality we dream about. It was sooo amazing that we actually found an album maker that has everything we were hoping for and a great turn around time to boot!

While looking for an album supplier there were a few must have things on our check list… 1) Our albums had to be unlike anything else that was on the market 2) The quality had to be second to none 3) The print quality had to be stunningly gorgeous 4) They had to be durable. Will it last the test of time? Last but not least 5) Are they ‘GREEN’ and socially responsible like us? Do they care about the Earth??

Another thing we love are the colours, textures, patterns, various wedding and engagement album sizes and designs we can select from to really add that personal touch for our clients. This pressed leather (also available in faux leathers) pattern below is so stunning and feels soooo luxurious in your hands… We love it!! It’s buttery soft!

We have so many options for cover designs and we encourage our clients to get creative and have fun with their album covers. Sara and Hami (below) have the same cover design for their wedding album but the red and black are reversed so there is a red cover with a black stripe! Pretty cool eh? It will look great in their home on a book shelf or coffee table.

We love the fact that our albums have smooth rounded corners! This is something that is really unique and adds that extra little bit of quality and care you don’t commonly see everyday!

The wedding and engagement album bindings are so well made, you can see that these books truly are priceless heirlooms that can be passed along to generations. That really makes us have a lot of confidence in the products we are providing to our couples.

Our gorgeous professionally retouched prints are bound to our flush mount albums flawlessly, so the image is never compromised or interrupted. Because our albums are made of a high quality card stock the pages don’t bend, tear or warp. They’ll look as beautiful today as they will in years to come!! If you’d like to check out some more samples of our designs check out our sister company Rainbow Eleven as well!!

Thanks so much for stopping by the blog to take a peek at what we’re doing around here… We’ve been shooting some gorgeous weddings lately and have lots great stuff still to blog! Thank goodness we leave tomorrow for a week on a fabulous Caribbean cruise. It’s freezing here in Toronto and we need a bit of time in the sun to re-charge, get inspired and scare away the winter blahhhs! See you all next week with hopefully a tan (not a burn)!

Hey crew. Exciting news… Charlotte and I were photographed by the very talented Wei Quek last year while he was having a promo video made by the one of the most awesome wedding cinematography teams out there… Casey and Danielle of MindCastle. Check it out and let us know what you think!!

Last summer, Dave and I had a fabulous time photographing Jay and Audrey’s gorgeous Muskoka wedding. We honestly didn’t think the night could get any better… We had a chance to catch up with Megan and Shaun, our friends and former bride and groom of ours, they actually referred Audrey and Jay to us We were so excited when guests, Julie and Paul asked us if they could book a meeting with us to discuss their big day. They said that they were so impressed by watching us work that they couldn’t imagine any one else shooting their day! Wow, that type of flattery goes a long way with us and we got them in that week for a meeting. We just love couples like Julie and Paul, they have to be some of the nicest people out there and we really wanted to capture their love to the very best of our abilities!

The great thing about having two principle shooters on your wedding day is that during the preparations one photographer can go with the bride and one with the groom. Dave and I love the fact that we can split up and really cover both sides of the wedding day. We love to provide our clients with all of the beautiful photojournalism that happens at our weddings!

Dave was photographing the guys when he caught this beautiful little moment. I just love the way Paul’s mom is looking lovingly at her son while he’s waiting for Julie to arrive. Look at the anticipation everyone is feeling!

Such a stunning bride. I loved Julie’s dress, she looked like so elegant in her lace, halter wedding gown.

Such a cute family! They all look elated to be sharing this big day together!

After a beautiful ceremony Paul and Julie were announced man and wife!! On such a chilly January day, I think it warmed everyone’s heart to see them so happy together!

Our first stop was Nathan Phillips Square for a romantic skate around the ice. CP24, City Pulse was there covering the winter time fun. It was so cool that Gurdeep Ahluwalia asked them for an interview! They Must have been so excited to be on T.V. so soon after being married!

