Christi­na & Thi­lak­shan are adven­tur­ers. It’s some­thing we picked up on very quick­ly as they told us of their many and var­ied shared expe­ri­ences — from shark-cage div­ing, to hik­ing through Banff and trav­el­ing across Thai­land. We thought we could relate by let­ting them in on what was then our soon-to-be flight on a tiny plane with Jen­ny and Neal, but then they told us they had also sky-dived togeth­er off of a small and very ques­tion­able plane them­selves. Like we said, Christi­na and TK are adventurers.

It was an aspect of their rela­tion­ship that we want­ed to high­light in their film. Through­out our first few talks and into our first face-to-face meet­ing with them (once they found them­selves in Toron­to), we talked about why wed­ding cin­e­matog­ra­phy was impor­tant to them and what they envi­sioned for their wed­ding video. For one, they want­ed a sto­ry that reflect­ed “them” draw­ing upon their wed­ding day and ele­ments out­side of it to paint a full por­trait of who they real­ly are. Anoth­er impor­tant aspect would be their Sri Lankan Hin­du cer­e­mo­ny, which would have so many intri­cate rit­u­als. Both of these com­po­nents were right up our alley and we wouldn’t dream of mak­ing a film — wed­ding or oth­er­wise — that wouldn’t reflect our sub­ject. con­tin­ue read­ing »

There is no short­age of places that our por­trait shoots have tak­en us on. We’ve ven­tured into cou­ples’ kitchens and their cot­tages, have ran along lakeshore and hiked through the cliffs of Tober­mory, but we nev­er imag­ined that one would take us up in the air on a plane pilot­ed by a groom.

For as long as Jen­ny and Neal have been togeth­er, Neal has owned a sin­gle engine air­plane. It’s been some­thing they’ve enjoyed through­out the years, fly­ing to the U.S., the Caribbean, or even just up to Tim­mins for pou­tine, but we were par­tic­u­lar­ly hooked when we found out Neal pro­posed to Jen­ny on one of their flights. Neal men­tioned he want­ed the wed­ding video to be epic and with a cer­e­mo­ny at St. Paul’s Basil­i­ca, a recep­tion at the Arca­di­an Court and Loft, and the fact that they were char­ter­ing a fleet of street­cars to trans­port their wed­ding par­ty and guests to all these loca­tions, we knew it’d be just that — but we also knew that there’d be noth­ing more epic than to go fly­ing with them and work that ele­ment of their sto­ry into their film.

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Noreen (Nunu) and AJ share one of the truest loves that we’ve ever had the plea­sure of being privy to. Even as this film came togeth­er, we found our­selves smil­ing and aww-ing at the small moments and ges­tures that make this love so great. It’s sim­ple: to be in Nunu and AJ’s pres­ence is to be in the pres­ence of com­plete com­fort and happiness.

That sim­plic­i­ty trans­lat­ed per­fect­ly to their wed­ding day. It wasn’t a show or big pro­duc­tion. There was no big reveal. In fact, the first thing we did was meet the cou­ple ear­ly in the morn­ing for their gift exchange. After that, they left to have a pri­vate break­fast at the Four Sea­sons before chang­ing and head­ing to the cer­e­mo­ny togeth­er. It was the first time we had seen any­thing like it, and it took a lit­tle get­ting used to see­ing the bride and groom in the same place so ear­ly in the day, but it was com­plete­ly nor­mal to Nunu and AJ. For them, it was less about the cus­toms, and more about cel­e­brat­ing their love through togeth­er­ness: theirs and with their fam­i­ly. con­tin­ue read­ing »

It was at the busiest point of our 2015 sea­son that we took a 7‑hour road trip up to Tim­mins, Ontario to be a part of an edi­to­r­i­al shoot for Wed­Luxe Mag­a­zine. Lau­ra from Lau­ra & Co. had reached out to us and filled us in on the project — there was talk of fox­es, fal­cons, and the great north­ern wilderness.

We were con­vinced before we had even fin­ished read­ing the e‑mail and were ready to move heav­en and earth to be a part of this project.

So hav­ing just shot Andrea and Jef­f’s wed­ding on the Sat­ur­day, we charged our bat­ter­ies, backed up our cards, and packed to dri­ve up on Mon­day, shoot for the next two days, and come back for Thurs­day to get every­thing ready for Crys­tal and Jer’s on Friday.

We left around noon on Mon­day, tak­ing a small detour to Neo Cof­fee Bar for some good cof­fee and snacks. We had heard a lot about this place but hon­est­ly, it was love at first sip and is now one of our favourite cof­fee spots in Toronto.

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We’re not hap­py to say that we were part of a slight­ly evil prank lead­ing up to this wed­ding. Here’s the back­sto­ry: Crys­tal con­tact­ed us last win­ter to have us cre­ate a film for her and Jer­ry. This led to a casu­al chain of e‑mails dis­cussing her wed­ding plans and what she envi­sioned for her film. She told us she would just need to con­sult Jer and get back to us. Then he called us.

Jer­ry had us tell Crys­tal that we booked her date right after we spoke to her. No check­ing in with her at all — just booked it and were no longer avail­able. The inten­tion was noble. He want­ed to gift “us” to her for Christ­mas (weeks lat­er, mind you) and thought it’d be a bet­ter sur­prise if she thought we were com­plete­ly off the table. Our hearts broke a lit­tle bit as we wrote that e‑mail to her, and once again when she wrote back express­ing her sad­ness. But we knew it was all part of an elab­o­rate sur­prise that would undoubt­ed­ly yield a lot of hap­pi­ness. It did. She was ecsta­t­ic, we were relieved, and we could con­tin­ue on to the reg­u­lar aspects of putting togeth­er one of our stories.

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Andrea and Jeff’s day took us on a tour of some of Toronto’s best wed­ding venues; from the Ritz-Carlton, to Knox Col­lege, and then to the Dis­tillery Dis­trict for an inti­mate din­ner at the Fer­ment­ing Cel­lar. But despite all of the beau­ti­ful imagery we were able to cre­ate at these loca­tions, a good set­ting means noth­ing with­out some great char­ac­ters — and Andrea and Jeff, are some pret­ty amaz­ing characters.

It wasn’t so much about “how do we shape and pace this sto­ry”, but which of all of the dif­fer­ent sto­ries to focus on.

Between their cards, per­son­al vows, and equal­ly per­son­al speech­es, we had a lot to work with. It wasn’t so much about “how do we shape and pace this sto­ry”, but which of all of the dif­fer­ent sto­ries to focus on. At the fore­front of this nar­ra­tive, is the cel­e­bra­tion of Andrea and Jeff’s love — one sim­ply shaped by laugh­ter and good sleep (usu­al­ly on Jeff’s armpit) — and the esca­lat­ing excite­ment to see each oth­er at the altar. We want to empha­size that inten­si­fy­ing excite­ment. Andrea actu­al­ly lost all feel­ing while putting on her dress and it didn’t return until after her and Jeff’s first look.

As Jeff hilar­i­ous­ly put it, he doesn’t under­stand why peo­ple get cold feet, his feet were on fire. And that rings so true for these two. Nine years in the mak­ing, they just couldn’t wait to say their I do’s.