Kristina & Liam || Wedding Postponement Session

As mentioned in my first post about these sessions - I came up with Wedding Postponement Sessions for my clients because we needed a few silver linings.

I thought that by visually marking the occasion of original wedding dates we’re acknowledging and celebrating the tough decisions that couples are making together. In my own personal experience, these types of moments in life are what create stronger bonds, give greater depth to our connections, and lead us to appreciate the joy and gratitude that arises.

Kristina & Liam were originally getting married this coming November of this year. Because we did a winter engagement session, I thought we could take advantage of my recent time in Ottawa (for a wedding) and the summer weather (given that they’re wedding is postponed to next November). We landed on Mont St-Marie, where Liam has a family cottage that they can escape to.

The pandemic, they told me, has not been easy for them. Adapting to work-at-home and isolation was already proving difficult, when Kristina’s grandfather went into the hospital unexpectedly. Sadly,

We weren't able to visit or speak to him until his final days, and on May 3 he passed. This was especially difficult for both of us - as he was the person that raised me, and who was going to walk me down the aisle, and who I had hoped to have my father-daughter dance with. After dealing with such a large loss already, the idea of having a wedding when the grief was still so fresh, and in needing to adjust our expectations for our perfect day (we don't think we'd be allowed to have any where near our guest count, for example), it didn't feel right to move forward with our date.

Postponing for them meant also delaying a celebration of the challenges they had gone through together. The good news is that these two adore each other and if anything, strengthened their love for each other.

Kristina says of Liam:

He's always so positive, about everything (a glass half-full kind of guy).

And when I asked Liam for one of the things he loved about Kristina, he laughed and said:

Everything

Instead of a celebrating with a wedding this year, Liam took to making a fire with a few firestarter cubes (because hasn’t this year been challenging enough??). There is such a marked difference in the summer heat wave when you drive up to the Gatineau Hills, a fire is welcome! I got to know these two even better over a lot of laughter and getting creative in creating photographs that acknowledge the time they had in the summer of the 2020 pandemic.

Mer Bleue Winter Engagement

One of the first things I noticed when I met Kristina and Liam was just how contagious their laughter is and how much they make each other laugh. This was a delightful engagement session where we finally got to meet and explore their story a little more just a couple days after Valentine’s Day and with a stroke of luck, missed out on the deep freeze normal to February. The other fun “news” of the weekend was their recent addition to their new home, Yogi Bear, who was immediately full of puppy greetings, love bites, and snuggles.

As a story-teller, I want to create a story of images that are meaningful to the couple. Liam’s passion is in woodworking, so incorporating some of his pieces (ever so subtly) into some of the photographs, along with their custom made engagement ring felt significant to me. Also, Kristina had shared that one of her favorite colors was pink, so I picked up some of my favorite ribbon made locally here in Montreal at Maison Note and gifted it to her to use in some way for her wedding.

We headed to the Mer Bleue Bog, the significance being that this was where Liam had proposed to Kristina (and funnily enough, I got to see that happen over IG because they had hired me for their wedding before they were officially engaged. I mean… these two make me laaaaaugh, they’re so fun and up for fun.)

So here you go, a winter engagement session in Ottawa at the Mer Bleue Bog. Really looking forward to photographing their wedding this November!

The Best of 2018

Three weeks into 2019 and I have wrapped up and finalized all the photographs I took over the last year. Looking back, I realize just how much was done, how much I traveled, how much my kids changed, and how much I learned throughout.

It is really hard to single out the “best” and in this case, I wanted the photographs to give some sense of chronology and story. There is a mix of photographs from our big family trip to Nicaragua, my girls roadtrip to a friend’s place in Martha’s Vineyard, a quick weekend getaway to Boston, family vacations, … to the weddings, engagements, portraits, and corporate events I shot for work. Throw a few small vacations in the mix, graduations, new schools, big birthdays, the Spartan Race, an ankle injury, kitchen dancing… and somewhere in there I managed to read 22 books. You guys! Reviews remind you of all that you have done.

This year is looking to be a remarkable one again, I kick off my wedding season officially at the start of May heading to the Mount Stephen Hotel in Montreal - leading up to this we’re taking on some massive renovations to our 100+ year old home here that we’ve lived in for a decade. It’s time. Travel-wise we’re trying to keep it minimal, but already we know we’ll be in Ireland for a wedding in June; plus I am crossing my fingers for a cultural dose of portrait gallery fangirling in Paris & London in the Fall. We’re planning our family holidays as I type and you see? Already it is Christmas.

The good news is that if you are looking for a wedding photographer for the summer, I do have some spots that remain open… the best thing to do is to fill out this form here.

Until then, enjoy the year in review :)