Edmonton Photographer | Admire Studios | Twyla Lapointe, B.F.A. | Family, Wedding, Boudoir | Edmonton, AB

Edmonton Wedding Photography – Gabriella and Bryce

Edmonton Photographer - Admire Studios — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 06:26:16 +0000

Ever since meeting Gabriella and Bryce at a coffee shop what seems like actual ages ago now, I was very excited about being a part of their wedding! I had a total blast shooting their Engagement session at the school where they met and fell for each other, and now, years later, I watched them beam at each other as they were married. We were super lucky to have really great weather, warm and a little snowy, though not for formals, which I was just a tiny bit disappointed about – but I did get some lovely sunset rays in! I enjoyed my time at the Gypsy Queen salon, where the girls were done with plenty of time to spare – in fact, Gabriella had planned time for unmitigated disasters into the day, and as there were none, the whole day seemed quite relaxed! I felt like such a klutz when I knocked over a water globe decoration by accident and it shattered and soaked my socks (I had taken my boots off because it’s tough to sneak about like a proper photographer in boots that squeak loudly with every step!) so I had to go buy a pair of socks and feel awful for like an hour – though the folks at the salon were really good about it. It’s the only thing I’ve ever broken as a photographer though, so I guess I’ve done alright considering how many glass decorations I’ve handled in the past.

The skating rink at Jackie Parker Park provided a lovely backdrop for our formal session. Gabriella was so giggly and silly that it took me a few minutes to get some nice romantic photos of them which I confess were mostly for Bryce’s benefit Most of the time, they were being goofs, which is exactly how I like my couples to be – so happy together they can’t stop laughing and smiling.

The food and service at the German Canadian Cultural Centre was great, the staff were super friendly and fun, and the space looked really great decked in crisp red, black, and golden linens. Of course, my wedding colors were red and black so I might be a bit biased! Gabriella’s family is Latina, and partly as a result, the dancing was so much fun to watch! The adults spent as much time on the floor as the young crowd, which was wonderful to see! Of course, there were many kinds of dancers present – even the littlest one learning to dance – one of my favourite photos of the evening is the last photo on the page here, from her perspective! =) Enjoy!

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WEM Ship Wedding – Tara and Quentin

Edmonton Photographer - Admire Studios — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 17:31:00 +0000

I had a blast at Tara and Quentin’s wedding! Not only had I been looking forward to shooting a wedding at the West Edmonton Mall Santa Maria ship – or pirate ship as I always used to call it because of the little pirate display nearby – I was really happy that it was snowing out and not crazy windy or cold for a winter wedding day. I worked with them for their Engagement photos in Saskatoon not long ago…

Tara and Quentin really know how to have a party! From rocking the tunes in the limo bus, to a gorgeous wedding cake by Bee Bell Bakery, to incredible feather and winter themed decor by Lasting Love decorating, and you can’t forget their utterly cool choice of ceremony venue at the WEM Ship, the whole wedding was tons of fun. Tara’s organization, and the care and fun-loving nature of their family and friends made this wedding a real pleasure. The girls were terrified of falling as they walked the plank – which I think is somehow fitting… The gentlemen were dapper in their top hats – and the bride’s son in a cute fedora! I should also mention that the makeup and hair was provided on-site at their hotel by a couple of efficient and friendly ladies from Esthetic and Beauty.

Enjoy!

Are you looking for a wedding photographer for your offbeat wedding? Then I’m looking for you!

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Bridal Fantasy 2013!

Edmonton Photographer - Admire Studios — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 09:13:58 +0000

I am really looking forward to meeting hundreds of brides at Bridal Fantasy this weekend! Every year I meet some of my coolest clients at this event, and this year I have a DOUBLE booth, thanks to winning an awesome draw with the Bridal Fantasy folks! Look for me (Twyla) and my amazing staff, Paul, Cathleen, Anne, and Angie in Hall B by the Limosines and the Wedding Dresses – how fitting! You’ll find take-home information about my wedding and boudoir services and be able to enter to win a draw for Free Engagement or Boudoir photos, and check out my portfolio on site.

Get the all the information you will need in preparing for your big day and your new life ahead:

Sunday, January 20, 2013 at Northlands Edmonton Expo Centre at 7300 – 116 Avenue N

Doors open from 9:30am – 5:00pm
Fashion Shows at 11:30am & 3:00pm

You can buy tickets online, at any Derks location, or at the door for $25.

Brides will also receive a FREE Bridal Fantasy Wedding Planner & Survival Guide (a $14.95 value) and a FREE copy of the newest issue of the Bridal Fantasy Magazine (a $6.95 value), also each bride will receive a special Brides’ Coupon at the door. There will also be a gown sale at the show!

Check out the Exhibitor’s List if you want to see just how much value they’re offering!

