This past weekend had us escaping the cold and unseasonal snow of Vancouver and heading to Tofino - which, by some miraculous hand, was gorgeous and sunny - for Jen & Neil’s wedding.

I hardly know where to start. Everything was perfect - from the amazing outfits (two hot numbers each), to the weather, to the grand fireworks finale at the end of the night. Looking back, I can’t think of a single thing that could have been any better.

There are so many images… but I have to choose just a few! Here are just a handful of all the great shots jumping out at me so far!

First up - the shoes. They most definitely deserve to make the blog cut. Jen agonized over her decision between a certain pair of Manolos and this pair of Louboutins. The Louboutins won.

Jen and her Dad walking up the aisle. I adore this photo, especially the look on her face!

The ceremony was held indoors, with a sweeping view of the beach right behind them.

Jen and Neil looking stellar

Together

My favourite reception detail - the cheese cake. Yes, it’s a cake. Or rather, cheese setup in the shape of a cake. Either way, it was delicious, and the symbolism behind them cutting the cheese entertains me to no end!

We headed back outside after dinner for a few sunset photos. Here is Jen, looking amazing in the evening sun.

One of the surprises of the night was the quick outfit change that had these two looking like they’d walked straight out of Hollywood. Wow.

And finally, the guests were treated again at the end of the night with an amazing beach fireworks show. The perfect end to the perfect day.

CONGRATS again, to both of you! It was such a joy to be there. I’m sure you are having a fantastic time in Morocco. We’ll see you when you get back!

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The morning after the wedding, we headed back out to long beach for our trash the dress (and tux!) session. It was freezing, but the photos are gorgeous! The beach filled with spectators wondering who the crazy people in the cold Tofino water were.

Here are a few of our favs -

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I don’t normally post personal stuff here, but this is so very important to me, and I wanted to share it with you.
I started reading Lesley’s blog a while ago, and recently we met up for dinner to meet and chat. I got to hear about all the cool things she’s working on and her business ideas and her passions. There are so many things that she’s going to do in life, and so much I doubt she has even dreamt of yet.

Just now I opened my rss reader to check out whose blogs have been updated, and was so so humbled to read this on hers:

I keep on hearing Miranda’s voice in my head “You just have to do it”. It keeps me striving to make my dreams happen. I don’t want to let her down, myself down, or anyone else who has echoed those same words into my ear. So I’m making them happen, once again, a little at a time.

Hearing people say that something I’ve said has helped them or encouraged them or inspired them is… I can’t even describe how much it means to me. It makes me feel small in a wonderful way…. like a tiny little part of things so incredible and so much bigger than myself.

So many people have said these things to me recently, so many times I’ve felt this way. I am in awe each time that someone tells me something that I’ve said has stuck with them, like Lesley has, and I’m left speechless when I’m told that people’s lives have been set on a completely new and wonderful path because of me. Because of me.

I don’t believe them. Or, I didn’t. I used to shake it off, it was all them - and really, it’s always always always all them. But the more times it happens and the more people who give me even little tiny bits of credit, the more I realize that the smallest encouragement can go so very, very far.

On the other side, it makes me question how we treat eachother. How we communicate with one another, with our friends, with our family. I don’t consider encouraging people to do or find what they love and what they’re passionate about to be anything out of the ordinary. It seems to me that everyone, everywhere, should be putting their energy into encouraging and supporting and inspiring their friends and family and the strangers whose lives they cross.

And yet, people keep telling me that in some way, I’ve had an impact.

If the people I’ve met randomly and the people whose lives I’ve already crossed are inspired or encouraged by things I say, it makes me realize that there are so so many people out there who are on the verge of great things, and are just waiting for someone to tell them that they can.

It simply comes down to this - life is too short. It’s TOO SHORT. You can’t bank on tomorrow, so you have to live your life today. Find what makes you happy. Do what makes you happy. Stop letting the fear of failure stop you. Stop saying that you can’t.

And please please please - regardless of where you’re at yourself, take the time to encourage someone else. My experience over and over and over again is that we all need to hear it, and the simplest of conversations can have such an impact on the happiness and joy of someone else.

xoxoxo

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We love it when we get press - it’s so much fun to hear when other people get excited about our work!

