Landscape by Ethan, winter 2016, 35mm film

We’re a little late but you know what they say, good things take time… right?

Not only are we in 2020 but we’re in a new decade and we couldn’t feel more excited! The end of a year is one thing but the end of a whole entire decade has us feeling a whole lot of things. At the beginning of the decade we didn’t even know each other and really didn’t think that we’d end up here, exactly as we are. To say this has been a journey is probably an understatement, it feels like we’ve been through a lifetime together- personally and work wise- but we as we step into this new year and new decade we can confidently say that everything we’ve learnt in the last 10 years has really shaped us all to be who and where we are today.

Read a few parting thoughts down below and see some of our favourite photos from 2019…

HANNAH

2019 was an action-packed year, and definitely the most chaotic way to end off the the last decade. I could not be more grateful for Stef and Ethan (as business partners, but more importantly as friends) and how much they’ve helped me this last year. In August I lost my grandmother and then got married in another country within the span of 10 days, and to be honest I completely fell apart afterwards. The whirlwind of events leading up to the wedding coupled with trying to leave myself space to grieve and heal after losing someone so close to me, was the most difficult thing I’ve had to do. Once my husband (omg wow it’s still weird writing that haha) and I came home from the wedding, everything kind of hit me all at once, and I needed a lot of time to myself to look after my mental health. Stef and Ethan took over all my clients and tasks for me, and made sure that I wasn’t overwhelmed with a workload or anything. I think a huge core value that we all share as both friends and business partners, is our empathy and understanding. It took me going through this last year to realize that we operate so differently from so many businesses, because we care so deeply about each others well-being. In October, Ethan’s grandfather passed away and Stef had some sort of chest infection, and I shot all of our work solo that weekend, and ran everything for them without hesitation or a second thought. I really love us as a team, and I’m so happy and proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish this last year, and I really do believe that that gets translated into our work and through our photos.

In terms of our clients and our work, this last year has been absolutely wonderful, and I tell that to everyone who asks (and even people who don’t). This last year has felt so different, because of the opportunities that we’ve been given to shoot with such amazing couples and families. When we have clients that trust us, and want to work with us because of who we are, and the way that we tell their stories- our work really comes to life. There’s nothing that brings me greater joy than being able to tell people how much I love my job, the people I work with, and the people we work for. This year we were fully able to be ourselves, shoot in our style, and grow collectively as a team. It’s been incredible to reflect back on.

I think going forward one of my goals for Rosewood for this year is going to be to step back every so often, and be grateful and appreciative of everything that we’ve accomplished. What we do isn’t easy, it’s taken a long time to get to this point and it’s taken a lot of hard work and dedication. I think we tend to work non-stop, and push ourselves to constantly be busy and be productive, without realizing. I want to be able to take a minute and congratulate ourselves on all of our hard work on a more regular basis. I want to be more vocal about it too, the photos we take are absolutely stunning and we deserve to be proud of ourselves and recognize that!

I’m a sucker for symmetry and even numbers like 2020, and I know this year is going to be an amazing year :)

STEF

In the beginning of the decade I was finishing high school and shortly thereafter starting college which is where 9 years of (wow, where have the years gone?!) friendship, lots of crying, laughing so hard we can’t breathe, the “I have no idea what I’m doing right now, please help me”, long car rides turned into therapy/venting sessions, etc. began. There was a weird stigma in photo school about being a wedding photographer so I really didn’t think we’d end up here, but when we were close to graduating and suddenly had 2 weddings unofficially booked (this and this), how could we say no? Since then every wedding we’ve shot has made me fall more and more in love with our ability to get so close to couples and families, to capture genuine and passionate love, and to professionally be a third wheel on one of the biggest day(s) of people’s lives! How crazy is that?!

