Revival House Wedding in Stratford Ontario - Amy and Paul

Amy and Paul get married on Amy's homestead property near Stratford, and host a glamorous reception at Revival House // BC Wedding Photographers in Ontario

A few weeks ago we got the opportunity to head back to Ontario to photograph Sayde's cousin, Amy, marry her fiance, Paul.  Photographing family and friends is always a special treat for us, and this one was extra special since we got to spend some quality time with Sayde's mom, Melanie, decorating the ceremony site where Amy and Paul would be married.  With an added touch of personal meaning, Amy and Paul married on the front yard of Amy's childhood home where her and her siblings were raised.  In addition to becoming a great venue location, we thought this was a wonderful sentiment for a wedding day.  This happened to be right next door (in country terms haha), to where Sayde and her own siblings were raised, so brought back lots of great memories!  

After weeks of rain leading up the wedding, the sun was shining brightly as we started Saturday with Amy, who was effortlessly and beautifully styling her hair and makeup for the day.  The three of us met with Paul in Stratford at the Shakespearean Gardens for them to have a private first look together.  

As friends gathered at the ceremony, it was clear that some were seeing each other again for the first time in a little while, and had come from all over to be at Amy and Paul's wedding: everyone was full of happy greetings, group hugs, and big laughs as many of them played catch up.  With their siblings as their wedding party, Amy and Paul exchanged vows in the glowing sun, in a ceremony lead by Pastor Will Kraemer, who has been Pastor since we were all wee kids, and has performed most, if not all, of the wedding ceremonies for this generation of our family.  Afterward, Amy and Paul made their way to Revival House with all their guests for drinks, dinner and dancing.  Revival House is unlike any wedding or reception venue we've ever photographed, and was decorated so glamorously Design's by Cate that we just could not stop clicking away that night. The energy was contagious as everyone hit the dancefloor to celebrate, mingle amongst the tables, and went ga-ga as Ken's French Fries truck, a Stratford Staple, pulled up later in the night to hand delivery some delicious, salty-vinegary goodness.

Thank you Amy and Paul for inviting us to be part of your big day, it means so much when friends and family want us to be the ones to capture it all.  You both looked absolutely stunning and your never-fading smiles made it clear how much you both burst with love for each other.  We hope you love the photos, and that you had the best day ever!

Tips for Looking and Feeling Awesome in Your Engagement Photos

Some great suggestions on how to look and feel amazing during your engagement photos, from Victoria Wedding Photography team, Pebble and Pine Photography.

Let's start with why we love engagement sessions so much!  We get asked a lot by couples if engagement sessions are a totally necessary part of getting married.  The truth is, they aren't.  You can get married without having engagement sessions and your marriage is still just as legal, haha.  However,  we've found that engagement sessions are so valuable because they are a great way for us to get to know our couples a bit more before the wedding.  It helps us to see how you interact with each other, get to know your dynamic as a couple, and how we can best make you feeling comfortable and confident in front of the lens so the wedding day is effortless and has a smooth natural flow to it.  It's also incredibly helpful and fun for our couples who are preparing for the big day.  It shows you how we work as a photography duo, how you feel being photographed, and help you to get more comfortable in front of our lenses, so that you have less to feel nervous about when your wedding day comes. 

 In our experience of photographing weddings, we've found that many of the couples we work with have not had professional photos done together before working with us.  They often have questions about how they can best prepare for the engagement session, so we've put together a handy little tips list.  That way, you can put your nerves at ease, and feel excited!

First and most importantly to remember; this is not a do-or-die list.  As with all advice, follow it to the degree that you're comfortable with, and that feels right for you!

Ability to move freely. 
Because we’ll be walking around, and getting the two of you interacting with each other, the ability to move around with ease is the best way to feel natural in front of the camera.  You want to make sure that you can wrap your arms around each other comfortably, and also be able to walk and sit down without worrying what your clothes are doing, or feeling restricted by them. We also love taking candid photos of you guys just spending time together, so the less you carry with you (purses, backpacks, etc), the more spontaneous the photos can be.  Some couples like to make sure they can keep their phones close by, or like to bring a small makeup/lip touch-up kit along which is totally fine. In those instances, we will usually just carry those things for you in our camera bags until you need them, so they don’t show through your pockets and clothes.