Here’s to the alternative brides, too – if you want your wedding to be out of the ordinary, I want to talk to you, and so will many of the vendors at the show!

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Debra’s Crew – Family and Friend!

Edmonton Photographer - Admire Studios — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 05:00:19 +0000

Categories:

Tags: colorful family photos edmonton family photographer edmonton family photos edmonton family pictures friends photoshoot graffiti wall edmonton

I’m always pleased when clients ask to do something a little out of the ordinary – like shoot photos at a Grafitti wall in winter – and then show up despite windchill that turns you into an icicle after 30 seconds. Debra’s family-and-friend session turned out pretty cool, which is fitting really! She was talking [...]

Christmas Family Photos – Williams Family

Edmonton Photographer - Admire Studios — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 03:46:49 +0000

Categories:

Tags: acreage family photos edmonton family photographer leduc family photos leduc photographer outdoor family pictures winter family photos

It was lovely meeting the Williams’ blended family of ever-smiling, bright-eyed kids and vibrant, happy parents over the holiday season. We took advantage of their lovely hearth and the backyard skating rink on their acreage to capture some lovely images of their family. I was especially happy that on our day, it was snowing lightly [...]

Winter Solstice Night Wedding – Arthur and Anne

Edmonton Photographer - Admire Studios — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 04:49:12 +0000

Sometimes people tell me about their wedding and my smile just gets wider and wider – and Arthur and Anne’s wedding was just that sort! Just a week before their wedding I received a call from them saying that they were newly in the market for a wedding photographer after a plan fell through, and that same evening I went to Christ Church Anglican near downtown Edmonton to meet with them at their venue. The charm of the beautiful rustic church and their personalities won me over from that first meeting, and so did their ideas for many expressive moments, thoughtfully planned into what turned out to be both a beautiful and meaningful ceremony and reception. The details and the people mattered, and the wedding was an excellent day because of it. Not only was I excited to shoot my first Scottish wedding, but also my very first night wedding and winter portraits at night in such a lovely setting.

Our day started at the Blo salon, a cool concept of hairstyling salon for the lady in need of fabulous hair for an event. The staff were great and the ladies walked out looking fabulous! We then went to the Glenora Bed and Breakfast to the ladies’ preparation space – a rustic room filled with Victorian accents.

In case you weren’t aware, there’s actually one more line to the common rhyme:

Something old, something new
Something borrowed, something blue
And a silver sixpence in her shoe.

This bride observed this final point as well! In fact, the day was chock full of meaningful moments taken from the Bride and Groom’s Scottish and Norwegian cultural heritage – such as the tradition we observed of hailing a random man on the street on the bride’s walk to the church who gladly drank some excellent scotch as payment for accompanying her to the church, the groom’s gift of personally inscribed Sgian-dubh (a Scottish dagger worn with a kilt) to his attendants, kilts and tartans, the Bride and Groom drinking from the traditional two-handled Quaich for toasts, the Kransekake, a nod to the bride’s heritage, and countless other details made the day shine. Those are just a few of the cool ethnic and cultural nods that Arthur and Anne incorporated into their stunningly executed day. I should put a nod to Scottish Imports for helping make this possible for them.

As an aside relevant to wedding photography in general, I should note that their officiant, a lovely gentleman, confided in me that he’d had a rather appalling experience with a photographer once, but because I was polite and asked for and abided by his rules, he gave me more leeway to move about than usual, allowing me to get some lovely photos of the church from the choir pews, normally an off limits space. I am often shocked at the behaviour of other photographers in churches and especially towards the minister, which I find is worse when they are not people of faith – it’s a pet peeve of mine with some of my fellow photographers, as a spiritual person myself. A wedding is one of the most meaningful moments of a lifetime for people of faith and for the ministers, and that should command a great deal more respect than it does for many. Pardon my rant, but it’s one of those “ruining it for the rest of us” moments we all have about others.

Anne and Arthur chose to marry at the exact time in the evening on Winter Solstice when the days start to become longer – when darkness turns around to become lighter day by day, a symbol of the joy that their relationship has brought them! So at precisely 6:27pm, their ceremony began! Voila! Music provided a tear-jerking rendition of Lenard Cohen’s Hallelujah and several other lovely tunes with the perfect blend of violin, piano, and voice.

Their reception and dance were tons of fun, too, especially their custom cake toppers (Over the Top) And when the time came to brave the winter wonderland, the bride and groom were very good about the cold while we took portraits in the dark with my handy new video light and flash, and I really love some of the photos we took. Bring on the next winter, nighttime wedding, I say! All in all, being a part of their wedding was an unforgettable experience that I am glad I was able to enjoy! Now, for the photographic evidence!

Planning your wedding? Like what you see here? Admire Wedding Photography might be right for you.

