photograph by Frances Beatty Photography

Ashley & I met at a wedding years and years and years ago. We were both playing double duty that day, Ashley the florist and maid of honour, me the photographer and a guest. That’s how things go in this industry sometimes. The other thing that tends to happen in this industry is that you become friends with the people you work with, and that’s exactly what happened.

Of course, it took both of us moving 2.5 hours north of Toronto (where we were both living at the time we met), to do so. But so it goes.

We re-met over coffee after we had both moved up to the South Georgian Bay area. We needed friends, after all. We talked about the wedding industry, our love of flowers, our mutual friends and their growing family, we probably even casually mentioned our love for mint chocolate anything. It’s weird making friends as an adult sometimes. You almost feel like you’re asking someone out on a date, but I’m glad Ashley asked me out on that coffee date. I left resolved that we were going to be friends. I was right. (I’m rarely right, so I’m excited to announce this here)

Fast forward a year or so, many weddings together, tons of coffee dates, marvel movies, countless photo shoots and so much laughter your belly would ache and we both found ourselves in the quandary many entrepreneurs find themselves in. Working long hours in front of a computer. ALONE. Let’s be real, we were just plain lonely. Slowly we started working together. Not really on the same things, but just enjoying each other’s company while working on our businesses. Asking opinions, sharing frustrations, eating lunch, high fiving over wins. You name it. It’s become our typical Tuesday. Your place or mine?

On one particular Tuesday, Ashley & I were working together, drinking cider at Coffin Ridge Boutique Winery. It was grey and cold outside, but we found ourselves musing on how lucky we both were to have found such an idyllic part of the world to settle in and call home. Even luckier that we get to create in that space and work with couples who love it just as much as we do.

It’s a little crazy to me that more people don’t know how amazing a destination this area is for weddings. How stunning the landscape is, how amazing the local wedding professionals are, how good the restaurants are, how much is happening all the time.

So here’s what we kept getting stuck on…. We want to share this with the world. But where? It started with a spark. I created an account on instagram called Georgian Bay Bride. Not really thinking much more of it other than “I like this. I want to do it. There it is”. And there it was.

Georgian Bay Bride— The website, the brand, is here to tell more of the story. To dive deeper. To give you more of the heart of the matter. To introduce you to the beauty that lies just north of the city. To inspire you for your upcoming wedding. To introduce you to the incredible wedding professionals you have right here. To maybe even convince you that this is the area YOU want to get married.

The moral of our story here is that you should always surround yourself with people you trust. Friends who will tell you you’re being crazy when you are, shut you down when your idea is full on whackado, laugh at your idiosyncrasies with you. They should also be the people who encourage you when you’re onto something, help you out and lift you up, push you just that extra bit further. Even better if they’re ready to jump on board completely and be a part of something that could have just been another idea left to collect dust.

I am proud to have a partner in Ashley.

When we set out to do our branding portraits for Georgian Bay Bride we had all kinds of crazy and elaborate ideas (you’ll see those one day. promise), but the weather had other ideas. We ended up on the same couch we have spent so many hours on together. Working, emailing, laughing, talking, eating, drinking, planning, and definitely watching a Marvel movie or two.

We clearly have a hard time taking ourselves too seriously. A good chunk of our photo session was spent in stitches. I haven’t laughed that hard in ages.

Also, we thought it would be helpful if we finally answered the question everyone having their photo taken wants to know… WHAT DO I DO WITH MY HANDS?

you’re welcome. ;)