A bright sunny day in the country, a lovely flower garden, an awesome old-school cabin, a wedding party full of personality, and a beautiful wedding surrounded by many of our own good friends… it was simply a joy shooting Ali & Steve’s wedding. Congratulations you two!  Wishing you all the best in your new life together. Here’s just a small sample of the many great moments and expressions at your wedding.

–

Big. Blue. Sky. It was hard not to be enamored with it at Christina and Luke’s wedding.  Not a cloud in sight on this bright, blustery fall day and the landscape that we had to work with was fabulous – fields all around, ceremony on the beach, a bridge across the lake, and a great big hill with crosses at the top.  I’d never been out to the Winkler Bible Camp before, but I was like a kid in a candy store with all the light and the scenery.  Best of all, Luke and Christina were just so excited to be together that it made for tons of great photo ops of the two of them.  Some faves from the session:

–

Morning light can be fantastic for picture-taking, but with the way most wedding ceremonies and receptions are scheduled, it’s not all that often that I get to take advantage of it.  On this particular sunny Sunday, however, Christel and Tony met me early at the Legislative grounds and we got to play with the fantastic light and deep, deep blue sky of the morning. It’s also uncommon to start the day off with the couple to myself, so I really enjoyed the opportunity to focus on the couple before all the frenzy of the day had kicked in.

Once it did kick in, though, we sure covered a lot of ground!  The wedding party joined us at Level 3 studios where we shifted gears into studio mode, but we soon wandered back outside for pictures in the Exchange.  We made our way to St-Vital Park for photos with Tony’s family, and finally ended up in Niverville for photos with Christel’s family and, ultimately, the ceremony and reception.

As during their engagement portraits, Christel and Tony were so easy to work with.  Always joking and enjoying each other’s company, their smiles were never far from their faces.  Extremely avid texters, there was no question of incorporating that into a shot or two.  An all around beautiful wedding day with lots and lots of fun pictures to boot.  Congrats to the newly wed couple!  Some faves from the day:

–

The wedding of Nunziata and Chris will be another Italian wedding of which I will have very fond memories.   They were surrounded all day long by tons of warm and supporting family members and friends, which makes it so easy to capture great, natural shots of people interacting with each other.   The meal at the reception was also one to remember, although I unfortunately didn’t pace myself well enough to save room for dessert.  Despite the lack of snow on the ground as Nunziata had hoped, the wedding still definitely had a wintery and festive feel to it and we were still able to get lots of great shots at the Millennium Centre and the Legislative Building.  My congratulations to the couple, and now a sneak peek into the wedding:

One of the great things about being a wedding photographer is when you have the opportunity to document really great friendships.  Krista is part of a group of girls who grew up in Souris and shared the common bond of figure skating together.  I’ve had the privilege of photographing four of the girls’ weddings now, and it’s always a pleasure to work with them all again and see how they’ve remained close over the years.

The last time I shot in Souris was in the winter (for one of the bridesmaids’ weddings), so I was interested to see what it was like in the autumn.  Or what I thought would be autumn – the weather did its best impersonation of winter that day with blowing snow.  To the wedding party’s credit, they all trooped out without a complaint for a shoot in and around Souris.  The bridesmaids toughed it out in their sleeveless dresses, running in and out of the cars between shots to stay warm.  Derek and the boys had it easier in their tuxes, but to Derek’s credit, he kept on trucking long after many an other groom would have packed it in.  It was great working with Derek and Krista who seemed to just enjoy the whole experience – smiling and laughing all day long.

One of my favorite moments at the reception was when Krista’s father, who had just turned 80, played Krista & Derek’s first song on his saxophone.  Another notable moment came later in the evening when two members of Krista’s family pulled off one of the greatest performances/strip-shows I’ve ever witnessed at a wedding.  Definitely a memorable reception, and all-in-all a really wonderful day.  A sneak peek into the wedding: