A Colorful Wedding Kick-off at Restaurant Bollywood - PART I - The Mehndi Ceremony
Last year I invited Fannie to the Elegant Wedding Bridal Showcase (ps. it is coming up again soon in November) and when she swung by my booth later with Deep she was elated to have found a Montreal-based Mehndi Artist, Shaista Jalal.
And so almost a year later, I drove up to Restaurant Bollywood for my first ever Mehndi event and was elated with the jewel-toned blue, yellow and magenta walls inside the space. While I did not stay for the whole evening I definitely think that I was able to capture the really relaxed and joyful feeling of the evening — give me a committed color palette anytime. For what it’s worth, I thought this was a great way for a bride to kick off a three-day wedding with something that felt special, with best friends and family there in colorful support, ready to get the henna patterns to adorn their hands and accompany their outfits in the coming days.
After staying for the appetizers, I was saying to Dave (my husband) that we’ll have to go back for a meal… because yum.
BRIDE’S SARI MEHNDI ARTIST Shaista Jalal VENUE & CATERING Restaurant Bollywood ASSOCIATE PHOTOGRAPHER Cody Langshaw
La Toundra Wedding: Ben & Kelci's romantic celebration
This wedding was published in Trends Magazine
There is nothing like a good sense of humor to set the tone of celebration and it was immediately clear that the day would be filled with laughter the moment I ran into the groom and his best man in the lobby of the Sheraton Hotel.
Ben, originally from Montreal, now living in Ottawa made me feel right at home and despite the scorching temperatures - his groomsmen were up for my suggestions to take advantage of the lounge chairs on the rooftop of the hotel. We also managed to attempt a portrait of something between Abbey Road and David Byrne’s Stop Making Sense.
I then hopped over to the cozy and modern Salon Sixhaut to meet up with Kelci, who I met at my booth last year at the Elegant Weddings Show (ps. I will be there again this November!).
Just as an aside, something I loved that Kelci prior to her wedding was that she provided me with a link giving me a preview of her dress. It was really helpful to me when I scouted the garden and grounds of La Toundra because I thought a lot about the structure of her dress and looked for flora and fauna that would complement and contrast in portraits. There is a photograph of her underneath a smoke bush here that just worked so beautifully.
And speaking of beautiful:
La Toundra is a beautiful wedding venue — it’s built to let the light in, so if you are wanting natural light photographs throughout your wedding day, prioritizing a venue that has plenty of it is really helpful to the photographer. Kelci hired a Day Of Wedding Coordinator and this really helped her remain almost serene throughout her wedding day because everything was being taken care of while she hung out with her sisters and girlfriends.
This wedding had all the components of beautiful light, scenic garden views, emotional beauty, memorable hilarious speeches, elegance, romance and dance joy.
On that note, enjoy my little virtual recap of Kelci & Ben’s Wedding Day.
Finally, thank you Kelci & Ben for inviting me along to capture what was a very special day.
GROOMSMEN PREP VENUE Downtown Sheraton Hotel SUITING Moores PLANNER Black Tie Events BRIDE GOWN Theia Couture BRIDESMAIDS GOWNS Jenny Yoo NYC RINGS Magpie (Bride) Davidson (Groom) CEREMONY & RECEPTION VENUE La Toundra CATERING Stephane Fontaine FLOWERS Costco CAKE & DESSERTS Des Erables Gateries DJ & PHOTOBOOTH DJ Shane RENTALS Le Vaisellier
Pool Rorschachs inspired by David Hockney
My final graduating project for my BFA in Photography was an abysmal failure. I remember when I installed it in the gallery just how bad it looked and how much I wanted it to be better but there was no time. Maybe I was being hard on myself? (My parents liked it!)
My worst fears were confirmed when I received the pages of critiques from my professors, how I had fallen short in all aspects.
It was a crushing blow, but part of me really expected it too. And I’ve since learned after a decade plus of other moments of failures that you need those moments. They are moments that can either freeze you or pause you, but the key is to take the pause option, however briefly you need one, because they’re essential to your growth. These failures don’t mean you should stop.
Will Smith says to “fail early, fail often, fail forward”, as those that are truly successful are failing all the time. And I believe this to be true now but at the time I was too immature to accept responsibility for it. My muscle for failure is way better developed now, that I take putting my work out there and risking critique with a grain of salt. I actually don’t even worry whether someone will read this. It’s important for ME to work through my thinking by writing about it.
My graduating project was based in my inspiration from David Hockey’s polaroid work. I thought they were so clever and so wonderful to look at, that I had really hope to replicate it by showing a tree experience the seasons. But my execution was just wrong (for instance, I didn’t use polaroids) and I didn’t control enough of the variables to make it work visually. I should have realized it way earlier while I was in creation mode, but my project planning wasn’t as strong back then and I was way more rigid/unable to pivot from an early idea.
Nathan Swimming Los Angeles, by David Hockney source: Pinterest
The silver lining to all of this was a comment from one of my teachers on the many pages of criticisms was something along the lines of “this didn’t work, but I know how creative you are and you will be just fine. I have no doubt about it.” I didn’t feel it then, but she was right.
Anyway, suffice it to say that David Hockney is still a favorite artist of mine.
When I went to Martha’s Vineyard with a few friends last month, I knew from the last time we visited that there was a beautiful pool we could swim in and this time being prime swim season that I would get my friends on board to help me play with a few ideas. David Hockney’s pool paintings and polaroids sprung to mind and as someone who loves to study light I wanted to find news ways to photograph reflected light.
David Hockney’s “Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)”
What we ended up creating was so different from the vision I had in my head but I think these are better than that initial idea.
On the heels of editing through 7000+ photographs from ONE wedding (I hope I never have that many photographs to wade through again) I needed a visual break and decided to break processing “rules” and played in Lightroom.
I mashed up the tone curve, went wild with the grey, blacks and whites and managed to bring about a painted, illustrated feeling while allowing my friends to remain real looking. What surfaced were the shadows; the light reflected on the bottom of the pool inferred Hockney while the girls shadows seem to take on a life of their own. They remind me of those Rorschach tests, how are shadows forever connected to us have a life of their own. What we do in the shadows. What lies beneath.
I’ll let you decide what they mean to you. Here are my favorites.
Thank you to Rebecca, Abby, Liz and Katie for being patient and fun models for me!