I am moving boxes to my new apartment but have left the computer on in order to get this post up before the great unplugging. Shannon and Robert came to the bachelor pad (studio) last year straight from their law offices, dressed impeccably, scaring me soundly. They were obviously both sensitive and considerate people, but having two handsome lawyers in their suits show up and sit facing my IKEA loft bed was so much of a juxtaposition for me that I actually ditched my usual Capers au naturel deodorant and went on a special shopping trip for conventional anti-perspirant just for their wedding. I have never done this in my life because I come from a very cancer-prone family, and when you have a family like mine, you just get uptight about things like conventional deodorant, breathing fresh varnish fumes, putting hot food in plastic containers and the like. In any event, I remember thinking it far better to risk one’s health than possibly make a bad impression on the wedding day. I’m happy to report that Shannon and Rob were hardly the kind of people to spend their wedding day doing anything but enjoying each other, their family and friends. What’s more, they made sure that I had eaten all my courses, and there is a special place in my heart for people who take concern with whether or not I have eaten.

Photos began at the Sutton Place Hotel with Shannon getting ready with her girls, but we soon set out, just Shannon and I, to meet up with Robert. It was fun walking around downtown with a beautiful bride on her own because I got a sense of what it would be like to be an elegant and glamorous woman on her wedding day, since I was following close behind. Many turned their heads to pay compliments as we crossed Burrard St. The couple met that day on a nicely deserted overpass by the Law Courts, and we did their portraits in the vicinity before meeting up with the bridal party. We shot very briefly in the Marine Building, but were kicked out. It was at this time, however, that I began to perceive Shannon and Rob’s legal status as a protective power.

The ceremony will always stand out in my mind as a reminder of how powerful vows can be if they are personal, thoughtful and articulate. I have been to a lot of weddings where couples are rather passively married, and it can be fine depending on the officiant. That kind of ceremony runs the risk, however, of feeling less significant than other parts of the day, less charged than the speeches at the reception for example, when the couple and their families have the opportunity to express themselves. So the long and short of this is that I am so glad that I was able to hear and capture some of the feeling which transpired during their vows, and that they made those short moments the heart of the day.

Now for the intertextual commentary:

I think I like this picture because it’s a detail shot in action. Sometimes I tire of accessories preciously arranged to be photographed. (Sometimes it works, don’t get me wrong.)

I felt like I was staff of a celebrity crossing Burrard St. Loved it!

I like the fellow getting ready to take off on his bike on the right side.

Just before security came to secure the building from our presence.

Shannon, I hope you don’t mind that I post this… it’s just so darn cute!

I looked long and hard for an alley or two which didn’t smell like pee.

The ceremony took place in the main ballroom of the Sutton Place Hotel. I really enjoyed revisiting some of the facial expressions from the ceremony.

Listening to Robert’s sister’s speech.

Now to finish the slideshow and get back to moving. Bye for now.

I begin this post with a picture of Ligu, Millie’s dog, since he played an instrumental part in their union. While working in Seattle, David took notice of a beautiful woman at his bus stop. He could do nothing about it until one day, happily, the woman appeared at the bus stop with a little white dog in tow. David, having dog sat for friends, felt qualified to approach the woman through her beloved beast. He actually recounts the story with his own musical composition and animation in the intro to their wedding website.

One of the first things Millie and David told me about their wedding was that it was important that the day be captured spontaneously and that there would be no time for a portrait session. Of course I am used to shooting ‘PJ’ (short for the fairly overused ‘photojournalistic’ in the biz) but I wasn’t convinced that they knew what they were doing not scheduling time for a portrait session. That was until I saw the massive book of portraits on display at their reception at the UBC Boathouse. In Asia it is common for couples to have wedding photos taken before the wedding… lots of them… think two or three days, a dozen outfits, makeup/hair changes throughout those days. It’s really quite impressive, but I could imagine that they were tired of posing—and although I would approach the portrait session quite differently, it was lovely to spend the whole day PJ too. There were, after all, two tea ceremonies, three outfits, dance and musical numbers, and strange door games. I’ll explain with a little intertextual commentary:

Bridesmaids defending the door.

Once David was inside, he and his men had several more mildly humiliating tasks to perform. One involved jelly beans and whipped cream which is too unsavoury for this blog. This one I thought was quite clever. Blindfolded groomsmen had to lipstick him so he could add his ‘O’ shaped lip marks to complete a double happiness sign. Good, eh?

Tea ceremony at the bride’s home.

After the tea ceremony with the groom’s family, David’s father expresses his best wishes.

Bling tweaking.

Millie gets into her white dress for the ceremony out on the dock, which is a big slab of concrete almost flush with the river. River water comes over the side at times.

The UBC Boathouse was decked out in pink and white outside and in.

