This was a special wedding for me to photograph. Darcie, the bride, and I have known each other since we were angsty little teenagers. We lived pretty close to one another growing up and would spend our summers rollerblading – yes, rollerblading, lol- around our deep south Calgary suburb. Besides a few notable moments in our friendship, like going on a weekend trip to London, England with my family, and getting the only A+ I ever got in English class proudly co-writing a poem about the absurdity of Barbie’s body, what I remember most is how we would lock ourselves in our bedrooms listening to music and contemplating life, and our place in it.

I moved to Victoria shortly after high school and Darcie moved out east to Toronto, so we hadn’t actually seen or spoken to one another in a long time. The blessings of social media brought us back together though and gave me the honour of photographing her Charbar wedding- her wedding, of which, she clearly stated she never thought she would have.

“I never wanted to get married,” Darcie said in her speech at their Charbar wedding reception. It may sound like a strange thing to say at your wedding, but when she explained that she had never known love the way her and Joseph loved each other, it made sense. She expressed how much Joseph has changed and opened her up.

Although I hadn’t seen Darcie in quite some time, from our teenager years to her wedding, she was so beautifully the same person I knew and loved back then: a heartfelt sensitivity, a giddiness, young at heart, a little bit shy, and the same laugh – but at the same time she was so beautifully different. There was an openness about her I didn’t know before. A lightness, an ease, a confidence, a radiating happiness, and most importantly, an amazing connection to her now husband Joseph.

Congratulations you two!

 

Collaborators for this beautiful wedding:

Venue: Charbar in Calgary, AB

Flowers: Fern & Frond

Dress: Kleinfeld Toronto

Hair: Top Knot Brides