Dave had some fun with the groomsmen when he got down on the ice and directed this sweet shot! Thank goodness these guys can stop on a dime!

January weddings, although beautiful, can be chilly and this one was no exception. Paul and Julie were such troopers while we took them around downtown Toronto for their photography session.  We grabbed these last few shots as the sun started going down, too much fun, we love winter weddings!

It was nice and toasty at the Berkeley Church when we arrived. The setting was simply stunning with roaring fireplaces, incredible centerpieces and the soft light of candles that made the already inviting venue that much cozier.

One thing that Dave and I are seriously considering is having a live band for our wedding. We absolutely love the vibe and the high energy that an amazing band has to offer. Julie and Paul had the talented Fred Hale Band play for their reception! They were a great choice and we’ve shot a few weddings with them now. They always get the party hopping and everyone hits the dance floor in celebration. Gotta love that!

Do you recognize this gorgeous duo!! Yes, it’s Audrey and Jay our awesome couple from last summer at the fabulous Taboo resort in Muskoka! It was so nice seeing you both again, we love you guys

My sister Tricia is getting married at the Berkeley Church next July. I instantly fell in love with the blue arch that frames the bride and groom while they dance.  How magical does that look?! we’ll definitely have to get the same awesome lighting for her special day!

It was a really fun and casual vibe to their reception. Everyone had a good time, we loved how Julie and Paul gave their speech on the stage, so relaxed and genuine.

After the father/daughter dance, Dave and I stole our couple away for the last few shots of them together. We love the Berkeley Church for all of it’s romantic nooks and corners hidden away.

I love this spot and this chandelier. The textures, the brick and just the feeling of this room are so incredible. Did you know that Coldplay held a secret concert in Toronto at the Berkeley Church?! Chris Martin, the lead singer, actually had a photo shoot in this very room. Pretty cool spot to take a few romantic wedding photos huh

Thanks so much to Julie and Paul for being so amazing to us on your wedding day! We really had a great time with you and your great friends and family. Congratulations guys and we wish you a fantastic future together!!

Wow, what an engagement shoot! Dave and I were sooo stoked to get a phone call last Tuesday from a fun, awesome and super-gorgeous couple living in Connecticut. The call was about engagement photos and they said that they had searched high and low looking for the photographers to capture some unique and creative images of them in the place where they shared their first date… Mont Tremblant, Quebec! We were so happy to be the perfect fit for Rachel and John and to fly out to Mont Tremblant to document this time in their life.

Rachel and John had their first date after they met each other with a group of friends snowboarding one weekend. Neither one of them ever thought that this would be the weekend that they would meet their future love.

It’s so great seeing these two together, they have so many things in common and really just have a love for adventure and the outdoors.

It’s also really nice capturing the connection they have together. It’s very clear that they each hold a special place in their heart for one another.

I love doing artistic crops and shooting moments as they happen… This was such a cute moment after they had fallen down in the snow.

I love this amazing angle Dave caught… Take a minute to look at it and try to figure out how it was shot… John and Rachel are actually standing in this shot! This is an uprooted tree we found while walking in th forest, lol! Dave has such a creative eye for this sort of thing

As photographers, we’re always trying to use new ideas and concepts to spark more creativity. For this shoot, I wanted to break out of my usual shooting style a bit. As I’ve mentioned before, I absolutely love my 50 mm 1.2 lens. It’s soo buttery and amazing, you can really get used to using the same lenses for each shoot if you’re not careful. On this shoot, I used the 24 Tilt Shift for the whole session. It was a lot of fun and went well with our couples style!

I totally love this shot below! Rachel’s eyes look phenomenal and Dave’s angle is very cool too!

This was a bit of an interesting shot!  We found some abandoned buildings and peeked in for a few quirky shots! These guys were so funny, and really hammed it up for the cameras, thanks guys lol…

You can see how much fun these guys have together!! They really have an awesome time and you can tell they are also great friends too

Mont Tremblant has to be one of the most romantic spots in Canada!! Everything looked ethereal when the air was filled with big, white fluffy snowflakes.

