Changing things up for 2025

There are pros and cons to being a solo wedding photographer.

One of the biggest issues is battling the notion that every one needs two or more photographers at a wedding. The industry pushes this idea to you that regardless of budget or size of wedding you absolutely require a second photographer. And yes, for some weddings where there are multiple locations, having a second photographer is a benefit, however for most weddings, this isn’t required.

Photography has always been a singular pursuit, yet the wedding industry has turned this into a team sport, pushing the idea that more is better. More bodies with cameras at your wedding means more photos and more photos = better photos? Not always. In fact, more often than not, it just means more photos to go through to find a few good ones.

One of the great things about being a business of one is the ability to be fluid, and change things up as we see fit. Whether our changes are based on the economy, the style of images we want to make, or the type of weddings we want to photograph, we can do this fairly quickly.

Over my 20 years of photographing weddings I’ve worked on events with five guests and as large as eight hundred. Budgets for these events ranged from $10000 to well over $1.5Million. I’ve worked with leaders in business, the arts, music and yes, regular people as well.

I won’t say I’ve seen it all, because truth be told, I see and hear something unique and interesting at each event I cover - which is why I still enjoy what I do, how I do it, for the people that appreciate this way of shooting a wedding.

We’re one day away from 2025, and I have decided to make a creative change in my business.

This is something that I’ve been wrestling with for a while now, and I figure if I put it out there, the right people will see this and consider me as their photographer.

2025 has me photographing intimate weddings in backyards, a high end wedding in a mansion in Muskoka, a small wedding at a family home by the ocean, and a couple of intimate restaurant weddings.

I have quite a few open weekends still available, and I’ve decided that I’d like to take on more weddings that fall outside of what would be considered “traditional”.

For example - if the venue has a “bridal suite” - count me out. If it’s a big box banquet hall, I’m sorry, I’m no longer interested. I’ve photographed over five hundred weddings since I began this work, and I’d like to change the scenery up a little bit.

If you’re renting out a cottage, a little restaurant, decorating your parents backyard, renting a boat, having a cocktail style wedding at a brewery, or flying a handful of friends to spend a week in Europe…well, count me in for those please. In fact, if you’re planning anything that falls outside of the “traditional wedding” style, I would love to hear all about it.

In looking back at all of the weddings I’ve shot - the ones that I really enjoyed photographing the most have been the smaller events.

There’s just something about them that produces images that are more interesting, and quite frankly, you want your photographer to be interested, inspired and curious about you and your story so that the work they create for you is unique and personal to you and your families traditions and cultures.

I don’t photograph weddings because of the dresses, shoes, or to be published in Vogue.

I photograph weddings because I’m genuinely interested in the stories around the people I get to meet through my work.

That’s why I stick to documentary or reportage style photography, as it guarantees that each weekend I will come home with a completely different set of images from the last wedding I photographed.

I look forward to hearing all about your wedding plans and getting to know you.