to prepare for you my love

i rise in the early morning light with butterflies in my stomach, my heart swelling, my breath short.  a performance before me, the beginning but hardly the first chapter.  for we've been together for some days now my love.  the scent of your skin against mine, the taste of your kiss, the salty lips on mine, your heartbeat... i know thee well, yet today i prepare to meet you in front of an audience, the dearest of our hearts together with us.  i do.  until night falls and the sun rises and the world turns endlessly, i love you.  and i will take your hand in mine and place a golden ring on your finger and take you as my love until death do us part, until the sea takes us into her arms to the stars.  i am yours.

historic storms

my heart goes out to all of my beautiful friends and those people in my life who support my endeavours... who have been affected by this wild act of nature.  my website hosting company has a basement full of water... and so my site may be down for an unknown period of time.  

oh mother nature be kind... and we will try to be nicer to you too.  

pictured here is one of my favourite couples from 2012.  Ara & Colin, who were wed this past fall at Graydon Hall.  here you see them as they hold hands before their outdoor ceremony.  they wanted to hear each other's voices and feel each others touch... but not see each other until they walked down the aisle.  simply beautiful.

xo

( wedding: leah & matto)

we built this city.  we built a place for love and community.  down in the valley amongst red winged blackbirds, fox, rabbit, lily pads... we now wed. 

the brickworks has grown ever more wild, brimming with hope and promise.

i can't imagine a more meaningful place to tie a knot, to hold the hand of the one who compliments you, reflects for you, sees you for the beautiful person you are and who you continue to become year after passing year.

leah & matto are a generous gift to each other and to all of us.  they share a passion for the soil under our feet and the air we breath into our lungs... and they will actively champion for a rich, prosperous planet earth... for you, for us, for the children yet to be born.  

i thank them for caring so deeply, for creating a wedding celebration made with hands and hearts. the groomsmen made their own boutonnieres, the bouquets too, made at home, the pear butter made in boston while completing PHD's in environmental policy, hand written note cards given to guests as an invitation to open hearts and minds, to move through the gathering making new friends... hearts opening.

soma chocolate, the stop food community food centre, ontario wines, upcycled, recycled, borrowed... beautiful.

cocktails with tequila / lime / grapefruit / vanilla / tarragon + cucumber / lime / mint / pink peppercorns / gin / tonic.

family style dining.  dancing.  joy.

friday i'm in love

sometimes life feels like a storm.  that expression "when it rains it pours" rings true.  we have been up to our eyeballs in change these last weeks.  buying a new home, preparing our home of seven years for someone new, opening that house to strangers to walk through and criticize, dissect, analyze... and hopefully fall in love with.  we found such a couple, 3 months pregnant, as we were when we looked at our house seven years ago.  it's been busy and full.  all the while making sure the children are busy enjoying the bounty of the long hot summer days... and of course, capturing one frame at a time, the passing moments of my couples evolving lives.  

just the other day i opened my email, the first task every morning when i arrive at the studio, and there it was in the middle of the storm... a nugget, of golden made.  i share it with you... especially you who might be looking for a photographer at this very moment, someone to tell your story.  someone to embark on this journey with you, not just for your wedding day, but for the birth of your children and the birthdays they will celebrate, especially that very first birthday.  i am a photographer who not only takes photographs but also becomes an extension of your family.  i am part of the journey, there for each milestone.  

i leave you with a groom's persepective one year after the wedding day:

Rebecca I hope this e-mail finds you well and enjoying our hot sunny summer so far.

I wanted to drop you a quick line to say thank you. It’s probably not often you receive an e-mail from a groom as most guys look at a wedding day as the “bride’s day” and we just sit back and do what we are told lol. I know that last year when Emily was putting together everything for the wedding the discussion on the photography was a big discussion, as a guy I was of the impression why can’t anyone just take the picture and save us the $ it was costing us. I will admit more than once I didn’t understand the cost concept and why it was such a big deal. Sorry for that in advance.

When I look back over the past year and have the opportunity to see the photos on our walls, in the books, etc, I can’t believe that you captured everything I imagined my beautiful wife to be, to see her facial expressions, her vision come to life, and most important my overall love for her.

I apologize for my initial thoughts on the cost of the photographs and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for giving both Emily and I a wedding to remember for the ages and the beginning of a life one couldn’t be happier about. You have done an amazing job and I look back a year ago as if it was just yesterday because of you and your phenomenal vision captured in photos.

If anyone ever tells you they are “concerned” with the cost of your photography tell them to contact me and I will let them know it was the cheapest part of the wedding when you consider what you do and what I get to look at daily because of you.

Thank you again. 

Quinn