urban wedding

Sassafraz Yorkville Toronto Wedding

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Heather + Shay

It's not often that someone can steal the show from the bride at a wedding (and get away with it!) but when you're the couples adorable son... it's allowed.  Check out this great Toronto portrait family session we did this spring!

I love a restaurant wedding... there's something really nice about the the casual, laid back vibe it seems to automatically impart to a wedding.   Add into that a Jewish wedding ceremony (fast becoming my favourite kind of weddings!) and you have a recipe for an amazing day!

Heather and Shay spent the morning hanging out in their amazing suite at the Four Seasons in Toronto's Yorkville neighbourhood.   I love shooting in those suites as they provide a great backdrop for the getting ready pictures.  Plus I'm a sucker for luxury. :)   Shay and Heather were a little unconventional and spent the morning hanging out together which I have to say was a great idea...  I think it helps manage the nerves and excitement in the morning.

We snuck down to the a beautiful staircase in the lobby of the Four Seasons hotel for their first look and then toured around Yorkville grabbing some great wedding portraits.  We met up with all the family a little early at Sassafraz Restaurant before the wedding ceremony for some family pictures.

The Jewish wedding ceremony was great, officiated by one of my favourite Rabbi's with a great cocktail hour following. 

Dinner was a relaxed, low key affair with only a few speeches and lots of time for mingling and conversations.   Shay and Heather opened up the dance floor with their first dance and from there the dance floor was packed for the rest of the night thanks to Tiffany from Bounce Entertainment!

A big thanks to the team from Heidi Gruenspan for doing an amazing job planning this wedding!

 

Heirloom Wedding Photograph

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Danielle + Felipe   |   Fermenting Cellar 

Here is another wedding photograph from my ongoing series called Heirloom Photographs where I ask couples to choose their favourite wedding photograph and let us know why it's so important to them.  

This wedding photograph is from Dannielle + Felipe's amazing Toronto wedding at the Fermenting Cellar in the Distillery District.

Here it is in Danni's own words....

"Everyone tells you, leading up to your wedding day, to savour every moment because the day goes by so fast. I believed them, but couldn't believe how true that was until the day. This moment was captured by Scott as we were leaving the hotel and heading to the reveal location, probably the haziest moment of the day for me. There was so much adrenaline running through my body at this point - anticipating seeing the man I was going to be calling my husband later that day for the first time. As much as I was trying to savour this moment, the final minutes with my most loving and supportive girl gang before being in the arms of my best friend, I can honestly say I don't remember a lot of it. I was so awestruck when I saw this image of my Mom and I, truly happy, just staring into each other's eyes. This picture completely encapsulates our relationship. Besides my husband, my Mom is my best friend, and in this photograph you can really see the love and bond we share. I will cherish this image for the rest of my life and I thank Scott for capturing so many moments like these that say so much in one single frame." 

Malaparte Toronto Wedding

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Christina + Tim

Christiana + Tim had such an amazing wedding at Oliver & Bonicini's Malaparte on King Street West in Toronto.

Of course, the wedding might not have been quite so amazing if all the rain we got in the morning hadn't stopped by the afternoon.

Christina had one of the most beautiful and unique weddings dresses I've ever seen even after over 300 weddings.  She got the wedding dress from an amazing store called Lovers Land out on Ossington.   The look on Tim's face when he saw it for the first time during their pre wedding reveal was great.  

Right after the reveal was a touching Ukrainian tradition where Christina's mom blessed the couple before we headed off to the church.... but not before we managed to sneak in some pictures with their three beloved dogs!

The ceremony was held at the absolutely stunning Ukranian church of St Mary's in downtown Toronto.   Lots of different things going on in a Ukrainian wedding ceremony... the priest meets them half way up the aisle, crowns are worn and exchanged and the circle the alter several times.  The little ring bearer was an absolute dead ringer for one of my sons (but much better behaved through a long wedding ceremony than one of my kids ever would be!).  

Christina + Tim each wrote their own vows and after Christina read her amazing and heartfelt vows to Tim I think everyone was holding their breath to hear what Tim had written... and he hit it out of the ballpark!  His vows were amazing.... not going to lie, I wasn't sure he had it in him.  :)

We headed down to Osgood Hall and the King West area for some pictures and then headed up to Malaparte on the 6th floor of the Bell TIFF Lightbox.

