Archive for May, 2010

Art Gallery of Alberta

May 31, 2010

Before I post Laura & Joe’s wedding (on the way soon!) I wanted to devote a quick post to the new Art Gallery of Alberta.  We visited after it opened, and on the first visit we decided to get a family membership.  We were so impressed by the unique architecture of the building, and the quality of exhibits that we knew we’d be back.  As an added bonus, the Art Gallery is available for weddings, and I would suggest brides consider the AGA as an option for indoor photography as a back-up if it’s raining, or a gorgeous building for urban photography.  We had the opportunity to work there for Laura & Joe’s wedding and we can’t wait to go back.

Andrew really enjoyed the children’s area.

You might recognize Poonam & Deepak from Deepak’s scavenger hunt proposal last year. This year they celebrate their engagement party, and their wedding will be next year! After knowing them for so long we’re becoming fast friends.

We had a chance to do some photos with the couple before the party in the Terwillegar neighbourhood.

Our awesome assistant Christy did photos of Deepak getting ready – I love this very dapper image she got of Deepak.

The party was held at the Palace.

Poonam & Deepak enjoyed a performance before the dance got underway.

The dance was awesome! I’ll let these speak for themselves.

There was a fomous person at the party.  Actor Amit Tandon appeared on the first season of Indian Idol, and currently plays Dr. Abhimanyu Modi on the teen romantic comedy T.V. show Dill Mill Gayye.

Holding the microphone is Deepak’s good friend Nitin – we’re going to be shooting his wedding in Vancouver and Edmonton this year.

We can’t wait for your 2011 wedding!

Last night we hosted a party for friends, family, colleagues and neighbours at our newly opened home studio in Terwillegar Gardens. We’ve been in the neighbourhood for a year and a half, and absolutely love it. Over the past few months we’ve transformed our basement into a portrait studio/office and it’s finally finished! We’ve posted a few images of the construction and now here is the finished studio.

(Note – the yellow hose is for a fireplace – coming soon!)

This is our new office space, it’s been great working down here.

And…here we are all set up for the party!  We had over 120 guests attend and it was so great to see everyone networking.

All of our decor was from Special Event Rentals, and I’d like to personally thank Kristina for helping me style the event and design these awesome centerpieces.

Ken & Ailynn of Whimsical Cake Studio designed us a delicious sweets buffet, complete with a custom Shandro Photo cake, and cookies for every guest!  These two have a beautiful shop in Garneau, and do incredible custom work.  They are available for weddings and other functions…or if you just need a quick cupcake fix!

These beautiful place cards were designed by Pink Polka Design.

We wouldn’t have been able to accomplish any of this without our families.  We are so lucky to live close to our parents on both sides, and to Michael’s sisters.  Everyone has helped out by watching Andrew, giving advice and support, and helping set up yesterday.  We appreciate everyone’s help!

I am so unbelievably proud of Michael. Just after we got back from Stephanie & Branden’s wedding, he received notification that he had won Best in Class for the Photojournalist Wedding category of the National convention of the Professional Photographers of Canada! Whew, that’s a mouthful, so I’ll sum it up by saying that he is awesome, award-winning and now nationally recognized. As anyone in the PPOC knows, it’s not an easy feat to get to that level.

Here is Michael’s award-winning image.  This was taken during the Doli ceremony, which is a very emotional ceremony during East Indian weddings.  This is when the bride leaves her parent’s house for the last time and goes with her new husband to become a part of his family.  The image is entitled: Letting Go.

Stephanie & Branden are more than high school sweethearts – they were junior high sweethearts! This adorable couple knew from the beginning that they were meant to be together, and that they wanted to celebrate with family and friends on an exciting vacation to Mexico. We had such an amazing time celebrating with them.

The beautiful ceremony was at the Grand Sunset Princess in the Mayan Riviera, just outside of Playa del Carmen.

Their wedding party was all mutual childhood friends.

This little guy wanted to jump in the middle of our shoot.

A couple of days after the ceremony, Steph & Branden joined us back at the resort for a romantic, and very hot, sunset session. We were honoured for them to have chosen us to be in the wedding and wanted to something extra special for them.

Congratulations Stephanie & Branden!

It’s just over a week until Amanda & Foster’s wedding! For any of the grooms out there who are not quite as excited about engagement photos as your brides, it’s OK. I’m pretty sure Foster wanted to do the engagement session to make Amanda happy, and there’s nothing wrong with that. He was great to work with during the shoot, and I’m proud to say that at the end of the session he said that he’d had fun, and was really happy with the photos. That’s our job as photographers – to make you forget you’re getting your picture taken, and just have a fun time together.

Another reason we’re excited for this wedding – we get to work with the fabulous Maria from Flawless Couture Event Planning. We met Maria a couple of years ago and have been waiting so long to work together.  We know it’s going to be a fantastic wedding.

So you might notice that it’s been a bit quiet on the blog lately. If you think that means we’ve been super busy, you’re right! In the past little while we’ve moved into our new studio, jetted to Mexico for a fabulous destination wedding, built a playyard in our backyard for Andrew, and had tons of photo shoots. All of this is coming your way soon, and I’ll leave you with a peek at Stephanie & Branden’s Mayan Riviera wedding – much more is on the way soon, I promise!

Edmonton destination wedding photographers

Casey and I are related in a round-about way. He is my dad’s nephew’s son so I’m not really sure what that makes us… In any case, he and his family have been really good to my family, and I was delighted that we were able to do some family/graduation photos for him this spring.