Boakview Photography

Best of 2017 ~ Engagements

Words truly cannot express how grateful we are for the couples we work with! You guys truly make what we do absolutely magical. Being around so much emotion always reminds us that love, just like life, is a journey never a destination – it is fluid, adaptive, forgiving, & selfless and we have the absolute privilege to be able to capture it as best we can and to immortalized its beauty. 2017 has been a bit of a tough year for me – running a business and having a baby at the same time is not an easy endeavour but going into 2018 I’m making a point of staying positive and grateful for the wonderful job I have (I get to photograph love! Thats pretty neat!) So to remind myself of how much I truly love what I do despite some of the difficulties, I have been going through our photos from last year and I couldn’t help but smile at all the wonderful memories we created! So part two of our “Best of…” series includes some of our favourite engagement moments and serves as a reminder of the amazing couples we get to hang out with and their love which we get to document. So turn up the music lovers, and enjoy!

 

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!

Kirsty & LuKas ~ A Beachside Wedding at Artscape Gibraltar Point

As photographers, we have the pleasure of seeing and capturing countless locations and venues, this is one of the great perks of our job. But even despite the fact that we get to shoot in really cool places and spaces, our bucket list for weddings seems to grow each year!  So when Kirsty and Lukas contacted us about their wedding on the Toronto Island we were thrilled. An island wedding has been sitting on our bucket list for years, and now someone wanted us to come along for the ride?! YES PLEASE (Happy Dance!) Not only were we thrilled to capture a wedding at such a cool location, but as soon as we met Kirsty and Lukas our hearts just melted – I mean these kids are just adorable – there is no better way to describe them (check out their love story bellow)! What began as a regular meeting in our dining room quickly became a chat-fest of epic proportions that lasted for over 2 hours! We were hooked!

Their wedding at Gibraltar Point was everything we imagined and more. From the boat ride to the island to the shaking of everyone’s booties until the wee hours of the morning, their wedding was simply amazing (s’mores included)! We can gush about it for pages, but instead why don’t we let the photos do the talking…Enjoy!

Lukas & Kirsty’s Love Story:

Lucas and I met on the online dating website, Plenty of Fish. He had been on several dates, I was new to online dating. My inbox was full of tiring “ur cute” messages from guys until Lucas’ came in. “Hey! If you could send one thing into outer space, what would it be? Everyone asks what do you do and that’s boring. If you could do anything you wanted for work, what would it be?” Intrigued, I messaged him back. We met a week later after spending countless hours chatting over Facebook. It took him eight years to propose, but he did it in the most magical way. We were on vacation in Vancouver visiting my brother and his then girlfriend. We took a few days trip to Vancouver Island and headed up into Tofino. We had a few cocktails at brunch (little did I know, Lucas was building some liquid confidence!) and headed to a secret beach some of the locals had shared with us. As we combed the shore for shells, Lucas got down on one knee and asked me to spend the rest of my life with him. We collapsed in the sand, holding and kissing one another. At that moment, no one except for us existed.

What inspired your wedding and your venue?

Lucas and I have a strong passion for the outdoors. We spend every weekend from spring until fall camping, rock climbing, paddling our cedar strip canoe and hiking. We wanted to find a venue that was a good balance between a rough outdoorsy place, yet comfortable enough for our guests that don’t enjoy the outdoors as much as we do. Artscape Gibraltar Point was so beautiful! It provided a stunning natural background for our ceremony, reception and photos. I wanted a bohemian vibe to our wedding and with minimal d?cor and I feel Artscape met that requirement for us. Our fabric bunting was handmade by one of my bridesmaid’s father for her wedding last year, we felt honoured to have them hanging at ours. In fact, almost all of our d?cor was handmade!

What was the most unique aspect of your wedding?

I felt the location of our venue made our wedding unique. 75% of our guests travelled from out of town to come to our wedding on Toronto Island. We chartered a ferry that brought our guests through a section of water channels and dropped them off at Artscape’s private ferry dock. Our guests then had to take a short path through tall grasses to get to our ceremony. Everyone raved that they felt they had attended a destination wedding, yet it was right in downtown Toronto. We also kept the vibe to our wedding incredibly laid back. We had guests in shorts and t-shirts and others in full blown designer suits!

What was your favourite part of the day?

