A Winter Elopement With Ghadah & Carl
If you think you can’t survive a wedding in -30 degree weather, let Ghadah & Carl show you otherwise…
Arguably the hardest thing to plan for your wedding is the weather. Matter of fact, it’s something you can’t plan! It’s exactly why ppl always say to ‘embrace the day’ or that ‘rain is good luck’ (is it tho, honestly idk about this one lol). While rain is typically what most couples are scared of, probably second on that list is being in the extreme cold. No one’s comfortable, you can’t walk around jacketless for long or if at all, and like with what happened at this wedding, sometimes being out in the cold for too long seizes our cameras up! With all of this said though, Ghadah & Carl spent the day into the night looking and feeling fabulous, I really don’t think anyone would have known from the photos just how cold it was.
I think everyone knows how much we love a classic Toronto City Hall elopement, we’re no strangers to the space and this was definitely the best sunlight we’ve ever had in here! The first thing we mention when someone inquires about City Hall is that the chambers are not the best looking space; they’re typically dark, more often than not we’re told that no flash photography is allowed, and the concave wall is so difficult to straighten in post (maybe that’s just a personal note lol). Ghadah (and most brides) agree that we’ll prioritize shooting photos at our secondary location instead of spending more time than needed taking photos that we all are not going to love. Ghdah even requested lots of black and white photos for the ceremony to offset this. But! For the first time ever, we were actually blesssssed with a beautifully, bright, winter day and we ended up sending both rich and colourful photos, as well as emotional and more dramatic black and white photos.
Following the ceremony we all headed over to the St. Regis Hotel where their families had a drink at the bar while we took some super chic portraits in their hotel room and outside (for as long as could given the cold). Fortunate for us that flash photography is really trending right now (it’s very reminiscent of film photography and I personally love it coming back into style) because their room and hallways were quite dark so we really played around with some bright, punchy, photos that feel like editorial wedding photography.
This day was so much fun, and it was such an honour to be a small part of their celebration!
Click the photos below to enlarge and browse through
PHOTOGRAPHED ON TRADITIONAL TERRITORY OF THE MISSISSAUGAS OF THE CREDIT FIRST NATION, ANISHNABEG, CHIPPEWA, HAUDENOSAUNEE, AND WENDAT FIRST NATION
A love note from the couple—
“We finally had time to go through the photos tonight and WE LOVE THEM!!! We had soooo much fun going through them. Who would have thought the ceremony photos would be so epic especially given I went into our consultation saying no ceremony photos. I’m so glad you captured my nephews silliness but also all of the emotions in the room. We love the portraits so much too and (are) so happy we got some group photos! Thank you sooooo much for making our big day so memorable, I can’t wait to frame some of these!”