Julie and Scott

I love Tigh-na-mara. I love photographing weddings all over our beautiful Vancouver Island, and really love Parksville weddings. Tigh-na-mara is nestled along the seaside in Parksville, BC. Truly an amazing venue for a Vancouver Island wedding.

Julie and Scott were amazing from the moment I met them. So in love, so grateful to be surrounded by all of their family and friends. Their love for each other seeping out of every moment. Every card he had sent over for her. Every bracelet, locket and sweet reminder that she, was beautiful and his true love. It's pretty hard to not be inspired by a couple still so madly in love.

A few things stick out in my mind about their wedding last weekend. The weather was magnificent. Everyone was incredibly happy and was so happy for Julie and Scott. The staff and especially wedding co-ordinator Suzanne and Tigh-na-mara was seriously wonderful. The flowers from Petal and Kettle in Parksville were remarkable, and the couple couldn't stop smiling. As fluffy as this is going to sound, I really love, love.

Congratulation to an amazing couple. As always, I am grateful for your trust in me.

on looking back.

This quote yesterday... Now and then it's good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy- Guillaume Apollinaire

Really made me just stop. Stop. Stand still and breathe. Count blessings and smile. Stop answering emails, phone calls, stop checking facebook, stop racing. Just stop. My 'stopping' led me to take an hour today and look through my personal photos. It led me to this photo, which made me happy. I think I'll stay here a while.

Michelle + Andrew

They met outside a bar. The connection was effortless. 6 months later they moved in together. 3 months after that they bought their first home. 1 year and a half after, they were engaged. 2 years and three months... married. Beautiful really. Sometimes, you just know.

They wanted a simple and beautiful backyard wedding in Victoria, BC. That is exactly what they had. Surrounded by people who love them. It was, in a word... perfect. (well, aside from the new driver that backed into our parked limo) But... who doesn't like a little excitement.

So honored you chose me. (p.s. If you are getting married in Victoria BC, you really should be booking the AMAZING Melanie Baird for your makeup. She is just beyond awesome.)

How I see it.

I used to lay in bed composing poetry. Always thinking, I should write this down, I'll write it down in the morning. Sometimes I did. The lights off. The world seemingly still and me laying in bed putting words together in my mind.

Maybe it was a way for me to try make sense of life, love... everything. It was a way I could connect the little things, that were always big things to me. The slow motion way I saw the world. The way the light moved across the room as the sun rose and set. The way dust settled on things untouched, unused. The way my imagination sparkled as the rain danced off the rooftop, spilling down from the gutter outside my bedroom window. It might explain why I was the girl who dramatically hid up in the branches of my grandparents plum tree, and why I might sit on the window edge in my room daydreaming about love and heartache at the age of 10. I was always full of of thoughts and words.

It may have started with words and somehow ended up in photographs. Holding life still. Being able to savor little delicate pieces of life that might otherwise be missed. Like, the beauty in a pair of butterflies dancing around her, while she is unaware. The look in someone's eye when they think no one is watching, a gaze across a crowded room, a glance at something beautiful, someone beautiful. The way life is either a whirlwind or a slow motion segment in a movie. The way a photograph can hold you captive. Draw you in. Make you feel something.

A photograph can be full of a silent stories. Like all of those stories I compiled in my head for so many years. Silently, within the walls of my imagination. I feel like I am pouring out the stories, the thoughts, those feelings into images. One story, one image at a time. Or at least, that's how I sometimes see it.