The joining of hands, the joining of lives. This is literally the moment described in the phrase "Take her hand in marriage" which is actually from quite an old ritual known as "handfasting" that goes back to pagan times. We just love it when there is a point in the ceremony for the couple to take a moment together and get lost in each others eyes while showing their connection by crossing arms. Then of course the big moment came, time for the first kiss!

This groom can be described in one word "dapper". Love grey suits for the guys! While we are well versed in shooting white dresses alongside black suits or tuxes, we've never understood why the bride and groom need to be totally opposite tones! Grey suits definitively pair better with white dresses than black. #weddingPhotographersProblems

Anyways... this wedding was at a private lake side residence for the ceremony and Quail's Gate Winery for the formals and reception. This image was taken just after we arrived at Quail's and shows something that we like to do at each wedding, capture a great portrait of both the bride and groom separately.

Love knows no bounds, this is definitely true for this lovely couple. They first met online and quickly grew close and starting talking often over skype. The bride lived in California and the groom in Vancouver so she came up an visited for a few weeks, then later found a job in Vancouver and the rest is history. We have been honoured to tell the story of our friends weddings through the years and this one was incredibly special to us. The wedding was held in a friend's backyard in Vancouver and it was very intimate and special memory for all in attendance.

We snuck away with the bride and groom to the close by Queen Elizabeth Park and got to capture them having a quite moment alone (ok so we were there... so "mostly alone"). Typically this is the first time that a couple has a few moments available to reflect on the fact that they are now officially a married couple.

The aisle for outdoor ceremonies can be quite a bit longer and more difficult to navigate than one that you would encounter in say a church (a large cathedral in a bigger city might be a different story of course!). But here is the good news, everyone will be happy to wait!

Like in this image of a bride walking down the start of the aisle at Summerhill Pyramid Winery. We can't even see the main ceremony site yet, but on the plus side it heightens the intrigue as the groom and wedding guests only get to capture brief glimpses as the bride makes her way down. After turning the corner there is still a short stone walkway to some stairs and then another stone walkway to the ceremony.  The other big plus to longer aisles is it gives us, as the photographers, more time to capture the building emotions of the couple and a bigger variety of images.

We always love to incorporate an important personal history into our wedding coverage and for this Kamloops wedding we had this stunning location to work with. After the ceremony and family portraits in town we headed just out of town to Barnhartvale to the family farm. In the middle of a field on the farm stood this massive boulder, know affectionately as "the rock", that the bride and groom were brave enough to climb in their wedding clothes.

We love how the clouds and lighting lend such a dramatic feel to this image. And if you look just to the right of the bride and groom you can see the family farmhouse in the distance, that just ties everything together: the past, present and future all in a single frame.