A Civil Ceremony in Classic Black & White - Part II - Fannie & Deep

It’s interesting to me as I work away on Fannie & Deep’s three day wedding - the contrast of going to something so rich in color at the Mehndi Ceremony (see that post here) to the second day of their wedding: the civil ceremony, only this time in classic black & white set in an industrial loft up in the Mile End of Montreal.

What I love here is the simplicity of the black and white against the white brick and studio white backgrounds of L’Eloi; the light filtering in through the windows created interesting shapes, leaving the emotions more vulnerable and raw without all the details to distract us.

I also thought it was kind of interesting how the space mirrored the loft space we used for their engagement shoot — something I only recognized when I was editing these photos.

We were graced with a beautiful set of days, without rain and stunning sunsets. For this sunset, Fannie and Deep had changed into their second outfit for the evening — more of the traditional Indian with beautiful pale blue, green and gold tones that glittered in the last light we had on the rooftop. Some of my favorite images from all the weddings I have shot are found in here.

Stay tuned for Day Three - we go right back to color and more color.

WEDDING DRESS Boutique 1861 DRESS II Lashkaraa VENUE Productions L’Eloi TUXEDO Herringbone & Sui SUITING Anita Dongre CATERING Gujarati Foods HAIR Elodie Bancel at O Salon HENNA Shaista Jalal FLOWERS Marie Vermette Fleuriste RINGS Ashok Jewelers ASSOCIATE PHOTOGRAPHER Cody Langshaw

A Colorful Wedding Kick-off at Restaurant Bollywood - PART I - The Mehndi Ceremony

Last year I invited Fannie to the Elegant Wedding Bridal Showcase (ps. it is coming up again soon in November) and when she swung by my booth later with Deep she was elated to have found a Montreal-based Mehndi Artist, Shaista Jalal.

And so almost a year later, I drove up to Restaurant Bollywood for my first ever Mehndi event and was elated with the jewel-toned blue, yellow and magenta walls inside the space. While I did not stay for the whole evening I definitely think that I was able to capture the really relaxed and joyful feeling of the evening — give me a committed color palette anytime. For what it’s worth, I thought this was a great way for a bride to kick off a three-day wedding with something that felt special, with best friends and family there in colorful support, ready to get the henna patterns to adorn their hands and accompany their outfits in the coming days.

After staying for the appetizers, I was saying to Dave (my husband) that we’ll have to go back for a meal… because yum.

BRIDE’S SARI MEHNDI ARTIST Shaista Jalal VENUE & CATERING Restaurant Bollywood ASSOCIATE PHOTOGRAPHER Cody Langshaw

Alice in Blush Collaboration

May was quite the month and trust that in earlier versions of this blog post, I went on about it. But in short, it was busy on the work side of the balance coin, and busy on the life side of the coin as we tried to finish up our renovations and move back into our home.

Of the work side my hope to collaborate with Lisa Abi Chedid — local Montreal wedding dress designer of Alice in Blush — happened after our initial coffee in her studio at the start of last winter. We bit the bullet after a series of opportunities presented themselves and our little crew squeezed into my bedroom while the renovations continued downstairs.

This was an opportunity for us to play, to create something not so typically bridal. We used three different outfits from Alice in Blush: the first being more on the bridal side and then having some fun with allll the tulle in classic pink and in layers of violet, fuschia and black.

Some of my favorite photographers are fashion photographers and the common theme they hold is how they create shape in their images. Yes, light is at play. So is color. But ultimately they’ve managed to find movement and almost create something sculptural as well. This is something I wanted to explore.

The best part of the day was just getting to know these women, all so passionate about their respective life path’s, and the bonding that occurred in our conversations about working in weddings and for ourselves. The consensus we reached was that social media can be used for good: collaboration and community. Anything else that leaves you feeling the FOMO or lesser than should be kicked curbside.

Here are some of my favorites from the day!

Dresses: Alice in Blush

Model: Alice Anne

Makeup: Makeup by MaryK

Thank you to these hard-working women for this fun collaboration!