Although Ligu was not able to attend the reception, his presence was felt.

Millie enjoys a serenade.

It looks like next August is going to be as full as this one was! It is now fully booked. This has been a packed month indeed, with maternity and engagement shoots, a real live birth that I got to photograph (!!!) several wonderful weddings, including my friends Amish and Natisha’s Hindu celebration which took the better part of a week! It was an excellent wedding with which to end the season, despite my falling in a ditch and scraping myself up on the last day of it. This month I even got to experiment with setting up a photobooth of sorts at a couple of receptions, and I look forward to showing some of the amusing degeneracy which these humble constructions provoked. Before that, however, I have a few finished weddings waiting to be blogged and a move down the hall to pack for. As of September I will have twice the space, with a devoted shooting/studio room which I’m very much looking forward to. Unfortunately I won’t be able to take on even small studio shoots till at least November since I have so much post-production to catch up on and October is full of family weddings and travel. I will be blogging very regularly in the mean time. Below is a portrait of my lovely neighbour not long before giving birth, just cooling off at third beach. I’m grateful to her for braving the waters since it was the only real time I got this summer to enjoy the beach.

I have had this blog posting ready to go for the last three days, but I have been too worried that my writing won’t do any justice to the event or the excellent people involved, and so I have delayed. This is still the case, but the photos must come forth. When Lisa and Jesse first came over to meet me, I was very intimidated by their smarts, their looks and their kindness. I thought ‘what are these people doing in my bachelor pad sitting on my little IKEA couch practically under my loft bed?’ I’ve been having that feeling a lot this year, but I’m happy to say that a bigger pad is on the horizon and that although Lisa and Jesse were especially scary for me, I couldn’t help but be at ease with them after a short while, and thoroughly enjoy their wedding. Now for a few details.

Lisa is an architect and so, unsurprisingly, has great taste. Check out the cheeky contrast between her ivory lace dress and black lace Prada heels. On the architectural note, I tried to get some portraits of her and her sisters in front of a nice backdrop of buildings before we headed out the woodsy part of UBC. Pretty good thinking, eh? Architect… buildings… It turns out that I did a lot of shots with buildings at UBC as well, but I used them differently.

Lisa and Jesse were married at St. Augustine’s Catholic Church in Kits, which happily has a decent amount of natural light inside. This is part of the reason they chose it, and I think it was a good choice.

Lisa had a bride’s man, which I think is cool and surprisingly rare. Lisa also had her two beautiful sisters as attendants, one of whom obviously made an impression on the priest since he used her name, not Lisa’s during the rehearsal *as well* as in the actual ceremony!

One of Jesse’s brothers who was also a groomsman had been involved in a bike accident on the way to the rehearsal, and had to wear his arm in a sling for part of the day, which made for some unusual getting ready shots.

The very internationally-attended reception was at the wonderful Cecil Green out at UBC, and guests were entertained by a great live band whose coloured lights looked great in the back of the dancing photos.

Chris and Jessica are charming and persuasive, and so I bring you this blog posting slightly ahead of schedule. ( ; These two were married on the lawn over a cliff over the sea between the tent and the sea, all of which are behind a massive private house somewhere in that grey zone between Whiterock and South Surrey. It’s a nice big house with a huge back yard overlooking the ocean and the owners occasionally rent it out for weddings. If you are interested in the contact info for this place, send me an email. A large portion of the yard was covered in a tent to shelter guests from the elements, which happened to be favourable that day. I love tents. The back of the head table was a lush garden backdrop, and I was able to shoot almost the whole evening without flash and capture the shifting natural ambiance of the evening. (Kudos too to the decorators who hung the lights behind the table.)

Normally I don’t have time to shoot an abundance of detail shots, but as it turned out I had some time and a fabulous backyard to work with. Jessica’s dad is an excellent landscaper and his handiwork became a playground for Jessi’s lovely accessories. I must admit that I am quite proud of my ring-with-ant shot. I had to do several takes, anticipating the ants’ curiosity, walking a fine line of provocation, intrigue, and violation of personal space.

Both of Jessi’s parents walked her down the garden path to where Chris was waiting. It was the first time her dad had worn the family tartan, and he was brave enough afterward to join the rest of the family in a group pilates formal photo. Think yoga boat pose. We headed out to an old farm for photos and broke some rules and got into some buildings. When we returned and the couple re-entered the yard to the classic Hockey Night in Canada theme song, tables went up to the buffet only after their representatives duked it out in a highly competitive game of musical chairs. I have included a fight picture which gives a rather good sense of the yard and scale of the tent. There were some live musical numbers by family, and later tangos on the edge of the cliff by the sea. A great wedding.

Jessi’s Makeup by Oz Zandiyeh