Wear the clothes, and do the hair and makeup style that make you feel like the most confident, comfortable, and vibrant version of yourself.
Keep in mind that when you look at your photos later, we want you to feel like your photos are a reflection of your true self, not a costumey version of yourself.
Our best advice is to not wear clothes, or get hair and makeup done to an extreme or style that feels unnatural or uncharacteristic of you. The best way to look good on camera is to feel like yourself! 
Brides who are planning to have hair and makeup done at the wedding often opt to have some hair and makeup for the engagement session, to see how it feels to be photographed with it done.  Typically it’s slightly more toned-down, and less formal than it would be on the wedding day.  The best way to look good on camera is to feel like yourself! 

Decide on a location you love and feel comfortable in.
We encourage couples to choose a place of significance to them, and a place they feel comfortable in.  We love engagement sessions to tell some kind of story and have a flow to them, so that you don’t feel like you're just standing in front of the camera posing the whole time. If you're in a place you love and are excited about, you'll feel more at ease in front of the camera.  This way we can get you interacting with each other to really capture your personalities, and your dynamic together.  A lot of couples choose walks on the beach or the woods in areas they like, or decide they want to have a date night, like a wine-and-sunset picnic somewhere.  Other couples choose to have their photos taken doing a hobby they enjoy doing.  We like to chat with our couples about ideas that work best to reflect their life together.

Match your engagement style vibe to the atmosphere and style you’ve planned your wedding. 
Weddings nowadays have become less of a traditional mould, and more of an expression of your relationship.  Chances are, you’ve planned your wedding to reflect your personalities, your style and taste, and of course your eccentricities.  We recommend matching your engagement style to fit amongst the same general style of your wedding, and your own personal style.  Some couples consider themselves more outdoorsy and adventurous. Some couples vibe with boho, whereas others are more modern and edgy, etc.  So to avoid feeling uncomfortable or inauthentic to yourself, we usually recommend couples dress in what Matt refers to as, “casual plus, or better".  It's a spruced up version of your own real, personal style.  For example, a couple we shot last year, during a beach sunset, described their outfit choice this way, “we chose outfits to that we would wear to a beachfront patio, on a night out for dinner and drinks with good friends we hadn’t seen for a long time.”   

Complement each other’s style. 
This is not a suggestion to wear a matchy-matchy couples onesie outfit, though that would be hilarious. We do, however, recommend your clothes complement each other’s style and scale of formality. We’ve found most couples have a similar style anyways, but we just throw this in as a tip.  For example, if one of you is in a suit jacket, the other might not want to wear those oh-so-cozy LuLus and gym top.  Or, if one is in a brightly coloured, patterned summer dress, the other probably wouldn’t be rocking the Johnny Cash all-black-from-head-to-toe look.  You're both individuals, but these photos show how you complement each other as two equal parts of a whole.

Play off the season and location.  
This all goes with the goal of feeling comfortable and natural in your surroundings. We want you to dress and feel awesome for the weather, and location you're in.  Heels aren't always the best shoe choice for snowy mountains or sandy beaches. If you're planning to rock a strapless dress at the top of Cypress in the winter, bring along a cute jacket to wear.  If you're planning a romantic summer sunset on a hot beach, leave that parka at home and wear layers instead. 

I know, I know! This isn't one of Andrea and Eddie's engagement photos. But we love their use of vibrant colour and eccentric prints to show their personal style. Don't be afraid to be bold, friends!

Don't shy away from bright colours or prints, but avoid fluorescent neon materials. 
Bold prints and vibrant colours can be a great way to show your personal style, but be weary of fluorescent and neon.  Think Olivia Newton John in her 80’s aerobic leotards.  While these types of colours are mostly seen in workout and road-worker attire to promote visibility and road safety, they have started to pop up in regular style as well for a visual punch.  Great in real life, but these fluorescent and neon colours are so reflective that they’ll reflect their own colour onto your skin in photographs.  If these colours are on the front of your shirt, they will often cast their colour up onto your face and your partner’s, even on a cloudy day. (We’ll have a photo in the blog to show an example of this effect.)

A good night sleep, proper meals, and lots of water! 
This is just a general rule for day to day life, but it applies to the day of your photoshoot as well.  If you’re nervous the night before, try to hit the hay early to make sure you’re not tired the evening of your session. If you’re busy with hair and makeup on the day of, make sure to allot time for food and water through the day of your the photo session.  It’s the best way to look vibrant, feel refreshed, and stay excited through your photos together. Plus, as we all know, it’s hard to smile and feel lovey when we’re hangry. 

These are some of our prep / attire tips. But again, only follow these to the degree that you’re comfortable with, and don’t feel restricted by.  We usually spend a few minutes at the start of each photo shoot to let you guys know what expect so that you know how to interact with each other and the camera during the photoshoot. We’ll shake out all those nervous, awkward feelings at the start so you guys can feel awesome in the photos! 

