An Engagement Hike in Elora with Elizabeth & Matthew
we informally met Elizabeth & matthew last year
At Matthew’s sister’s wedding (helllllo Lauren & Chris!). It’s always nice meeting couples through other weddings so that they’re able to see first hand how we work and see the photos that come out of all of that hard work afterwards, it’s like a little job interview without formally being interviewed you know? It’s so important to us to mesh well with our couples so as soon as we saw their email come in about wanting to work together we said yes!
Elizabeth & Matthew are highschool sweethearts who developed a love for hiking and even got engaged on a hike— “We went on a hike up the Mono Cliffs and Matthew proposed to me at the lookout at the top. He surprised me by telling me to turn around for a picture then when I turned back around he was on one knee with the ring.”— so it was only fitting that their engagement session also be all about hiking! But less seriously, it was an easy hike, no one wants to be all sweaty and gross while trying to look cute in photos ;) For this session we headed to the quaint little town of Elora! We looove shooting in fall but this time of year always proves tricky for not having super grey, cloudy, and/or rainy days so after rescheduling quite a bit, we found out the hard way that our first shooting location, the Elora Gorge Conservation Area, had just closed for the season. Instead we made our way into town and took a little stroll along the main road and by the Elora Mill, before making our way down to the Lover’s Leap trail.
We had shot at this trail many many years ago and the couple was local to the area so they gave pretty clear directions on how to get there, but all of these years later trying to find it again proved to be difficult because I couldn’t find it exactly on google or other hiking maps, so here’s the shortcut for you: search for ‘Victoria Park in Elora’ —there’s a quaint little forestry area, a small lookout over the gorge, and at one end of the park there’s a small rock staircase that’ll bring you right down the gorge! When you do get down you’ll feel tiny among the massive rock formations, and when the water is low enough you can even walk right into the middle of it! For us the water was higher than expected (thanks to all of the rain that made us reschedule this shoot in the first place) so it was tricky to get onto one of the rocks but Hannah sacrificed her dry feet to help them across and yes, it was worth it for both them and us!
When first planning an engagement session the first thing we suggest when trying to find a location is choosing somewhere sentimental and we love this idea of taking one of their passions (hiking) and making a photoshoot out of it! It’s something enjoyable and beautiful for all of us, but also very meaningful experience to you!
