Chris and Artie’s wedding was the first wedding for me to shoot at the Celebration Pavilion at Queen Elizabeth Park. I loved that the front of the pavilion, the back of the stage, essentially, opened up to provide an open air feel, but that everyone was still covered no matter what course the weather chose to take. And from a photographic perspective, that includes harsh direct sunlight too!
Our first stop after the ceremony for the portrait session was the light house at Brockton Point. I warned Chris and Artie that this was a popular spot for wedding photos on any summer Saturday, but this is the spot where Chris actually proposed one very foggy day, under the arches, once he could convince Artie that her bike wouldn’t be stolen parked up top. When we got there, however, there were *two* other bridal couples already competing for the stairs, each with a *team* of photographers in grey vests and name tags. I kind of felt left out wearing a white blouse and no tag, but Chris and Artie assured me that they were good with my name and my shirt. So we popped around the side of the structure for some great textured concrete, then back to the stairs when the other folks had cleared EVEN THOUGH we were truly deserving of the location! Did those other couples get engaged there? Huh? Probably NOT! But we were nice like that all day.
The next set of portraits was taken outside of Chris and Artie’s building of residence. There was something of an inner-tiger theme that surfaced several times during the day, and so I am happy to bring you an Artie as crouching Tiger in the Grass bridal party portrait. That got our Ang Lee juices flowing, so we were quick to take advantage of some nearby bamboo for some more portraits, as well as some other significant spots on our walk back to Terminal City club for the reception. There is a solemn shot of the two of them in front of a grey little house elevated on poles. This is my comment on the current inaccessibility of Vancouver real estate. ( ;
One of the coolest things about our shoot though, as you may notice, was the snow! We stopped at a film set hoping to sneak just a couple pictures in front of some white Vancouver streets, but a crew member came by to shoo us away. BUT some rather wonderful set guy who was obviously the boss of snow called us back and turned the snow machines on for us! It was too wonderful.
Back at the Terminal City Club we had some excellent food, and I was lucky enough to see for the second time in my whole life some awesome Greek dancing. (The regular dancing was rather good too.) Take a look at the last shot of the garter toss—this shot is the dying gasp of my first 5D camera. RIP 5D. Hello Future Shop extended warranties…
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