Vancouver Engagement | Jenna & Kevin

Real talk: the dude in these photos is my cousin. We have a rap sheet of common interests longer than your arm but most notably includes snowboarding, skateboarding, good beer, family and a love for the west coast. The list goes on but I think you can easily see why I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to photograph his wedding when he called me to tell me about his engagement to the other beauty in these photos, Jenna. Both Ontario born and raised, fled to the mountains and made lives for themselves on the west coast. Years later they found each other and the rest is history. But, let’s not get ahead of ourselves, let’s talk about these engagement photos. You see, I’m always looking for an excuse to board a plane to YVR, especially during winter so when we were tossing around ideas for their engagement photos, I had a quick peek at my aeroplan account and next thing you know I’m booked for a little getaway to the mountains, a multi-purpose trip to visit my cousin, get to know his bride better and let’s be honest, a few days of big mountain snowboarding! Of course, I missed my kids, but it was pretty nice to have an entire meal where I didn’t have to tell them to try not to spill their milk!

I arrived on a gloomy afternoon with about an hour of daylight left and a 3 day forecast of heavy rain. Yikes. Welcome to Vancouver! We had planned to shoot a few photos that evening and do the bulk of them the next day at a different location. That didn’t work out, but we did sneak in a pretty sweet little session at Lonsdale Quay before we got booted by the weather system coming in. No problem, we were all hungry anyway so we wrapped up and ate some food alongside some delicious local brews. 25mm of rain the next day squashed our plans to shoot, so instead we packed up the car and rolled up the Sea to Sky highway and snowboarded in 20cm of powder instead. Winning. We had an awesome day in the mountains and then regrouped a few days later in the city when the sun decided to finally dry things out.

Shoot number 2 found us at the beautiful Whytecliff Park boasting some classic PNW landscape. We cruised around the rocky beach among some massive drift wood and made some really lovely photographs. I could have spent the whole day in this area, but the light was disappearing and we had more important things on the agenda, so we bounced. What could be more important than engagement photos on the beach? Their beloved chocolate lab, Rocky. The Bear. The most loving 4-legged companion you could imagine. That’s what! We got back to their North Van home and took the pooch for a pee and made a few pics that I’m sure will be cherished as much as the aforementioned, epic Vancouver engagement photos!

Jenna and Kevin, thank you for your hospitality and showing me around your beautiful city. I can’t wait to do it all over again this summer, lakefront in Ontario.