Personality. If you don’t mesh well with your photographer, you’ll be in for a very long wedding day. Your photographer will be with you more than anyone else is, and you’re going to have to grin at them all day long; that’s awfully hard to do if you don’t get along with them. Obviously their style, image quality, calibre of products and price point will factor into your decision, but even if all of those things fit what you’re looking for, their personality could make or break your experience.

With over eleven years and hundreds of weddings under our belt, we are one of the most experienced and most trusted teams of wedding photographers in the region. And because we focus on weddings exlusively, choosing us means that you be taken care of by a specialist, rather than a jack-of-all-trades, master of none.

Many photographers tend to put the main light in their pictures to their back. While this ensures that the scene is lit evenly, it also doesn’t allow for many shadows. Because the light is hitting the subject from the same direction as the lens capturing them, the lack of shadows makes the resulting pictures look very flat and two-dimensional. Our approach is to put the light to the side or behind our subjects, which makes for more dramatic images due to the shadows that are included in the image. As well, we use off camera lighting to light receptions, rather than a flash that is mounted to our camera. This also leads to images that look more three dimensional than if we had the flash on our camera.

We like to think that your wedding should be all about you, and not about us. Strange concept, right? Because of that, we do everything we can to stay as invisible throughout your ceremony and reception as we can, while making sure to get the killer shots that you hire us for! In our opinion, the focus during the ceremony and the reception should be on our couple, not us, so we use longer lenses and stay out of the way of your guests so they have a clear view of you during your ceremony. These parts of the day are very candid and photojournalistic; in other words, we document what happens, and don’t intervene to try to make things fit what we think they should look like. When it comes to the formal pictures of your family, bridal party and the two of you, we do have to get involved in making sure those pictures look their best, especially with family pictures and bridal party pictures, simply due to the logistics of making a lot of people in one picture look great. When it comes to pictures of our couples, every couple is very unique; some will need more coaching and guidance than others. But our goal in the process is to let you be yourselves, and to capture that natural beauty in a way that showcases who you are as a couple.

Every package that we offer includes the digital files and reprinting rights, and every file that we produce is fully colour-corrected and optimized to look it’s best. It’s important to us that we produce images that we can be proud to put our name behind, and we feel that our work is our best ambassador when it’s out being shared and shown off, rather than being held hostage. While we realize that there are many respectable photographers out there who choose to not release the files to their clients unless they pay extra for them or order a certain amount of printed products, in our opinion it just makes more sense to offer our brides what they want, and charge what we need to make a living up front. This makes budgeting much simpler for our brides, and it ensures that we can keep the lights on and feed our little man as well.

We do not release images that we are not thrilled to put our name behind. As a result, we will not release unedited images to our clients. It’s important for us to maintain the standard of quality and reputation that we’ve built, and our clients hire us for the expertise that we bring to the table. That expertise extends not only to how we create the images, but also to how we cull and edit them.

Every engagement session and wedding is very different, and each has a plethora of variables that will determine the number of pictures that we walk away with. On average, however, we typically deliver between 75 and 125 unique images from engagement sessions, and 600 to 1000 from each wedding.

For engagement sessions, we typically deliver your images within 2-3 weeks of your shoot. For weddings, usually 4-6 weeks.If you wish, you can purchase VIP (1 week turnaround) or Priority (2 week turnaround) editing to ensure you receive your wedding files even faster!

We deliver all your images via an online gallery, which not only provides you with safe keeping for your pictures, but also allows you to access them from any internet-connected device whenever you like. This makes your pictures much easier to access and share with others, but also saves you from needing to keep track of a thumb drive and/or keep your discs from scratching. With our online gallery, you’re able to view, download, share and select your favourite images, which we then use to build your album.

We have a very thorough backup system in place to protect your files from any foreseeable eventuality. While we can’t protect against 100% of everything that could ever happen in this crazy world, we can certainly do our best to mitigate any potential problems. Weddings only happen once, and we don’t want to be the cause of a horror story where someone’s wedding images are lost forever because of something that we didn’t do properly. The extensive precautions that we take allow you to have the peace of mind that comes with knowing that your photographers do everything within their power to keep your memories safe. If you’d like more information on how our backup system works, check out this blog post that we wrote about it, after a hard drive failed on us… and we didn’t lost a single image!