Only - this time - we don’t know who to give thanks to for the mention! This week our direct hits shot up 3 times what they normally are, and we have a whole pile of new RSS subscribers. So first - welcome! - thanks for checking us out. But second - who talked us up? I see you’re mostly from Vancouver, and as it was all direct traffic rather than links I know that you likely heard about us either on TV, on the radio, or maybe someone mentioned us to a large crowd.

We’re dying of curiousity over here - leave a comment or drop an email to fill us in!

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We met up with Carlo & Aleili for their engagement session on Sunday. We are so looking forward to their April wedding!

Here are just a few of the gorgeous images we captured yesterday on our walk through the alleys of Gastown and the downtown east side

You guys rocked it. Looking forward to sharing the rest!

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Jim & Dina’s relationship started at Brix, so it was only appropriate that that was the location of their wedding. They travelled from their home in Boston to Vancouver for their wedding on Saturday - our first full wedding of the year!

Jim - introspective before the ceremony

I love the look on Dina’s face in this ceremony shot

Necklace detail!

Dina looking super hot on a scooter in Yaletown

Loving the night photos - Jim & Dina during our Yaletown portrait session

One of my very favourite shots of the night - outside Brix

And finally, the ambiance of the reception

Congratulations again to you both! Enjoy your time in Vancouver and we hope your next reception in Boston is equally as fantastic.

Cheers!

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Until now, Portrait sessions have been available only to an exclusive few. For the first time, we are opening our calendar to general portrait bookings. You asked, and we’re delivering.

$295 session fee (regular $495) for sessions booked by March 15th and scheduled up to April 30th.

Engagements, boudoir, headshots, maternity, families, trash the dress - anything goes. This is your chance to be shot by us! Ladies - boudoir parties start at 3 people, so get your gilfriends or bridesmaids together and get in touch.

Limited dates available - contact us for full details and to reserve your spot.

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As mentioned a couple posts ago, Northern Voice was this past weekend and Reilly and I both spoke at Photocamp. It’s *so hard* to try to figure out what to possibly cover in 15 minutes, but we settled on lighting and split it up into two tidy packages and put together our stuff.

My presentation on natural lighting was fairly universal - anyone with a camera from point and shoot to full dSLR and gear could probably get something out of it. Conveniently, if you weren’t there, the whole thing complete with slides and video and all has been put up on the web and can be watched online.

Reilly’s presentation is also online and focuses on more advanced flash use and is probably more interesting to the serious amateur or for pros who haven’t spent a lot of time focussing on lighting, but totally worth checking out. That’s here.

We’ve had a tonne of fabulous feedback from those who came out to hear us speak, and we’ve had requests to get the links out there, so enjoy!

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Reilly and I were excited to be a part of Veil this weekend - a small, invite only, cocktail reception at a private gallery for brides and grooms in the planning stages of their upcoming weddings. We joined a handful of great vendors for an afternoon of visiting with couples over glasses of wine and served canapes. Thanks to everyone who came out, it was great to see so many familiar faces!

Based on the success of the show and wonderful feedback, we are planning to make this a twice yearly event with the next date scheduled likely in September or October. Watch our site for full details on the next event later this year!

Be sure to check out the sites of all the great vendors who participated -

Marliss Productions Videography, WED Bridal, Uniquity Design, Bloom Room, April Cakes, Hot Wax DJs, Milestone Events, Erin Gilmore Photography, Hayley Miller Makeup Artist, Travel by Design, Lolo Jewellry, and us of course - Blue Olive Photography!

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Reilly and I are excited to be heading over to Northern Voice today and tomorrow. Northern Voice is a blogging and social media conference in its fourth year, and is being hosted at UBC.

We’re particularly excited about the Photocamp session this afternoon as we’ll both be speaking and sharing a few tips and tricks for taking great, natural portraits - I’ll be covering working with natural and found lighting, and Reilly will be addressing the use of flash and other modified light.

If you have interest in blogging and social media be sure to bookmark the site and watch for the announcement next year. It’s not to be missed!
Have a great Friday everyone!

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