This year has been no exception to any of those feelings because I can definitively, 100%, beyond a shadow of a doubt say that 2019 has been our best year yet, PERIODT. I may have said this last year but I certainly mean it more now, we are coming into our own and it feels sooo good! Since we’ve started shooting I think I’ve always had a general idea of what I want to do and how to do it, but now more than ever, everything is much clearer; our direction, our growth, our confidence, and I’m so incredibly proud of all of us for this because it has not been an easy process. I cannot wait for this little business of ours to take off, and to be able to do everything we do and love, on a larger scale!

2019 was filled with so many heartwarming moments, and even though we’re not supposed to play favourites, we definitely had so many of our favourite shoots this year. The kind of days where we say, if we had to have more of the same, it’d be exactly that over again. This year we forged deeper connections with our clients, leaned into our style more and became more confident with giving instruction and communicating our process, which really translated in photos.

I tend to give myself unrealistic goals (IE: I’m going to edit ALL of the weddings we have on our plate TODAY, I’ll redo our WHOLE website THIS WEEK, let me just plan a YEAR'S worth of social media in ONE DAY… lol) so this year as I set my sights on wanting to shoot more 2x, 3x, more than last year and to really refine and perfect our process/our work/our style I, for once, don’t feel like it’s unattainable. I know that it’s completely possible and it’s something that we can do.

Here’s my little spiel to put it out into the universe: This is the year we grow our business. This is the year we really find our voice, where we find our best clients and best weddings to date. This is the year we better refine our backend workflow. This is the year we go all in.

ETHAN

For me 2019 was overall a good year but it certainly had a rocky start to it; winter is always hard, between more time spent indoors and not being as busy with work as we are in the summer it’s overall a slower and less exciting season. In February, Stef and I were in a car accident (rear ended and pushed into a truck) that left us both shaken up with minor concussions. The best part was this was that the crash happened two days before I was going to have a minor knee surgery to remove some hardware from my accident a couple of summers ago. This was definitely a set back for us. Our car was a write off and it took us two and a half months to sort out a replacement. Things continued to get worse when our insurance rental car was hit while street parked, and there really is no way to describe that gut wrenching feeling other than it felt like an extra kick while we are down. To say that this isn’t how we wanted to start the year is an understatement, but things eventually did work out in the end, and we were lucky to have had support and help from our family and friends during this time.

Onto Rosewood things now: Stef was bang on to touch on 2019 being our best year ever though. When I look back and see our work from years past I see how we have evolved as shooters and though our style hasn’t changed much, our process has. We have all grown so much and are all much more comfortable communicating with our couples and directing them, and in a way, we’ve put ourselves first-- by making sure our needs are met-- so we can create the best images possible.

Not to go on and on about every single wedding we shot this season I’ll talk about two of my favourites that were magical in their own way: Karen & Alex, and Jenessa & Les.

K&A’s wedding was very lively with some serious Polish roots. Karen’s father is part of a traditional Polish band and they were playing all night at their reception and even sang a song or two throughout the night. At this wedding we had our first chance to shoot family and couple photos in a studio space after the ceremony and it really opened the door to a new style (and location) of shooting that we are now obsessed with! PSA: If your wedding is in a cold season or your ceremony doesn’t have any nice green spaces nearby think about booking a studio!!

J&L’s wedding was one of the largest that we’ve shot so that was a really unique experience for us in and of itself! The church was really beautiful and bright, and we were lucky to get a nice day of weather in the fall. The reception was at Universal Event Space where a whole floor was rented out, and where the magic really happened! This is probably the most beautiful banquet hall reception we have ever shot; the decor and table settings were all spectacular, and the wedding party table was a brilliant 2 stage set up! Banquet halls can be tough to shoot but Jenessa & Les did such a fantastic job setting up in a way that made the experience not only for guests beautiful, but for us too!

Overall, I’m really happy with the progress the three of us have made and I look forward to seeing all of the ways we continue to grow in the next two years! We are all ready to take our business to the next level and I couldn’t feel more excited about that. New decade, new and improved us!