My favourite part of my wedding day was that incredible, overwhelming feeling of absolute elation after being pronounced husband and wife. The positive energy at our wedding was palpable. I have never in my life experienced anything like it!

What’s your top 3 pieces of advice to future brides?

1) Always give each other enough space to grow. Each day we have new experiences, learn new things and meet new people, all of which impact who we are and how we see the world and shapes us into who we are today. That will constantly evolve and that’s an amazing thing.

2) Don’t sweat the small stuff. Don’t waste time being angry about things that aren’t worth it, and keep in mind that the wedding is a celebration for you and your closest!

3) It’s okay to not be on the same page as each other especially where wedding planning is concerned, it’s bound to happen as you each grow and change. The most important thing is being able to recognize when you are both butting heads with each other and having an open conversation about what you each need to feel loved and accepted again.

Vendor List:

Venue: Artscape Gibraltar Point

Dress: BHLDN

Hair: Melody Bostelaar at Lebel & Crowe

Make-up: Carley Chamberlain Makeup

Rings: Charm Diamonds

Tapestries: The Fox and the Mermaid

Paper Garlands: Maisy and Alice

Terrarium Card Box: Ikea

Bar Sign: Michael’s

Invitations: Lipamea

Officiate: Wayne Wright from Kettle Creek Weddings

Ferry Service: Island Princess Ferry

Flowers: Popis Flowers

DJ: DJ Goodvibes (Eric Woolston and Maylee Todd)

Catering: Food Dudes

Bridesmaids live succulent bracelets: Passion Flower Made

 

 

Kelly, Vince, & Joie ~ A Fun Family Engagement in High Park

There is truly nothing more special than the melding of two families – two hearts, two souls, two sets of dreams to become one…unless there is a third little heart, soul, and set of dreams involved. When Kelly and Vince first approached us to photograph their engagement session we were thrilled, not only are they our kind of people (you know, laid back, easy-going, creative, and slightly dorky) they also wanted to include Vince’s beautiful little girl Joie. We absolutely loved the idea of having a little lady included in their session (I mean who doesn’t love a little girl in a pink tutu!?) but also because we love the idea of this unique little family coming together and sharing their love. We had so much fun roaming high park, swinging on swings, picking flowers, and snuggling. It really made all of us feel like big kids again…

Lena & Hussain ~ An Intimate Elopement in Toronto

When we first met Lena & Hussain, I could instantly sense the love they had for each other – the light touches of their hands, the stolen glances at each other, the secret smiles all made my heart melt. Their story even more so. The two met at a holiday party for international students at their university in Montreal in 2010. A few glances across the room, a light conversation, and both were utterly in love. They dated for a few years and then on New Years eve in 2016 Hussain popped the question. For varying reasons the couple decided not to have a big splashy wedding and instead invited only the very closest of their friends and family for a small urban elopement in Toronto. It was an absolutely lovely way to spend a day. Lena and Hussain rented an AirBNB and got ready together with Lena’s mom and Hussain’s sister-in-law – it was a beautiful family affair with lots of laughs, embraces, and even a few tears. We then made our way to city hall, where the couple said their “I dos” while their nearest and dearest watched. Finally, underneath a huge mural of a Persian rug (Lena is Persian so the rug mural held a lot of cultural significance for the bride) the couple danced, snuggled, and laughed while I snapped away. We ended the day with a round of warm cups of tea and coffee – the perfect finale!

I asked Lena some questions about her big day, here is what she had to say:

What inspired your wedding? “There was no “real” wedding involved and I think that was the theme, just celebrating two of us, how we met and how we struggled through life during our “international student days” and how all of those experiences brought us closer. The day was symbolic of our love and we wanted to celebrate that intimately in our new city.”

What was the most important and unique thing about your elopement? “Our photography – usually when you are getting eloped you do not have photos of it, all I wanted was photos, and that was done in the most unique way possible.”

What was your favourite part of the day? “Mine, was when I said “I do.” No doubt.”

What advice would you give to couples who are planning an elopement?

Stay relaxed everything will fall in place.

Focus on what you want not on what others want – it is your day!

Have fun during planning, that part lasts longer than the actual day and should be fun just as well.

Kiss and hug your parents and in-laws as much as you can on your wedding day, this will make your pictures really lovely and it makes them feel special.

A Week in Review

It’s that time again, another week has gone by (okay a little late this time, but I’m thinking it may make more sense to do this at the end of a week as opposed to the beginning?!) So here is what went down, what inspired me, what made me laugh, and what I found intriguing from last week – enjoy….

