Toronto Bridal Show Winners

At the Canada’s Bridal Show, I always run a contest over the three days, where I give away an engagement shoot for free! It’s a fun way to interact with all the couples I’m meeting at the show, and I’m always SO excited for this shoot. Chelsey takes the emails, puts them into a spreadsheet and does some tech wizardry to randomly draw a name from this group of awesome couples. I was SO EXCITED when I found out that Shannon and James were the couple who won the wedding show engagement contest. The next step was planning the time and place!

With their wedding being at the King Edward Hotel in spring of 2025, they wanted to do their engagement shoot in the town they live in, Collingwood. When couples bring me to new places to shoot, it’s always a great experience. It’s a new canvas for me paint and where creativity flows. I have had the opportunity to shoot at Blue Mountain in the past, for Candice and Sean’s engagement photos, but the Town of Collingwood was new for me. Shannon was looking for some dark & moody nighttime photography for this engagement shoot - which I was more than happy to deliver! She did, after all, have one of the best photographers for nighttime photos and she wanted to take advantage of that 🔥!

Planning The Engagement Photos

It’s kind of impossible to choose the perfect day for your engagement photos when you are planning an outdoor shoot in the middle of a town you’ve never been to - you never know what can happen with the weather, or what might be happening in the town - but one of the things that increases the chances of success, is choosing a week day for the shoot. Places are usually crowded on weekends and choosing a day in the middle of the week was the key to our success.

The morning of the shoot was grey & rainy, but we were optimistic that the weather would change later in the day. On my drive from Toronto to Collingwood, the weather just got worse but my optimism did not fade. We scheduled the shoot to start right at sunset, and as soon as I parked the car at millennium overlook park, our first stop, the sun had just dropped below the grey clouds and it’s light poured over the horizon and lit the clouds in gorgeous colors. I couldn’t wait for Shannon and James to arrive.

Millennium Overlook Park Photos

When I meet my potential clients for the first time, whether it’s on zoom or in-person, I always make sure we have a connection first and foremost. This is important because we are going to spend an entire day together - one of the most important days of your life - and I want to make sure I make you feel comfortable with me and I can make you laugh - after all, I want to make sure on your special day I’m capturing the absolute best of you and your partner. I felt that connection with Shannon & James - and that was proved when we met at that stunning sunset view.

From the very moment we began, Shannon was like a pro model, perfect in every shot. She knew what she wanted from her photos and she was making my job as a photographer so much easier. With posing not being a problem for them, that gave me room to focus on the creativity side. I loved it!! 😆 As the time went by, the sky became more and more colorful. The pinks, blues, and yellows reflecting on Lake Huron was something that we don’t see every day or get to appreciate in this way.

Collingwood Yacht Club

It was completely dark when we decided to do photos at our second location, the Collingwood Yacht Club. This location was a request from Shannon - she wanted to include the Collingwood Terminals Limited building silhouetted in the background, which is a well-known symbol in the town of Collingwood. Even with the sun gone and the dark sky above us, we still had that golden line on the horizon, which was the perfect contrast for those dark, moody clouds.

As you all know, I love to use off camera flash. I love to create something different, an image that you can’t see with your bare eyes. But some situations call for something else - and that evening I was inspired to use whatever light we had available to us, to create. I quickly asked James to move his truck and leave the lights on, as I did the same with mine, and we used the car beams to create this amazing set below.

Downtown Collingwood Photos

We didn’t have to drive very far to get to the unique town of downtown Collingwood. Shannon had some great places in mind, and I was excited to see what was waiting for us 😍
When a couple requests a downtown photoshoot, the first thing that comes to my mind is downtown Toronto., where I live, which is a totally different vibe from what Downtown Collingwood brought to the table. Collingwood has small town vibes, filled with charm and history. Also, we were lucky to see they still had Christmas lights up. That gave a layer of extra charm in the background for this shoot.

My favorite way to shoot is capturing those real & authentic moments - when we are just are walking around, chatting, and stopping at interesting spots along the way. Unfortunately, we didn’t have much time to chat - as at each corner we found something unique to shoot, and I was over the moon. We finished our shoot by walking down the middle of the main street, having to do some crazy running back and forth to be mindful of the traffic… What a day!! 😁

Shannon and James, thank you so much for this unique and amazing opportunity 😘. I can’t wait to be a part of your big day in 2025 🙌🏼.

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