Boakview Photography

The Best of 2017 ~ Weddings

This has been a year full of many new adventures and experiences, both personal and professional – not all have been super positive but they all definitely made us learn something valuable about ourselves as people, creatives, and as business owners. We are so grateful to be doing what we do – to have the freedom to be creative on a daily basis (sure it’s not always easy, but it sure is rewarding and fun!) and to bear witness to some of the most vulnerable and emotional events in people’s lives – We feel humbled that couples trust us to capture their most sacred memories and to immortalize their most precious moments, that truly is an honour! So thank you, to all of our friends and family, to our amazing couples that make what we do possible – we couldn’t have done any of this without your support and your trust! Hugs all around!

PS: Choosing a a limited amount of photos for our “Best Of…” slideshow was probably the most difficult thing we had to do so far in the new year! Please turn up the sound and enjoy!

Jen & Dave ~ A Funky Urban Wedding at the Spoke Club in Toronto

Jen and Dave are not only a crazy artistic, unique, and quirky couple but they are also parents (to an adorable little 2.5 year old – Ronin) movie aficionados, adorably awkward dancers (please don’t tell them we said that!) and just overall amazing human beings. 

We met Jen before we met Dave and fell instantly in love with her energy and great sense of humour – we connected on everything from our love of all things nerdy (we’re talking Star Trek and comic books!) to our mutual experiences being parents to “spirited” little boys – it really was love at first chat (at least from our end!) When we finally met Dave, it only solidified our happiness at being able to capture such a wicked couple’s special day. Hugh and Dave bonded over pretty much everything including the “hardships” of fatherhood and their mutual love of horror flicks – it was a bromance from the get-go!

Jen met Dave on Valentine’s Day 2009 at an indie video store in Vancouver. Her friends had cancelled on their exciting VDay plans of eating copious amounts of peanut m&ms and watching old episodes of the Simpsons, so she decided to head to the local video store to rent some b-horror movies. When she got there, about 25 people were partying inside, celebrating the one year anniversary of the shop. Stoked to be drinking with a bunch of film geeks, Jen stayed, and started chatting to a handsome stranger. Dave and Jen hit it off instantly, bonding over their mutual love of b-horror films, music documentaries, riff rock, 70s funk, Alan Moore graphic novels, and sushi. Although they didn’t end up getting together until a few months down the line when they were both living in Toronto,  when they did things just felt right… Like they had been together for years! 

Their wedding at The Spoke Club reflected not only their mutual love for one another and their family and friends, but also their love of vintage media and horror films – it was a night filled with laughs, love, and oodles of dancing!

Venue: The Spoke Club, Wedding Planner: Events by Grace, Officiant: All Seasons Weddings, Invitations: Pam Sloan Designs, Flowers: Berries & Blooms,  Suit: TopMan, Makeup: Jessica Lyons Makeup, Hair: Bridal Hair Collective, Doughnut Tower: Glory Hole Doughnuts, Bride’s Shoes: Poetic Licence, Rings: Made You Look Designs, Bride’s Hair Accessories: Rightful Owner 

Steph & Lauren ~ A Beautiful Cottage Wedding in Muskoka

Steph and Lauren’s wedding is very special to us as the girls are so genuine and warm and instantly made us feel like part of the family and we remain friends to this day. 

Steph and Lauren met playing varsity hockey but as rivals! The ladies were first introduced in their last year of university at a national all-star camp, but didn’t actually connect until they had both graduated. One night they saw each other out on the street and promised to connect later that night … one big bar bill later, Lauren was telling Steph how she would be an amazing girlfriend.

