l i f e c r e a t i o n s » Worldwide photojournalist artistically capturing life as it happens….

this one’s just a little long, so grab some popcorn, sit back and enjoy!

lets rewind a few months back to say.. mid october, actually thanksgiving sunday! i had just shot two weddings in a row, the friday and saturday.. 8th and 9th respectively, and now i was onto my third. a 13hour wedding on my third day of shooting turned into a 15 hour event. talk about being mentally and physically drained! let me tell you, i didn’t feel a slight bit of lag that day, because the wedding was so fast paced, and action filled… not to mention the amazing party during the reception.. there was hardly a soul in their seats after dinner.

i met natacha early last summer at her flower shop, mary’s flowers, she is incredibly busy with her family run flower shop, so i decided to go there to meet her and talk wedding. at first sight, i knew that her wedding was going to be incredible.. even if it would only be her insight into the floral arrangements for the day… quite a few of her family members were at the store, and i got to meet them during out ’storefront consultation’ natacha was a beautiful bride to be inside and out! i knew without a doubt, that this wedding would be one that i will never forget!

her fiancee, patrick… or as i now call him (black shades).. more on that later… lives and works in miami, florida. he’s passed the florida bar exam and just waiting for his credentials while working for one of the largest law firms in miami…. throw a wedding in to the mix, and you’ve got a very busy pat, studying, planning.. you name it, he was doing it! i didn’t actually meet patrick until their wedding day as he is a very busy man in florida, but i knew we were destined to be black shades bro’s! anyways, natacha had picked several of her favourite photographers in the toronto area and sent their info to pat down in florida, they both loved the work of a small handful of photographers including myself, but ended up choosing me because of a photo of me.. kind of ironic.. but several months back i posted a pic of myself shooting in the pouring rain at another wedding from this past summer.. one of the bridesmaids husband took the picture while i was shooting. patrick, being the nice guy he is, picked me, knowing full well that i would do anything for my clients, even if it meant standing out in a torrential downpour just to get one shot.

this day would be extremely busy, time frames didn’t allow for laid back photography, throw in a football team of a wedding party, and you’ve got one big lebanese / armenian wedding! so much fun, so many people, amazing family members so hospitable to me.. patrick’s family, natacha’s family, the dj.. nick from sound sensations, the incredible planner, margo boudakian, the live band, the details, the food… oh i haven’t told you about the food… to DIE for, peter and paul’s catering has to be one of the absolute best! i seriously raved about their dinner to everyone.. it was the one of the best meals i’ve ever had! okay, so you’re bore of reading, lets get onto some some, okay tonnes of pics from their day….

this was funny.. natacha's mom wanted me to take pics of her in the formal living room in their house, but i just loved these green curtains!

some photographers refuse to use off camera lighting during a ceremony, but i will whenever i can, as you can see the lighting is 'heavenly'

after the ceremony, we were off to richmond green for a rather quick and freezing cold shoot, natacha was great, didn't complain about the cold one time.. i guess that's because she knew she'd be moving to miami soon enough!

this girl danced the night away!

this is natacha's pappy.. he is an amazing guy! i'm pretty sure he outlasted everyone on the dance floor that night!

so that was just a little.. or long preview of their actual wedding day. so let me go back again..when i first met natacha to discuss her wedding plans, she informed me that the timing on the actual day was pretty tight and we had very little time to actually do a photo shoot with them, so we had planned on doing a shoot after the wedding. shortly after the wedding natacha had decided to move to florida to be with her man while he finished up his legal studies… so instead of doing a post wedding shoot in the toronto area, they flew me down to miami for four days mid november.. after all, nat always wanted a beach wedding, but with families their size, it would have been impossible!

so off to miami i go, nat picked me up at the airport, and we spent the friday strolling around all the quaint little shops and cafe’s in south beach.. we had an awesome time, i even got to go into the studio of one of my favourite landscape photographers, peter lik… his work is insane.. sales staff, not so friendly, but that’s another story all together we decided to do the shoot on the saturday of my 4 day adventure, and it was an incredible day, the miami heat was HOT, not a cloud in the sky for most of the day which made shooting a little tricky. we had a blast driving all over miami and south beach in an old toyota corolla, with a dulled up bride and groom, me in my shorts and t-shirt.. we got some weird looks… trust me i think people thought they had hired a bum for their wedding photography.. but it was smoking hot this day! ….. so black shades? well, as we drove around all day, pat and i kept hearing this song on the radio down there, and we were positive without a doubt it said ‘black shades on my face, so you can see my a**’ so we laughed about it all day, i think exhaustion was the key player in this dilema… so we got back to their condo after the shoot, and we were all googling the lyrics from the song, well… you got it, turns out it is black shades on my face, so you can’t see my eyes… ya, we were tired, okay… so let’s just drop it there.

my 4 days in miami were incredible with this couple… my wife often wonders how i can spend so much time with people i hardly know, but sometimes you just click… trust me i’ve done this before, maybe weird for some of you, but that’s just the way i am. nat and pat were a blast to hang out with for a few days, they treated me like a great friend, showed me around all the hot spots, took me out for incredible dinners, and i might add, the food down there is far superior to any ‘great’ restaurant up here, absolutely incredible! so thanks for showing me a great time in miami guys…. and here’s some of the highlights from our shoot down south!

this is a shot of downtown miami from key biscane

the day i arrived in miami, nat took me out to a seafood lunch and i spotted this pinkish orange building on our way to the restaurant, i told her then to remember where it was because i'd like to use it, when we arrived the sun was just starting to go down, it was perfect!

i apologize for such a long post, but it was hard narrowing down the images i wanted to share with you, and because this is sort of my down time of year, i have a bit more time to do it! so again, natacha and patrick… thankyou so much for putting up with me in florida! i had an amazing time with you two… congrats again, and all the best!!!!!

*** and if any of my brides or blog readers are looking for a florist for their wedding… look no further than mary’s flowers on victoria park in north york….