As you can see from our sneak peek, we knew we could have a little bit of fun with our awesome couple… We love creating something different and special for our clients.

What a great place for a first date huh?? Yes, there is even a icy slide to cruise down, so much fun!

They needed to warm up a bit after the ice slide, so they sat by the fire… They couldn’t help but laugh when the wind changed and they got smoked out after their ride, hehehe!

After a bit of shooting we had a delicious dinner together in the village. We waited for the sun to go down so we could do some night shooting (my fave)!! We love the chance to create something moody and dramatic for our clients. Rachel and John really loved the engagement shoot we did with my sister Tricia and her fiance Kris this November… It seems to be a very popular engagement session and I think our clients love night shooting as much as we do

Isn’t Rachel stunning in this shot?? We promise, we do not get our clients from modeling agency’s… Although we’ve been asked, hehe! Something that both Dave and I love creating is images with amazing bokeh – that’s the photogaphy term for the giant blurred out lights in the background… next time you’re watching a romantic movie, notice how the more romantic a scene gets, the bigger the bokeh gets!

As we wrapped the shoot, we noticed so wicked lighting coming from a nearby bar in the village. It hadn’t quite opened yet and so they were happy to let us create a few images inside while it was empty. I love these two shots, the purple and blue lights look soo cool eh? Dave went for the awesome shot above and I thought it would be cool to grab this shot below in the reflection of the mirror. What a great spot for a few cool shots!

Thanks so much to Rachel and John for trusting our vision and allowing us to create something special for you! We had a great time shooting this with you and are super excited to see the finished product from the album we’ve create for your engagement shoot Congratulations guys!!!

Here’s a sneak peek of your album while it’s away at print…. The first image in the slideshow is your image wrap cover, with the front cover being on the right, spine down the middle and back cover on the left.

G’Day everyone,

On Tuesday night this week, we got a call from Rachel and John. They’re a cool couple from Connecticut asking if it were possible for us to fly to Mt Tremblant to take some snowy engagement pictures for them. Charlotte and I did a quick search of the FlyPorter website and were excited to see that it was possible to get out this weekend!

So Friday morning we boarded our flight on Toronto island and were walking across the tarmac in Mont Tremblant less than an hour later. Gotta love Porter for it’s convenience, plus the service is great!

We met up with Rachel and John at the base of the village with lots of smiles and hugs. We could tell we’d just found some  new instant friends!

Needless to say, we had an AMAZING time driving around the mountain and walking in the forest with them. We had an awesome shoot, and have lots of great images to edit, however we wanted to share this engagement photo with you. This is one of our favourites from the shoot…

We created the above photograph by creating multiple exposures with John doing an amazing job of holding still throughout! We then overlapped them all in PhotoShop to create this rather striking and unique image!

We couldn’t be more impressed with their diversity and willingness to make this shot happen!

We’ll definitely post the rest of the shoot in another post, but before we leave you we thought you may enjoy seeing this panorama we made looking across the lake at the mountain. You can view a larger version of this Mont Tremblant Panorama by clicking here.

We’re off to the Wedding Co. show at the Carlu in Toronto now to visit a few friends and to get some more cool ideas for our wedding. Hope to see some of you there!

Hey everyone! We’re back from an amazing photography convention, Mystic 5, in beautiful Mystic, Connecticut. We had a great time learning from some of our favourite Master Photographers from around the globe. We’ve been traveling soo much this winter and are flying off to gorgeous Mont Tremblant again this weekend to shoot Rachel and John’s wintery engagement session! We love shooting in Mont Tremblant and we’re so excited when we had the honour to photograph Sam and Ian’s stunning wedding at the five star Hotel Quintessence this month!

The wedding was simply stunning from start to finish. When we entered the front doors of the hotel we were treated so well. It was such a gorgeous spot to host a wedding. Panoramic views of the mountain and every hotel room has a fabulous view of the water. It has to be one of the finest hotels in all of Mont Tremblant.