After six years of dating, Steph proved her right and popped the big question on a beach in Hawaii – the rest is history…

There was never a doubt in both girls’ minds that they would have their wedding at Lauren’s family cottage. One of the first things that they each admired so much about one another is their mutual love for family and since the cottage  is a place where they gather time and time again with family and friends it was really a “no-brainer”.  Their ceremony was absolutely magical and took place right by the lake on which their cottage resides. Everyone held their breath as massive thunderstorm clouds raced past – but luckily the rain waited until after the girls said their “I dos” and once everyone was safely en route to the reception at the Kee to Bala – an amazing space that has housed many musical legends throughout the years. It was a party for the books – guests danced into the night and laughter and merriment could be heard into the wee hours of the morning.

Lauren’s Dress: Sash & Bustle, Steph’s Dress: Nordstrom, Reception: Kee to Bala, Catering: Morandin, Flowers: Bala Garden Centre, DJ: DJ Grant, Hair & Make-up: Sharp Images Salon & Spa, Groomsmen Suits: Surmesur, School buses for transporting guests: First Charter Bus

Deanna & Robbie ~ A Lakeside Wedding in Oakville

Deanna and Robbie’s story is an epic tale of love from two separate coasts – Texas & Ontario… Their story begins at a wedding, a photo-booth at a wedding to be exact, after some flirting and laughing Robbie, ever the clever jokester, asked Deanna to take a photo-booth photo together. Once the photo was captured he tore it and handed one half to Deanna and departed for Dallas, Texas. The months following the epic photo tear the two kept in touch via social media and midnight texting. Not to be deterred by the distance between them, Deanna made her first trip to Dallas – it was to be the first of many…

Robbie proposed to his love in his hometown, knowing that a wedding would most certainly take place in Deanna’s, and boy are we sure glad it did! When we first met Deanna and Robbie a one-hour meeting quickly turned into a two-hour evening of laughs, pop-culture banter, and jokes – we were smitten and ever-so happy when they asked us to be part of their beautiful day. The wedding itself took place in the historic St. Andrew’s Church in Oakville followed by a reception at Piper’s Heath Golf Club, where we ended the evening with a brilliant firework display ~ and to bring in an element of their first meeting, Deanna and Robbie took oodles of photos in their very own photo-booth, but this time no photos were torn in half…

Venue: Piper’s Heath Golf Club

Dress: Sottero and Midgley from Heirlooms Bridal Shoppe

Suit/Tux: English Laundry from Moores

Bridesmaids Dresses: Sorella Vita from Heirlooms Bridal Shoppe

Groomsmen Suits/Tux: English Laundry from Moores

Engagement Ring and Wedding Band- Nadis Diamonds

Décor:  Set the Mood Decor

Invitations: Etsy- Oh Darling Paper

Limo Service: White Shadow Limos

Flowers: Set the Mood Decor

DJ: EJ Entertainment

Cake: Cakes by Natalie

Selvia & Jeffry ~ A Vintage Engagement in Toronto

One chilly November afternoon, I met with Jeffry and Selvia downtown Toronto. Despite the cold weather, these two were all smiles ready to have me follow them around downtown and capture their obvious adoration for each other. Jeffry and Selvia’s story is an epic international tale. The two met in school on their first day in university in summer 2006 in Asia. They were instantly smitten with one another and went out of their way to spend as much time together as possible – they secretly signed up for all of the same group projects and any free time they had was spent talking, laughing, and dreaming about their future together. But even despite their mutual commitment and love for each other they had some bumps along the way. Selvia decided to continue her studies abroad in Japan for five years without Jeffry and they endured a long distance relationship for that entire time. After such a long time apart they just couldn’t imagine being away from one another for any longer and both came to Toronto, Canada to study together. After just two years in Toronto, Jeffry popped the question and without any hesitation Selvia  said “YES”! This May the two will be tying the knot in Indonesia and although we can’t be part of their big celebration we are so lucky have captured their love in the city where they re-connected and solidified their future together!

This engagement session was featured on The Wedding Co.

We were thrilled to have shot this session with Dipak Parmar, see more of Dipak’s work here!