Yes, we carry industry standard business liability insurance that protects us – and you – from any incidents that could arise. Insurance is one of those things that we hate, but unfortunately, it’s a necessity. If your potential photographer doesn’t have insurance, it’s a sign that you might not be dealing with someone who takes their business seriously enough to get legal. It opens them – and you – up for liability, should an incident arise as a result of you contracting them to cover your wedding day.

Yes. Professional cameras use a mechanical shutter, and mechanical things eventually break down. Unfortunately, when one of our cameras breaks down, it doesn’t do so gracefully; it simply stops working. Because of that, and because you can’t put a wedding on hold to go grab a new camera, it’s super important to have backup equipment in order to cover any and all eventualities. Any photographer who does not bring backup equipment – including camera bodies, lenses, flashes, batteries, memory cards, etc – is simply asking for trouble, and they’re gambling with your memories.

Everyone hates taxes. Unless you work for the CRA, but that’s another story. But the fact of the matter is that if you’re going to be a respectable, reputable, legitimate business, you need to pay your taxes. We do, and as a result we also have to charge taxes. It sucks having to tack on an extra 13%, but we’ve found that our clients would rather pay that 13% and deal with a business who they can know is legitimate and reputable, rather than chancing their wedding to a fly-by-night operation that is willing to bend the rules to make a fast buck.

We know that a wedding can’t be rescheduled or put on hold just because a photographer is sick or injured. Because of that – and because 100% of our business is weddings – we have a very thorough system to ensure that another team of professionals can cover for us in the event of an emergency.

From time to time, Kara is unavailable for a wedding date, usually due to her 9-5 teaching job. In those instances we hire a second photographer from one of our many friends in the area who shoot weddings professionally, who tags along as David’s second shooter. Obviously all the editing and post-processing of the images is still handled exactly the same.

Additionally, we founded and run the wedding photographer Facebook networking group in our region, so we personally know more than 60 full time professionals in town who do fantastic quality work, and who we can pull from in the event of an emergency (many of whom we have worked with in some capacity in the past). We do our very best to foster a sense of community and camaraderie amongst wedding professionals in the area, rather than a spirit of competition and animosity that is prevalent in other areas. Because of that, most of the professionals in the area are willing to refer work to each other and help each other out when needed.

Regardless of whether it’s just to fill in for Kara or if it’s for a bigger emergency, we always hire another professional, rather than just getting a student or an intern to cover for us. We want to make sure that not only *you* will have a quality experience on your wedding day, but also that our brand is represented well. Because we know and work with so many quality professionals in the area, we always have that safety net available to us, so you can have peace of mind knowing that our bases are covered in the event of an emergency.

There are two answers for this one.

If you move your wedding to a date that we are available for, we have no problem swapping dates for you. If this happens and we’re able to rebook your original date, there is no additional charge for this, because we know that most times when this happens there’s enough stress involved. However, since we’ll have been turning away weddings for your original date, if we can’t rebook it the retainer on that date will not be able to be applied to the final balance on your new date.

If we are not available for your new date, our contract states that it will be seen as a cancellation on our clients’ end, and any funds paid up to that point are non-refundable.

We typically book anywhere from 12-24 months in advance, and are usually sold out of summer dates 8 or 9 months in advance. What that means for you is, the sooner you reserve your date, the better!

If we happen to be booked for your date we would highly recommend checking our our associate, Melissa Weber, who is an incredible photographer in her own right. Regardless of who you choose, you’ll wind up with amazing images and the same premium albums and enlargements that we offer!

We require a $1000 retainer to secure your date. We book on a first-come, first served basis, so whoever puts their $1000 down on the date first gets it. You are able, however, to secure your date without committing to a package; you can put down a retainer on your date and choose your package later on. We don’t need to know which package you’re going with until your engagement session, because that will determine how we process your images and whether we’re prepping them for an engagement album or not. The remainder of the funds are due two weeks prior to your wedding, primarily so we don’t have to shake you down for a cheque on the morning of your wedding!

Yes! You’re able to pay off the balance of your package in as many payments as you’d like, and whenever you’d like, keeping in mind that all funds are due to be paid two weeks prior to the wedding. We can set up monthly payments, multiple payments, or we can do one bulk payment… whatever works on your end! Just let us know what you’d like to do and we’ll set up your contract to reflect your custom payment plan. In addition, our system will remind you when your payments are due, so it’s one less thing to try to keep track of during the planning process!