Dave went to the guys suite to take some photographs of them all having a great time getting ready for the ceremony. Ian has such an amazing sense of humour, I guess that comes with being British. He and his groomsmen had everyone laughing through the whole day. I love it when we photograph a wedding and the day is filled with fun and laughter. It really shows the closeness everyone has for one another.

I met up with the girls in the bridal suite. What a stunning room! I also loved all of the little details, it adds so much charm to a wedding day!

Samantha looked absolutely incredible. She was so elegant and truly reminded me of a ballerina. She was the picture of beauty on her wedding day.

As the guests were waiting for the bride to arrive, these two little church mice peeked over the pews to get a better look, too cute!

After a charming ceremony in one of the most quaint chapels we’ve photographed in, the church bells rang and Sam and Ian were pronounced husband and wife!! Congrats again guys!

The cute little flower girl, Charlotte, even took a turn ringing the church bells for Sam and Ian

We loved taking Sam and Ian out for a few chilly shots. There is something about the fresh, white snow that is so romantic. Great shot guys!

The bridal party was a lot of fun and really kept the entertainment going throughout the day. What a good looking bunch!

Isn’t Mont Tremblant so romantic when the sun goes down. You get this amazing blue glow that contrasts with the warmth of the village lights below. I could stay there all winter long.

During the speeches it was really nice to learn a bit about how Sam and Ian met. They we’re 14 and both living in Saudi Arabia. They actually dated for a bit when they were teenagers and met each other again when they were older. It was very touching during their speech when Ian mentioned that while away working in Hong kong, He really, truly missed Sam with all of his heart. He knew that Samantha was the only girl for him. It was hard to hold back the tears when he was sharing these meaningful words about Sam.

I love this shot Dave captured of the boys enjoying a stogy together. On such a brisk night, it just seems right to light up a cigar in celebration.

When it came time for some of the boys to speak, they almost had the crowd in tears with their wit. Capturing candid moments and all of the great wedding photojournalism is really what keeps us challenged to do what we do. We love those natural moments that just happen.

At the end of an enchanting evening, it was a beautiful touch when Sam’s sister sang during the first dance. I’m sure it meant a lot to them to have such a personal gift for their wedding. Sam and Ian, thanks so much for choosing us! We had a fantastic time photographing your amazing wedding in Mont Tremblant. Just thinking about it really gets us stoked for Rachel and John’s engagement shoot this weekend! Congratulations to you both!!!

Hey everyone! We’re back from an amazing photography convention, Mystic 5, in beautiful Mystic, Connecticut. We had a great time learning from some of our favourite Master Photographers from around the globe. We’ve been traveling soo much this winter and are flying off to gorgeous Mont Tremblant again this weekend to shoot Rachel and John’s wintery engagement session! We love shooting in Mont Tremblant and we’re so excited when we had the honour to photograph Sam and Ian’s stunning wedding at the five star Hotel Quintessence this month!

The wedding was simply stunning from start to finish. When we entered the front doors of the hotel we were treated so well. It was such a gorgeous spot to host a wedding. Panoramic views of the mountain and every hotel room has a fabulous view of the water. It has to be one of the finest hotels in all of Mont Tremblant.

Dave went to the guys suite to take some photographs of them all having a great time getting ready for the ceremony. Ian has such an amazing sense of humour, I guess that comes with being British. He and his groomsmen had everyone laughing through the whole day. I love it when we photograph a wedding and the day is filled with fun and laughter. It really shows the closeness everyone has for one another.

I met up with the girls in the bridal suite. What a stunning room! I also loved all of the little details, it adds so much charm to a wedding day!

Samantha looked absolutely incredible. She was so elegant and truly reminded me of a ballerina. She was the picture of beauty on her wedding day.

As the guests were waiting for the bride to arrive, these two little church mice peeked over the pews to get a better look, too cute!

After a charming ceremony in one of the most quaint chapels we’ve photographed in, the church bells rang and Sam and Ian were pronounced husband and wife!! Congrats again guys!

