Where to Elope in Manitoba!

Looking for some idea’s on where to elope in Manitoba? We’ve put together a list of some of the top places and locations we could think of!
Times are a bit different these days for Weddings, gone are the days of having big gatherings full of friends and family. Don’t get me wrong we HOPE that those days are back soon, but for the time being weddings look like they are going to be smaller and more intimate events. You still want those moments captured, and we are going to be along for the ride with you documenting it all. Eloping in Manitoba, or Canada for that matter is a great option. We’re here to help you plan it, and make it as amazing as possible. So check out some of the idea’s below, we will try and update this with more ideas too!

If a local elopement is something you are interested in don’t hesitate to reach out to us, we’d love to hear from you!
Corey & Amanda :)

Take note, these are in no particular order.

1. Lake House - Clear Lake, Riding Mountain National Park

Lake House is a Boutique Hotel located in Clear Lake. It has a wonderful restaurant with amazing food, a warm fireplace to cuddle up beside, and some great cocktails and coffee! Whether you have your wedding inside or outside you can be sure it will be beautiful. Clear Lake is one of Manitoba’s most beautiful places no matter what time of year you visit. In the summer its full of all kinds of fun activities and you can’t go wrong jumping into the crystal clear water to cool off. In the winter its a magical place that isn’t too busy, but still offers all kinds of great things to do. There is skating trails, horseback riding, trails to explore and the list goes on.

We’ve stayed at Lake House many times over the years and enjoyed it each and every time!

Follow the link for more info: Lake House

2. Whiteshell Provincial Park

Manitoba is full of beautiful landscapes, and the Whiteshell doesn’t disappoint. There’s many great lakes, hiking trails and resorts and cabins to have your elopement. Why not find a super cute lakeside cabin on AirBNB and elope there! Imagine a fire on the lake, just the two of you, or your close family and friends surrounding you. Maybe a home cooked meal afterwards, or have it catered. A couple drinks on the dock, and a romantic sunset. What more could you really ask for?

3. Downtown Winnipeg

Who says you need to leave the city to elope? With so many great spots around the exchange district, or one of the many beautiful parks within the city its easy to capture lots of beautiful photo’s and be close to home. After the ceremony and photo’s are done, why not head to your fav restaurant for an intimate dinner and then spend a night at one of Winnipegs many great hotels.

4. Birds Hill Park

Just a quick drive out of the city and you can find a location in the park without anyone around, beautiful open fields, many trails, beautiful magical forest area’s, etc. You could even head over to the always amazing Pineridge Hollow for dinner and drinks!

5. Grand Beach, Lester Beach, Victoria Beach

Anyone of these beaches offer a beautiful romantic place to elope. Book an AirBNB, have an intimate ceremony on the beach at Sunset, take a few moments to soak it all in, maybe even jump in the lake after! Sounds like a great time to us!

6. Bella’s Castle in Morden, MB

Why not get married in a castle… in Manitoba!
Bella’s castle is a gorgeous little venue located in Morden, Manitoba. They are even offering elopement packages! They’ve got your accommodations, food, venue, etc covered! You can stay in town for photo’s or take a short drive to the Pembina Valley for some beautiful views for your photo’s.

Follow the link for more info: Bella’s Castle

6. Assiniboine Park, Winnipeg, MB

Assiniboine Park offers so many great spots for photo’s and intimate ceremony locations. Beautiful walking trails, gardens full of flowers and plants, the Leo Mol sculpture garden. The Assiniboine Forest is near by for more photo locations. Or a quick walk over the bridge and the two of you can go grab an ice cream from Sargeant Sundae!

These are just a few of the many great places we can suggest and help you plan for your local elopement!
If you have any questions or want to chat more with us about planning yours just let us know, click that contact button!

Brooke + Justin - Cielo's Garden Ceremony

Brooke and Justin were supposed to have a big wedding surrounded by so many family and friends this summer, however with all the restrictions they postponed the big party to 2021, but they still had their family out to make their marriage official. They had a very sweet and intimate ceremony at Cielo’s Garden on a beautiful June evening. I stuck around after to capture a few sunset photo’s of them too!