If you would like images that look like what you see on our website, we typically recommend 90 minutes to 2 hours for your wedding pictures. This would include your family pictures, bridal party pictures, and – of course – time for pictures with the two of you. While we can certainly work with less, the more time we have to work with, the more creative and adventurous we can be. Having time to get creative typically allows us to create imagery that’s more dramatic and personal than what we can accomplish in a shorter window of time. We also typically like to sneak our bride + groom off for some pictures after dark during their reception, so if we don’t have enough time earlier in the day we can usually make up for that after dark as well.

We include a free engagement session with every package that we offer, instead of charging you extra; and there’s a method to our madness. From our experience, having an engagement session with our couples allows us to get to know what your chemistry as a couple is, how you act in front of a camera, and what your personalities are like. This allows us to hit the ground running on your big day, rather than starting from scratch. And obviously, you’ll also get some pretty incredibly imagery too!

We don’t put a cap on our engagement sessions like most do. Obviously, we can’t do a full day session or anything, but since the goal of the engagement session is to get to know our couples, it seems silly to us to cap it at a certain number of hours. Most of our clients typically go around 2 hours, but we’ve done some that were shorter and some that were longer. Essentially, it’s up to you!

This is probably the most common question about the engagement session. The golden rule would be to wear something that make you feel great about yourself. If you feel great, you’ll look great too! We generally recommend bringing one outfit that’s a little dressier, and one that’s a little more casual, to give your images some variety. Usually it’s best to avoid clothes with patterns that are too busy or that have wording on them, but again, that’s up to your personal sense of style.

We photographers like to call it “golden hour,” but really, it’s the two hours after sunrise and the two hours before sunset, when the sun is low on the horizon and the light is warmer in temperature. With that said, we realize that not every wedding timeline allows for pictures during golden hour, especially in the summer, when sunset isn’t until 9pm. We’re experienced enough to deal with any lighting situation, and we can create great images at any time of day. But if you can manage it, we definitely prefer that soft golden light!

Weddings are a celebration involving lots of people, and there will probably be lots of cameras as well. We get it. The reality is that if we weren’t comfortable with guests taking their own pictures at weddings we’re likely in the wrong industry. There is definitely something to be said for an unplugged ceremony, though, where your guests can be fully present and not observing your wedding through the screen of a phone. Regardless of what you choose, we’re cool either way!

We only use professional grade cameras, lenses and flashes. If you’re a camera geek like us and really want to know the specifics, our main camera bodies are the Canon R6, and we use Canon L series lenses that enable us to capture your images in the best quality possible. When it comes to your memories, we’re of the opinion that nothing less than the best will do.

Absolutely! If you have any requests that are not the typical shots that we take at every wedding (such as the processional, the kiss, signing of the register, first dance, cake cutting, etc), we definitely want to know, especially if it’s something that has a lot of sentimental value to you. The only thing to keep in mind is that, since it’s a live event and we can’t control everything, we can’t guarantee that we will be able to get 100% of your requests, and we can’t guarantee that 100% of them will be a Pinterest-worthy creation. We can certainly do our best though! We generally do ask for a list of family groupings that you would like taken, and also ask that you delegate someone in your family to be the person who rounds up the family members for each shot (since they’ll know your family better than we will).

In our opinion, if your photographer is charging you $3000 or more, and they can’t afford $50 in gas, something’s wrong with their business model. So if you’re getting married within two hours of Waterloo, we do not charge anything for travel. If your wedding is further from Waterloo than that, we just request a hotel for the night prior and the night of the wedding.

We LOVE destination weddings! We would love to have a chat with you about how they work, because every destination wedding is very different. Typically our packages are heavily discounted to make it easier for our clients to pay for our flights and accommodations. Bringing a local photographer with you for a destination wedding lets you have the chance to work with them and get to know them before your wedding, and will provide you with the peace of mind that comes from dealing with someone that you get along with and trust.

We sure hope so! We know that there are some studios out there who have multiple shooters and book multiple weddings per weekend, but in our opinion that’s a recipe for disappointment, especially since couples don’t get to work with someone who they specifically chose. Because we’re a small team, we only shoot one wedding per day, giving our clients the attention that they deserve on their big day.

We generally wear dress casual clothes and typically wear black or greys so that we don’t stick out like a sore thumb.