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Unique Engagement Photos – Michaela and David

Edmonton Photographer - Admire Studios — Sun, 16 Dec 2012 06:21:08 +0000

I am always happiest with clients that I can relate to, and Michaela and David are pretty relatable! They have a shameless geek streak a mile wide, just like my husband and I do, and they enjoy talking about their various favourite fantasy and sci-fi favourites with me over coffee, which we’ve done twice now. Right from our first exchange of emails I knew that their wedding in May was going to be a ton of fun, and we ended up with some really awesome Engagement photos despite the winter cold. We started out in the lobby of the AGA (Alberta Art Gallery) where they have a public display that says “Behind this wall lies my desire for you.” I looked it up in curiosity and it’s supposed to be the gallery speaking to the public asking them to come visit. On one hand I feel the idea is kind of lame, though it’s an interesting statement in general, but the wall itself does look very nice and some creative positioning created a cool photo that I really like. Next we were greeted warmly by the staff of the restaurant, who kindly allowed us to use their wooden wall and a couple of other spaces while they were packing things in for the day. After that we traversed the nearby square to a stand of evergreens and then took off to the downtown Public Library, where the manager was kind enough to allow us to shoot in their space even though we did not have the required appointment. I especially love the conflict resolution photo below as well. I feel that this all goes to show that one shouldn’t necessarily dismiss the idea of winter engagement photos – especially if they have a stylish red coat!

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Byrnes Family – Edmonton Family Photos

Edmonton Photographer - Admire Studios — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 22:36:35 +0000

I had a lovely time with this American family that just moved to Edmonton, their hospitality in offering me coffee (and making me tea upon request) when I arrived was really appreciated on the cold day that we worked together. Their young son was very well-behaved and I enjoyed putting his stuffed dog on my camera to get his attention, a ploy that’s worked well before! They told me that they have the Christmas problem that many of us have – it’s hard to get gifts for the people in your life that already have most of what they want. I think getting professionally done Christmas family photos as a way to give photo gifts to family, as they decided to do, is a great solution to that problem! I hope you enjoy their photos as much as I did.

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Canmore Mountain Wedding – Cheryl and Malik’s Wedding

Edmonton Photographer - Admire Studios — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 22:34:04 +0000

I have been very blessed that basically all my clients in 2012 have been pretty amazing, and especially the wedding clients. I have been able to attend some of the best, most awesome weddings this year, and I feel seriously priveleged to be involved in so intimate a way in the lives of some wonderful people. I am always so grateful when I have clients so wonderful that some part of their wedding makes me cry. And no, it wasn’t the mountain cold that made me cry – Cheryl and Malik’s first dance was so touching.

I met Cheryl through a wedding show, and subsequently worked with them for their beautiful Engagement photos this summer in a private park near their home in Calgary. I found it a little ironic that, working in Alberta, my very first Mountain destination wedding was going to be after I went to the Carribean for Lisa and Matt’s wedding in Cuba in late August, but I wasn’t complaining! I headed in a day early to Canmore to beat the weather since things were a little inclement.

One of the coolest parts of their reception was the Canmore native belly dancer, Hala Jamal, and with exotic locales like Egypt and Ghana being a part of the heritage of the couple, it was a really appropriate addition to their dance! I got to know Hala a little during the dance, and she’s an extremely talented woman, a born dancer and artist, and a wonderful conversationalist as well as an all-around lovely person.

Malik told me at the ceremony that he had a lot of respect for what I did and really loved my work, which was just amazing to hear. They were such good sports about the weather and everything, and the bride and groom were the least wimpy about staying outside in the cold, which was pretty commendable! I really enjoyed their wedding, and I hope you enjoy it vicariously through these images!

Are you getting married at a destination? Take me with you! Please contact Twyla for information,
or find out more instantly by checking out your options.

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SLP Group Photos

Edmonton Photographer - Admire Studios — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 19:41:04 +0000

Every once and awhile a cool bunch of people ask me to do something unusual – a Friend session. While not very common today, did you know that getting professional photos with your best friends was very common in the beginning of photography? Of course, these days many of us use our everyday cameras for that sort of thing, but judging by the awful sunrise photo I tried taking with my cell phone the other day, the quality of photos like that may not be the greatest, though their value may certainly exceed their looks.

Angie, the instigator of this unusual and unique photography session, had won a prize for a half price session by Facebook Like votes on her photo from the RehabMed Event Photobooth. She decided to have everyone pool their resources to purchase a session – a great deal – and get some fun portraits of friends from their U of A class, graduating soon.

What followed was hilarity, cute and funny portraits and photobombs, and an epic snowball fight, followed by an awesome set-up Awkward Family Photo. Enjoy!

Do you have some friends you’d like to do a session with?
Contact Twyla for a quote!

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