Wedding Photography

Okay, so you've picked a date, sent out your save the dates, booked a venue, sent out invitations, and found the dress. Simultaneously, and preferably a year ahead, you need to book your wedding photographer! Trust us, the dates book up fast! You'll want to check out each photographer's question and start inquiring to see if they're available on your wedding day. Compare prices, services, and photography styles. Some packages start at 6 hours, 8 hours, and you have to pay additional fees for over time. Does the company send one photographer? Two? An assistant? What is the policy if the photographer can't make it? Do you get the high-resolution files on a disc, USB, or does the package include prints and an album? Are you on the hook for paying for gas and parking? What about dinner?

So as you can see, there are LOTS of different options and we found it useful to create a grid to see everyone's offers in neat columns. Testimonials are incredibly important, but rely on your own instincts too! For instance, we loved the photos our friends received for their wedding, but found this studio to be incredibly rude and unreliable when we were discussing the details. Another photographer had many rave reviews, but accidentally double booked us. There were lots of talented options here in Toronto and we found this more challenging than finalizing the venue. When it came down to it, I knew I wasn't going to take this decision lightly and that this was going to take a significant chunk out of our wedding budget. The photos were an important part of the wedding for me, acting as keepsake and gifts for our guests. Honestly, we do think you get what you pay for in this department.

Our final decision was to go with Ikonica because we found the director to be incredibly knowledgeable, patience with our many questions, quick in getting back to us, and professional. We liked that as a studio, there would be a whole team behind us. And in the case of an emergency, another lead photographer at the studio would be able to work our wedding (I'm sure no one wants to be stressed and scrambling for a replacement on the week of). They provided a core package that included a photo essay of the day that we could have password protected for our guests to view, screen resolution previews, a lead photographer, a second photographer, and an assistant photographer. We were able to include additional hours and purchase the high-resolution files to do as we see fit. And browsing through their galleries and portfolios, they did great post production work on the photos. The payment structure was also nicely set up at signing, the month before, and upon delivery - this helped as there are lots of bills to pay during or after the wedding, so having it spaced out in installments gave us breathing room. In terms of additional fees on top of the package, we did provide vendor meals for the three photographers and for parking/tolls/gas.

We'd have to say that the team did a great job on our wedding day. They arrived on time for our first look. Made all of us feel easy and relaxed in front of the camera and could probably tell right off the bat that we weren't the type to awkwardly pose for "fabricated moments." They really hustled to keep us on time and go through our photo list with guests. They also took the time to seek out little moments from our day in which we only saw later when we were going through the photos. My favourite was the mix of portrait and candid shots they captured. Our guests were happy to take direction and a few exclaimed that they were impressed with the job the photographers were doing. They were also well aware of the schedule, the key people, and knew where to be and when. We have to say that our experience was wonderful and we would highly recommend them.

And you know what? Now you have a bit of a breather in wedding planning! The big stuff have already been sorted and decided, so you can take a little break until it's time to look for a florist and a hair/make up artist.

On the topic of engagement photos and albums, we opted out! Howard and I weren't sure what we would use our engagement photos for - I wanted to create my own save the dates and invitations, so it didn't seem like there was a need for these. I know a lot of photographers encourage it because you get to know your photographer a bit more before your big day and you get practice being in front of the camera. But I think we did fine without it. ;) And for the album, we felt that lots of people view these online nowadays, so there wasn't a point in having one sit in our home for the occasional guest to flip through. But, I did want a few photos printed out and displayed as a gallery in our hallway! By the way, aligning and hanging frames is a whole other challenge . . .

Photography: Ikonica | Lead Photographer: Jean-Marc Robin | Second Photographer: Felix | Assistant Photographer: Nicole | Post Production Coordinator: Virginia LeBlanc