Feel free to check out some other blogs here:

Whistler Engagement Session - Kerri and Nik at Green Lake

Kerri and Nik's Wintery Engagement Session at Green Lake in Whistler // Victoria Wedding Photographers

It was a bright and sunny day.  Snow seemed to glow from the tops of Whistler’s Backcomb range, birds sang and darted about through crisp air, cedars towered at the edges of the ice-coated lake, couples smiled at each other as they walked hand in hand, and the magical sounds of Notorious B.I.G echoed out into the world from Nik’s Spotify playlist.  The tone was set for his and Kerri’s engagement session.

With a mid-summer wedding on the calendar, Kerri and Nik were keen to do their engagement photos during winter.  What better place than in Whistler to capture a snowy themed story.  We met on the edge of a lake in Whistler, surrounded by mountainous views, and walkable trails.  When Nik and Kerri first stepped out of their car, they pulled with them a bag full of HBC everything. Hats, mitts, they mentioned they also had scarves, but most wonderful of all was a very delicately folded, vintage Hudson Bay wool blanket.  Nik told us that this blanket meant so much to them; it is one of the very first purchases his grandmother made when she immigrated to Canada.  

We knew right away that our session with Kerri was going to be a delightful dichotomy of sentimentality and hilarity.  We were not disappointed.  We explored the edges of the lake together, taking equal break time to cuddle under their blanket, tumble around in the snow, enjoy a snowball battle, and of course, bust into song and dance when the best songs showed up on their aptly named, Engagement Session Playlist.  

Thanks Kerri and Nik for the laughs, and the stories. We can’t wait for the wedding!

Thank you for stopping by to check out our wedding photography. If you'd like to know more about our lives as Pebble and Pine Photography, Creative Victoria and Vancouver Island Wedding Photographers, you can read About Us

Centennial Beach Engagement Session - Bernice and Phil

Bernice and Phil Get Silly at Centennial Beach in Richmond During Their Engagement Session //  Vancouver Wedding Photographers

We've been waiting eagerly for Bernice and Phil's engagement session and their upcoming wedding for some time now!  They're quirky, animated, and so fun to be around. Their smiles and laughter are contagious.  We were so excited to come to Richmond from Victoria to photograph them!

We met up with Bernice and Phil around Centennial Beach in Richmond for their engagement session.  It was windy and cool that day, so we opted to start our session in a more sheltered area, amongst some gorgeously coloured autumn trees.  After a bit of walk through the trails, we made our way to the beach to play on the logs and race down the shore.

Phil and Bernice enjoy cosplay, and it only seemed right to pull out their homemade, expressive BomberMan heads to have some fun! We were so impressed with the way Phil and Bernice embrace doing things their way - from the custom engagement ring, their enthusiasm for cosplay, and the unique details they are putting into their wedding.  We're so looking forward to their December wedding!

Thanks for all the laughs, Bernice and Phil! We hope you love the photos as much as we do.

Thank you for stopping by to check out our wedding photography. If you'd like to know more about our lives in BC, or as Pebble and Pine Photography, Creative and Modern Victoria and Vancouver Island wedding photographers, you can read About Us

Furry Creek Wedding - Kim and Kyl

Kim and Kyl Get Married in the Rain at Furry Creek Near Squamish // BC Wedding Photographers

When you live on Vancouver Island, and anywhere along the coasts of BC, much of your life is impacted by the ocean, the forests, the mountains.  It goes without saying that west coast couples love to incorporate those elements into one of the most special days in their life.  Kim and Kyl were definitely one of those couples, and found a venue that emulated all aspects.  Furry Creek Golf Course is perched on the side of a forest covered mountain, and its reach stretches all the way down to the waters of Howe Sound.  We couldn't wait to spend the day with Kim and Kyl, their guests, to watch as they exchange their vows, and explore the golf course!

On any given saturday Furry Creek would be packed with enthusiastic golfers, but as luck would have it, those famous west coast rains kept the golfers away.  Kim, Kyl and their guests had the entire venue to themselves, giving their wedding an exclusively intimate feeling.

A very special thanks to Kim and Kyl for trekking around the whole golf course, in the rain, the get all the great portraits that day! We hope you love the photos! 

Thank you for stopping by to check out our wedding photography. If you'd like to know more about our lives in BC, or as Pebble and Pine Photography, Creative and Modern Victoria and Vancouver Island wedding photographers, you can read About Us