Samantha & Tyler ~ An Intimate Wildflower Wedding in Caledon

Samantha and Tyler just make us happy, like really smiling-like-baffoons-silly happy! Their story began in middle school when they met and became friends and were virtually inseparable. Although they did not officially start dating until the last year of high school, it was clear to all of their friends that the two were meant to be together right from the start – and we couldn’t agree more.

With a mutual love for nature, Sam and Tyler spend as much time as possible exploring the outdoors and knowing how much his high school sweetheart loves wild flowers, Tyler proposed to Samantha at the Royal Botanical Garden while her favourite flowers, lilacs, were blooming in the gardens. It was the perfect setting for Samantha to say “yes”. For their wedding, Sam and Tyler really wanted to keep it as intimate as possible, so on a sunny August afternoon, surrounded by sixty of their closest friends and family (and us!) and said their “I do’s” outside in a magnificent old ruin. The only remains of Goldie Mill Ruins are the limestone walls and a wild garden, the perfect setting for a natural and rustic ceremony.

Simplicity was key for both Sam and Tyler and this was also reflected in the reception food and decor. The yummy food served was comfort food with a southern flare, mac and cheese, bbq chicken and cornbread and pies for dessert. We swooned at the simplicity table settings which included a beautiful wild flower arrangement hand-picked by Samantha’s aunt in her garden and placed in vintage milk bottles collected by the couple. In lieu of traditional favours, each guest took home an evergreen seedlings to plant and watch grow – ours is currently flourishing in our own backyard.

This wedding was also featured on The Wedding Opera, you can see the original post here!

Engaged ~ Orla & Ian

Orla and Ian’s story is an international affair! Orla, an Irish expat, met Ian while working in Toronto – the two fell in love almost instantly and have been inseparable ever since, so much so that Orla now calls Canada her home. Although Toronto is the city where they met, they decided to be married in Wicklow, Ireland this coming spring – how romantic is that? In order to stay true to their whimsical wedding plans (they will be married in an Abbey in the Irish country-side – swoom!) we wanted to re-create that same kind of magic right here in the middle of the city. What better place to do that than in High Park. Nestled in the midst of the busy West end of Toronto, we took Orla and Ian through the quiet and peaceful park and snapped as the two cuddled, kissed, and laughed. Orla, a lover of wild flowers, brought with her a hand-made bouquet that matched the mid-autumn colours of the surroundings and we couldn’t help but be reminded of the Irish country-side. We are also super excited to mention that Orla and Ian’s whimsical engagement session was also featured on JoyWed, see their story here!

Niki & Kyle Post-Wedding Portrait

Niki and Kyle are not only adorable and crazy in-love they also happen to be two of our closest friends, so you can imagine our delight when they asked us to photograph their wedding (featured on the Desire Hartsock Blog here) in Mexico this past winter. As it sometimes goes, scheduling wasn’t exactly in our favour and we only had a small amount of time between the reception and ceremony to take photos, so to make up for the short amount of time on the day of, we convinced the duo to let us take some post-wedding photographs. We scheduled the session for the late afternoon, so not to disrupt their first day of newlywed bliss and we were lucky to have one of the loveliest dusks of the whole trip. The sky was beautifully lit and the beach virtually deserted – the perfect backdrop for an intimate early evening portrait session.

Engaged ~ Jeff & Michelle

If we had to use one word to describe Jeff and Michelle it would be “adorable”! Their fun-loving energy and obvious adoration for each other is absolutely infectious, not to mention that they are hilarious and have us in stitches almost every time we meet.  Although there is some confusion as to how these two met  (Jeff claims Michelle picked him up at a club, to which Michelle retorts, “In your dreams!”) we sure are glad that they did!

Because Michelle and Jeff are city folk through and through, we decided to take them for a walk through Fort York and City Place for their engagement. So on a chilly and snowy early December afternoon, we strolled through the beautiful urban Toronto landscape and snapped the happy couple as they chatted, kissed, snuggled, and drank tea to keep warm. 

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