A sampling of our portraiture sessions with Pritty and Dijay the week of their wedding in Quintana Roo, Mexico.

The first few frames were shot during the last remaining minutes of daylight in a random, underwhelming location just off the highway. It certainly was not our plan to shoot there. Yet in those few minutes of light, Pritty and Dijay reminded us that the love people share can always be captured, irregardless of the setting, surroundings or circumstances.

Anu and Steve shared with us one of their favourite spots on Granville Island – then we were off to UBC for a couple more shots before sunset. Another couple of ours that are ecstatic to mark the end of their LDR with their wedding day.

One of the perks of Preeti and Manpreet’s marriage will be living in the same country together – no more distance or borders!

We lucked out with the weather again (we brought some sun back with us from the Philippines!) and enjoyed some fresh air and sun with Nelam and Jason at Iona Beach. We just photographed their wedding celebrations this past long weekend, and can’t wait to share their images.

After returning home from a long trip, it’s easy to get the travel blues. But not in our case!

Joanne and Eugene’s shoot was scheduled just two days after our return from Asia, and even though we were still living out of our backpacks at the time, their session was huge motivation for us to ‘kick’ our jetlag and get outside and photograph what we love most: people in love.

We returned to our ‘old’ neighbourhood Steveston for their session, and lucked out with beautiful light that evening.

We’re currently in Indonesia (which explains the lack of posts here) but don’t worry we started up a new ‘travel’ blog, which you can view here: http://www.asphoto.ca/travel

The highlight of Sweta and Aman’s wedding celebration was their Hindu ceremony. I loved photographing Aman’s procession to the wedding, the bharat, which was accompanied by drums, dancing, an S550 blasting music, and yes, a white horse. They married beneath an elaborate mandap, specially chosen and shipped from India, and then assembled by Sweta’s family as a labour of love. And as their ceremony unfolded, their friends and family indulged on mango ice cream, an absolute treat on such a hot summer day.

I love that Sweta and Aman, like so many of my couples, are adventurous and and fun-spirited – when I suggested we hop in the rowboat in Deer Lake Park, they didn’t hesitate. We captured a few photographs initially with them alone in the boat, but after watching Aman labour away in the summer heat, I decided to jump in and take the newlyweds out for a nice row. Aman continued his search for his initials in Sweta’s mendhi, while Sweta showed us boys how to properly row a boat!

The night following Sweta’s mendhi party, the families met to celebrate the upcoming marriage of Sweta and Aman. The festivities took place at the Burnaby Rowing Lake Pavilion on a perfect summer evening. The highlight of the evening was the dancing! I am quite partial to Garba and Dandiya Raas, which are folk dances unique to Gujarati culture and wedding celebrations. It was amazing to photograph an event with such energy in the venue, the tempo of the live music and dancing steadily increasing into the night. Finally, I was in good company that evening, as Bruce and his team from Cloud Nine Creative shot cinema.