The cute little flower girl, Charlotte, even took a turn ringing the church bells for Sam and Ian

We loved taking Sam and Ian out for a few chilly shots. There is something about the fresh, white snow that is so romantic. Great shot guys!

The bridal party was a lot of fun and really kept the entertainment going throughout the day. What a good looking bunch!

Isn’t Mont Tremblant so romantic when the sun goes down. You get this amazing blue glow that contrasts with the warmth of the village lights below. I could stay there all winter long.

During the speeches it was really nice to learn a bit about how Sam and Ian met. They we’re 14 and both living in Saudi Arabia. They actually dated for a bit when they were teenagers and met each other again when they were older. It was very touching during their speech when Ian mentioned that while away working in Hong kong, He really, truly missed Sam with all of his heart. He knew that Samantha was the only girl for him. It was hard to hold back the tears when he was sharing these meaningful words about Sam.

I love this shot Dave captured of the boys enjoying a stogy together. On such a brisk night, it just seems right to light up a cigar in celebration.

When it came time for some of the boys to speak, they almost had the crowd in tears with their wit. Capturing candid moments and all of the great wedding photojournalism is really what keeps us challenged to do what we do. We love those natural moments that just happen.

At the end of an enchanting evening, it was a beautiful touch when Sam’s sister sang during the first dance. I’m sure it meant a lot to them to have such a personal gift for their wedding. Sam and Ian, thanks so much for choosing us! We had a fantastic time photographing your amazing wedding in Mont Tremblant. Just thinking about it really gets us stoked for Rachel and John’s engagement shoot this weekend! Congratulations to you both!!!

Charlotte and I just got home from shooting the wedding of Julie and Paul (referred to us by another wonderful couple – Audrey & Jay) and we’re full of energy! With every wedding we shoot, Charlotte and I put in every ounce of passion, care and creativity we can muster, and sometime we arrive home in need of a foot message! We were so stoked to finally be able to photograph this awesome couple we met at Taboo resort just this summer. Julie and Paul were the type of couple who are passionate about everything they do – including having fun during their wedding photography… Today turned out to be pretty cold… I think it maxed out at -15°C! So when Julie and Paul still wanted to head down to Toronto’s Nathan Phillips Square, throw on some skates and scoot around the ice for an hour, Charlotte and I were impressed to say the least!!

We had a ball shooting them both, and will enjoy sharing the photos with you all soon, but for now I wanted to say a quick goodbye as we head down to Mystic, Connecticut for a wedding photographers convention. We’ll look forward to catching up with a bunch of ‘photografriends’ down there and take in some new ideas, techniques for both our photography, album design and business.

Seeing that we’re away for the week, we thought it’d be fun to share a slide show we put together of some of our favourite engagement pictures from 2009…. Of course we couldn’t fit in all our couples, but needless to say there were hundreds of other shots we would have loved to put in there.

Stay tuned to the blog for more fun winter weddings and try to stay warm out there!!!

Which is your favourite pics from the slideshow? (just reference the timestamp)

Happy New Year everyone!!

We have soo much exciting stuff happening this month so stay tuned to the blog for all of the updates and details of what we’re doing and where we’re off to next! We’re excited to be photographing Julie and Paul’s wedding tomorrow and then we’ll be in gorgeous Mystic Connecticut taking part in an awesome photography workshop with some of the best photographers in the business! Oh- and don’t forget all of our sweet destination weddings we have lined up… Yey for winter!!

As we all know, November can be a little unpredictable in terms of weather, so it was with great delight that we woke to clear blue skies and mild temperatures the morning of Nina and Igor’s wedding. It’s amazing to think that only a month ago it was possible to head outdoors with just a wedding dress on!

Regular readers of our blog may remember Nina and Igor’s engagement pictures we shot at The Beaches in Toronto. We had such a ball shooting Nina and Igor because they’re so easy going and willing to try out whatever ideas Charlotte and I threw at them. I think it helps that they’re both talented wedding photographers too! Check out their work here.