Ida & Nolan ~ An Intimate Breakfast Engagement in Toronto

Once in a while we come across people we just know we were meant to meet. We get that lovely inexplicable feeling in our guts that these humans may be friends for life – this is exactly the feeling we go as soon as we met Ida & Nolan. Not only do we have oodles in common (including our mutual love for greasy spoon burger joints) but we instantly clicked not only with Ida and Nolan themselves but their entire family (honestly Italian families are the bomb!) For their engagement session, the couple invited me into Ida’s family home, where we had a late breakfast, chatted about their epic wedding at Hockley Valley and played with their adorable Visla fur baby, who also tried to steal some of the goodies served at breakfast (she’s fast that one). It was the perfect way to kick off the weekend, Nutella included!

A Week in Review…

When you own your own business, especially a creative one like ours, it’s sometimes really difficult to stay inspired – despite loving what we do, work sometimes becomes something you just “do” and not something you “create” and there is a huge difference in that. One piece of advice that I keep hearing from other photographers, in order to escape the the trap of feeling like photography is no longer an art, is to shoot for yourself. So this week I made a new resolution for myself and that is to photograph at least one little thing each day and, if I feel inspired, shoot as much as possible. So far the first week has been challenging, I’m not going to lie. Being sleep-deprived (Little Miss Vie has decided that she is over sleep) sometimes makes it hard to look at the world through a rosy/ artistic lens. But nonetheless, I am trying to do this for myself as well as for my work. So every Friday I will do my best to post my own week in review, to capture the world as I saw it with all of its beauty, darkness, laughter, tears and joy. I hope you enjoy the project…

Jacqueline & NJ ~ An Engagement in Little Italy

When a couple we met at another wedding asks us to photograph their own big day, we can’t help but high-five each other (yes, we are THAT dorky!) To us, this means two things: one – we already get along and our chemistry is aligned (BONUS!) and 2 – we must have done something right (DOUBLE BONUS). So when NJ and Jacqueline asked us to capture their special day we were thrilled. Their wedding is fast approaching and we are super excited to spend even more time with them, and so in honour of the yet-to-occur occasion, we are posting some snaps of their engagement session in Little Italy.

We always suggest to our couples to have fun with their engagement session location and to choose something and some place that strongly represents them and their relationship. Somewhere you feel comfy and/or are familiar with so that it is a true representation of your journey together. Because NJ & Jacqueline are huge fans of board games, we started the evening at Snakes and Lattes a cafe that holds oodles and oodles of games and serves some pretty great lattes. After a pretty heated game of Scrabble, we made our way through the charming Toronto neighbourhood taking in the gorgeous weather and light. It was a lovely and chill way to spend a warm summer evening…

Carina & Mo ~ An Intimate Wedding at Le Select Bistro

I admit, sometimes writing about the weddings we do and the couples we meet is a difficult task – after all how do you put into words the emotions, love, and atmosphere of such an intimate day? This is something I always struggle with. Carina and Mo’s wedding, however, feels even more difficult to describe because this is a couple so sweet and so genuine that no written words really do them justice. We met Carina & Mo at a small boutique wedding show at the Gladstone Hotel and were immediately drawn to Carina’s quiet grace and Mo’s boyish smile. Their sweetness and love for one another is so evident we knew instantly that their small and intimate wedding would be unforgettable for us!

We began our day at Philosopher’s Path at U of T where they both went to law school. It was a cloudy but warm fall day, and crowds stopped in their path to admire the lovely couple who laughed and snuggled together under the trees. We then made our way to Liberty Village to meet family and close friends for some photos and laughs. We had so much fun capturing everyone under a huge Persian Rug mural that the couple chose as their backdrop.

Finally, we made our way to Le Select Bistro where Carina and Mo said their vows in front of a small group of their most loved ones. A beautiful reading from The Little Prince brought tears to even our own eyes, and as the happy couple sealed their marriage with a kiss they were met with one of the loudest and most genuine of applauses. After a decadent meal (and boy was it ever fabulous!) everyone busted some moves on the dance floor – laughter and music could be heard well into the night and we felt ever so lucky to be there amidst it all…

Contact Us

Toronto & Beyond

(647) 454-4744

hello@boakviewphotography.com

Stay in touch

Latest on Instagram