The reception featured three performances by a troop of traditional Ukrainian dancers from Arkan Dance Studio in full costume to entertain the guests in between courses.

Angela from Maven Weddings & Events did such an amazing job co-ordinating the entire wedding day but without a doubt the highlight of the night was Christina + Tim's candle lit first dance.

A huge thanks to my second photographer Nick from Artanis Collective for doing such an amazing job covering the groomsmen in the morning and the wedding details at Malaparte.

You can see some of my favourite wedding photographs from their Malaparte wedding in the gallery above as well as their full wedding slideshow below!


If you have the password for their full wedding gallery, you can access the gallery here.

WEDDING PLANNER   |  MAVEN WEDDINGS AND EVENTS

WEDDING DJ  |  SOUND OBSESSIONS

WEDDING VENUE  |  MALAPARTE

WEDDING DRESS  |  LOVERSLAND

WEDDING DECOR  |  SUSAN MURRAY INTERNATIONAL

WEDDING FLORALS  |  CARISMA FLORISTS

WEDDING DANCERS  |  ARKAN DANCE COMPANY

Art Gallery of Ontario Wedding

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Najwa + Trevin

Najwa and Trevin had an amazing wedding at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto!

These two had a real sense of style and an individual look that I really liked!  Those shoes by Valentino were something else!  Trevin's blue shoes were great too!


I spent the morning going back and forth between the girls and guys but if you ever get a chance to get ready for your wedding in a suite at the Four Seasons I highly recommend it.  :)  The rooms are simply stunning... full of light and lots of room to shoot. 

Trevin and his boys (and one girl!) got ready over in his suite at the Park Hyatt in Yorkville.  The first thing anyone would notice meeting Trevin is his amazing, infectious laugh... I don't think I've ever had a wedding where I've had so many pictures of the groom laughing!   Once Trevin's crew were ready, his family joined them for a traditional pre-wedding blessing before heading off to the church for the ceremony.


The day threatened (and did) rain all morning but thankfully it ended by the time we needed to head off to the ceremony at St Basil's Catholic Parish.   Being a Saturday in the summer in Toronto, there was some sort of parade/festival/gong show going down Bloor so we all had to abandon our taxi's and Uber's and hustle down on foot!

The ceremony at St. Basils was great, it's always nice when churches don't have too many rules about photography.  I'm always discete and respectful when I photograph wedding ceremonies but I'm also trying to get my clients the best pictures possible!

One of the best parts about having your wedding at the Art Gallery of Ontario is that you get to access to their beautiful galleries for wedding pictures! 

Cocktails were held in the Galleria Italia and the reception was upstairs in Bailey Court with an amazing view of the Toronto Skyline. 

The details at the reception were great, Coriander Girl did an amazing job with the florals!

Danielle and her team from Love by Lynzie did an amazing job planning and coordinating the wedding... everything looked amazing and went off without a hitch!

The reception was great with DJ Dopey & DJ Serious spinning some great music.  Of course the highlight  of the reception was when it was announced that Trevin and some of his buddies were semi pro breakdancers and proceeded to put on an amazing show for everyone.

You can see some of my favourite wedding images in the gallery above as well as their full wedding slideshow below!

You can also follow this link to check out Najwa + Trevin's Stratford Ontario engagement pictures!
 

Toronto Wedding Photography | 99 Sudbury

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Evelyn + Wayne

 

Evelyn + Wayne had an amazing fall wedding at 99 Sudbury, which is a really cool, open concept wedding venue in downtown Toronto.  
 
A huge thank you to Ben Benvie for doing an amazing job second shooting that day!
 
Evelyn & Wayne are both chefs who moved from BC to Toronto two months before their wedding to begin working on opening their first restaurant... talk about busy.  They had an amazing group of friends and family from all over... Hong Kong, California, Seattle.
 
Of course with these two being chefs the food that night was amazing but the real showstopper was the cake.  Hands down the coolest  wedding cake I've ever seen.  It designed as a stack of their favourite cookbooks but the covers and images were all photos on the icing or edible paper or something.   Either way, it was cool.


Check out their slideshow below and hit this link to see some of their Toronto engagement pictures at the Distillery District.