We began the day at both of their homes in Streetsville, shooting the preparations, the details of the day as well as some pretty bad ass shots of the guys. Check it out…

How funny is Igor’s proposal book?! Cool right… In case you can’t figure it out, it says “Wheel U Merry Me?”

Their ceremony took place around my old stomping ground, Meadowvale at the Merciful Redeemer Parish. It’s a gorgeous, modern Catholic church, with lots of window light and a stunning high ceiling.

It’s always so cool to be at wedding ceremonies to witness the look on the groom’s face as his bride walks towards him, and believe me, Igor was no exception. You can see the look in his eye shows a deep love for his wife to be.

The priest was hilarious – cracking jokes throughout the ceremony, which made for some great moments of laughter.

After the ceremony we all jumped in the limo and headed down to the University of Toronto for a little photo fun. The guys did a little warm up to be sure they didn’t overexert themselves!

There are some super sweet locations scattered through U of T, Nina and Igor even hooked us up with some we’d never used… like this awesome hallway. Nice right?

Love this shot above. A nice quiet little moment together.

If you’ve looked around the web at wedding photography at U of T, you’ve more than likely seen this door. It’s very cool eh.

As you can see below, Charlotte loves taking advantage of the gorgeous architecture with this shot!

After we’d finished up the shoot, we headed over to The Old Mill. We did some cool twilight shots of the gorgeous couple in front of the building. Nina also works in Marketing at Coke, so she broke out a couple of bottles for this shot. We decided to light it a little more dramatically for this shot!

On the way inside, Charlotte had Nina stand against the cool wall paper to create this beautiful portrait.

Their reception took place in Guild Hall, which is one of the nicest rooms at the Old Mill… it faces the back of the building and has huge windows that open onto the patio.

Thanks for an awesome shoot guys. We loved being part of your wedding day

Dave & Charlotte

As much as we love how magical snow looks in our engagement photos, we were quite happily surprised to have a clear December day to do some awesome shots with our wicked cool clients Marco & Julie! We were stoked that they chose us to photograph their fabulous wedding at the Liberty Grand here in Toronto this coming July!One of the reasons why we were so excited to be photographing their day is because these guys have already seen us in action last August at Christina & David’s wedding! Christina & David were referred to us through our friends at Pink Twig, one of Toronto’s best florists … Don’t you just love how that happens?! We do, because almost all of our couples were referred to us one way or another!

Since these guys love Toronto as much as we do, we decided to hit up a couple cool locations around the city. The first stop was Toronto’s famous Distillery District. This is such a great location for engagement photos I absolutely love the way the rich reds, coppers and oranges look on the pick up in this photo above! This was shot across the lane from Pikto, a professional photo lab we use quite a bit.

This is another shot I ADORE! Not only does Julie’s hair style look killer in this shot, but I love the way the brick buildings compliment the shades and depth of colour in her hair…

Here are a couple of candid pictures we caught when Dave cracked a joke! We love capturing the natural laughs between our couples. Too Cute!!!

Haha, here are a couple of sweet shots too!! We got Julie and Marco to play around for a bit and pose… Work it… work it!!

I love the Distillery so much for the cute little details you seem to find everywhere you turn! I love the wood work and design on this amazing wall.

As the sun went down we scooted over to the R.O.M. to grab this sexy shot in the rain. Julie and Marco loved my sister Tricia’s engagement shoot near the R.O.M. We thought it’d was cool to get a new angle on the museum to really capture all of the gorgeous architecture!

Here’s an example of the DVD slide show we offer our clients! Nothing better than having a custom slide show of their engagement pictures so they can sit back, relax and enjoy their images together. We’re so excited to be designing a custom engagement album for Marco and Julie as well!! We know we can create something amazing for them with all of the awesome pictures from their shoot. Thanks so much to Marco and Julie!! You guys were great and so open to our ideas… It really makes a huge difference when you’re up for anything!! Thanks guys!!!