Last week, Matt and Katie came from Australia to teach a photography/business workshop in Victoria. The workshop was full of awesome local photographers, with a few great out-of-towners visiting. I helped organize the workshop and gathered a team of wonderful small businesses to help create a styled shoot for us to practice our new skills on.

I have to give a huge thank-you to Tammy from Blue Lily Event Planning for doing most of the organizing and much of the styling for the shoot. This woman can practically pull of miracles and she’s super friendly and helpful. I’ve known Tammy for about a year and a half, but finally got to work with her on a wedding last month, where she was a total superhero, including finding a bass to borrow when the band forgot theirs in Vancouver. If you’re thinking of hiring a wedding planner or even a day-of-coordinator (which can be a huge stress reliever for weddings without a venue coordinator), get in touch with her.

Another big part of this shoot was the gorgeous floral designs of Claire and Lynda from Chocolate Lily Floral Design, who were pretty much given free reign to create whatever they liked for the shoot and I think they totally killed it. I especially loved the floral halo and would be super excited to see a bride wearing one. Lynda also created a sweet fascinator for one of the models and you can get in touch with her at Lynda Marie Couture Millinery.

Many thanks also to Trish from new Victoria bridal store The White Peony for letting us try on almost all of her dresses and borrow two of them. Other awesome vendors who donated their time/products to the shoot: menswear from Tip Top Tailors in Mayfair, hair by Lindsay from Creo Hair Studio in Langford, makeup by Natasha Winters, furniture and linens from Smiling Rain Vintage Prop Rentals, props from Victoria Vintage China Rentals, and dishware/glassware from Pedersens. Thank you, everyone! And thanks to the models: Lisha and Kevin (formal wedding couple), Stephanie and Casey (boho wedding couple), and Carla and John (engagement couple). Aren’t they all stunning?

Here are some of my photos from the shoot.

I thought I would wrap up the year with a review of my favourite photos. I think this year, I’ll just do two posts: portraits and weddings.  I didn’t shoot a lot of non-wedding portraits this year, because most of my wedding clients were from out of town and couldn’t do engagements, but I did have some pretty awesome portrait sessions of all different types: engagements, trash the dress, boudoir, families, babies, models, and just having fun trying out new techniques. These are some of my favourites from 2011.

I had a fun downtown shoot with Tam from Blue Lily Event Planning a couple of weeks ago.  If you’re planning a party or wedding and want some help and awesome design skills, check out her website.  She’s really friendly and sweet – totally easy to get along with right away.  She was nice enough to help me try out some new techniques, and we also discovered some great new portrait locations.