Bandit Brewery Wedding in Toronto

As someone who loves the fall season, autumn weddings totally have my heart. There’s something about the colours and the magical vibe of the season… you know what I’m talking about, right?! The weather is always amazing with it being just right; not too hot, not too cool. Not sweating on a wedding day is also key especially as Toronto summers, although beautiful can be really spicy!

Amy and Bob are infectiously wonderful and I worked very closely with them to help them on their wedding day. To me, they’re a perfect example of the kind of communication and connection I have with my couples; they didn’t have a planner so I worked with them on all the moving photography pieces. What is the flow of the photos? Where should we do them? Should we keep the family photos closer to the venue so it’s easier to get family there? (Side note - yes!) Between the three of us, we worked it all out perfectly and I was honoured to play a part in helping plan their day.

Let me tell you a little backstory about them too, from the day of their engagement shoot when I just totally fell in love with them.

Their engagement shoot was planned for a week it was supposed to rain every day and I was so stressed about it. And of course, while it didn’t rain any of the days leading up to their shoot, it was 100% going to rain the day of. But these two magical people were so incredibly positive, and kept saying, “we got this! It’s not going to rain!” . When I got to the shoot location, I just knew it was going to rain. Amy and Bob were running a few minutes late and I kept checking my weather network app, and saw it was going to rain in 4 minutes. And sure enough, it did.

They arrived and it was just pouring, so we sat in our respective cars and tried to wait it out. They maintained this upbeat positive demeanour the whole time we waited out the rain, and then once the rain subsided, they were ready to go! And even with the raging muggy heat that day, you’d have never known it because they were just so excited to be together.

We went back to their old coffee spot, Contra, and did some photos there. Then we were like, “let’s find a stoop to sit on and eat burgers!” So we had Uber Eats come drop off veggie burgers from Matty’s Patty’s. The whole experience was just such an amazing time for us to chat and connect and I had such a blast with them. That’s part of why I love engagement sessions so much—you get to have extended time to build a relationship with your couples, which is just so much fun and makes for an important part of being along on a day most people call “the most important day of your life”.

That shoot just made me feel totally all in with them. It was such a hilarious bonding experience and just made me so giddy to be around them. They have these big beautiful hearts and they are such a blast! So with that in mind, you can imagine how excited I was about the wedding!

The wedding was, unsurprisingly, so beautiful and SO full of heart. Amy and Bob have a couple of friends who are people I know or have shot weddings for, and another industry photographer was there who is such a sweetheart… they just have such a good group of people around them, which I loved. I always say good people attract other good people, and this one definitely proves that theory right.

The wedding was held at Bandit Brewery in Toronto. I’d never shot a wedding there before but I LOVED it. Cannot recommend it more! It’s got a good flow to the set up, it’s such a great vibe, the food was amazing and the whole aesthetic with the florals wer knock your socks off. The florals were done by Amira from Kenilworth and she created this masterpiece that was a gorgeous golden sunset in flower form and I was all about it.

The day was full of hilarious little moments too, like when they walked down the aisle at the very end of the ceremony, there was a tree in between the aisle where it was set up and they had to stop holding hands to walk around it, but it was more of a Red Rover situation with how quick they were travelling down the aisle. Bob kept going and high-fiving people totally in the moment and then he realized he had left his bride behind and went back to scoop her up. Her reaction was priceless. And its just another reason I have fallen in love with them.

After the ceremony, the three of us ran off and did some photos at sunset. I found this little part in the middle of the neighbourhood on an empty lawn where in total private they had their first dance. Completely and totally intimate, just me and them. I put their song on my phone and they danced away and it was just so them. I loved that moment for them. Then when we were walking back to the venue, a woman ran up to us and told us she had watched the whole thing and thought it was so touching, and then gave them two cans of Bubly. Random heartfelt moments like this always add a little something extra and you definitely don’t forget them!

The whole wedding was so perfectly them—so grounded and beautiful and full of heart and happiness. It’s one that has stayed so near and dear to my heart.

Amy and Bob, thank you for trusting me with everything you did. You two are magical and I’m so honoured to know you. To everyone else, reading this, thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Big love xo.