A Beautiful Outdoor Wedding with Allie & Stefan

We would consider these two our dream clients…

And spoiler: it has nothing to do with budget! Allie and Stefan, right off the bat, felt like our people. You know that feeling you get when you meet someone and just think, ‘they’re so cool, I really like them, I instantly feel so comfortable.’ We had all that and more from day 1 with them! Last summer we headed up to Allie’s cottage in Brantford to shoot their engagement session and that really solidified our love for them. Apart from being super chill with having our dog, Razzie, hang around (because we were also on the way up to our own cottage after shooting haha) seeing first hand the love that theses two have for each other is really, truly, #relationshipgoals.

Green flags for us are: couples who say “we trust you”, couples who ask for our advice, and the most important one— couples who have a wedding planner! While having a planner is by no means necessary it is something we always recommend if your budget allows for one. Even if it’s a month / day of coordinator, and not a full service planner who helps you from engagement to honeymoon, having a planner on site (and not a venue coordinator, these are two different ppl! Venue coordinators have the venue’s best interest at hand, and some venues have multiple weddings happening on the same day. A wedding planner has your best interests at the forefront.) is so so helpful. Because photographers are typically the vendor with you the longest throughout both your overall wedding planning process and on your wedding day, a lot of wedding planner responsibilities end up falling on us. The biggest things being: timeline management* and corralling people. (*we offer timeline assistance with all of our packages but for us this means taking a look at your schedule and sharing how we can best maximize photography within your existing timeline). Having a wedding planner means that we get to focus on you, focus on creating beautiful photos together, and if you have a really great planner, we’ll even be ahead of schedule!

Unsurprisingly we got all this and more from Allie & Stefan! And to top it off, both of their bridal parties and families, and their new (senior) rescue dog, were so much fun, so warm, and such a blast to hang around all day which of course only makes our job easier.

Click the photos below to enlarge and browse through

while there wasn’t officially a reception decor plan

Last minute someone (I can’t remember who, sorry!) decided to “throw a few things together”, beautifully might we add! Our winters here in Ontario feel so long that in summer we truly want to spend as much time outdoors as humanly possible, so putting together a lovely tent for dinner where folks can dip in and out as they’d like, really encapsulate that summer spirit in the best way. It wasn’t too hot (for those of us not in suits lol), wasn’t too humid, it really was the perfect day.

Here’s the thing about when the dancefloor opens… sometimes it’s a slow process, it takes people a few more drinks before they have enough confidence to bust a move, and sometimes it really does come down to the DJ being able to properly read the room. None of these issues existed on Allie & Stefan’s dancefloor. Everyone was made to party. And party they did! At this point in our wedding season we felt like we didn’t quite have the super fun, upbeat, groovy, trendy playlist we personally love (should we make and link a public playlist lol? comment down below) but Off-Nights was hitting. every. beat. Everyone, and I mean everyone, was on the dancefloor, we were even dancing as we were shooting!