Meg + Kevin - Local Manitoba Elopement

Back in the spring we went on an adventure with Meg and Kevin to Pine Point Rapids. This little adventure was to be their elopement and official paper signing! Making them a married couple!

Amidst all the craziness that was and is still going on in the world, it was sure nice to get out and be a part of this amazing moment for them. We had fun, great laughs, a couple beverages, and made some beautiful photo’s for them!

Enjoy!

Local Elopements in Manitoba and Ontario!

This is something that I’ve been thinking about a bit over the past year or so. It’s something I’d love to see more of and be a part of.

Manitoba and Western Ontario are so damn beautiful. There is so many amazing places so close to home. You don’t need to elope across the planet (we love those too!) and you don’t need to plan a big huge wedding (yup we love those as well) but we want to toss out this idea of Local Elopements.

A local elopement would take a lot less planning on your part, a lot less expenses, and could be just as beautiful and as special for you. It doesn’t even need to be on a weekend, you could literally get married on a Tuesday if you wanted!

You may not need to worry about bouquets for bridesmaids, or boutonnieres for groomsmen, or table settings and everything else that comes along with a large wedding. Even the amount of waste that is produced from a wedding would be far far less for an elopement.

We’ve had the opportunity to shoot at many great spots in Manitoba and western Ontario, most of them being engagements and I can’t help but think of how amazing it would be to spend a day adventuring with a couple on their wedding day in these spots.

We’re throwing this out there to all you wonderful people, if you are getting married or know someone that is, why not consider a local elopement? We’d love to be a part of it and help you with planning it and making it perfect for you!

Click the button below to contact us and chat more about it!

Shayna + Mark Day After Shoot - Grand Sunset Princess Mexico Destination Wedding

Well, the fun wasn’t over after the wedding day. We headed out with Shayna and Mark for a Day After shoot. We started it off with a few fun photo’s of Shayna and her bridesmaids.

The day after shoot gave us a bit more time with the two of them, no rush, no wedding day stress, etc. and we got to head out around sunset. Knowing we’d be out and about for a bit we packed a few drinks from the bar fridge, and a bottle of cheap tequila (like there wasn’t enough of that consumed already).

This shoot was an absolute dream, the conditions were perfect a bit of wind, an amazing sunset, and heck we were in Mexico after all, it could have rained and it would have been fine!

On our walk down the beach we found an old pier with nobody around, so obviously we walked out on to it and snapped some pics. It wasn’t long until a security guard starting telling us to leave. So ff we went to another one not far away. This time there was already a security guard there waiting to stop us. He was successful in doing so until I happened to slip him a $20 bill… then it seemed to be ok to shoot there. Odd.

After having plenty of fun shooting, getting our shoes soaked, dress wet and full of sand we made our way back, but not before that cheap bottle of tequila made its appearance and was slightly consumed.

This trip was all kinds of fun for us. Amanda and I had a chance to work together (I really do love working with her, she see’s things I don’t or see's them in a different way than I do, which makes for a great mix of photo’s in the end.) We got to meet all kinds of new friends, enjoy some time on the beach and by the poolside. I can’t wait until the next time!

The 2018 Review! - Winnipeg Wedding Photographer

Well, we’re getting a couple months into 2019, so this is a bit on the late side, my apologies.

I thought it would be fun to look back at some of 2018’s shoots. These are just couples, engagements and weddings. We also did a ton of family, newborns, maternity, and other shoots that aren’t shown here.

As you’ll see we had a pretty crazy busy year, and wow did we get to meet a lot of amazing people. Worked with some of Winnipegs best wedding vendors, got to shoot at venue’s we haven’t been to before, checked out all kinds of different locations around Manitoba and Ontario for engagements and weddings.

2018 was a year of growth, not just with the amount we shot, but with many other parts of this business. Amanda and Michelle both shot weddings and engagements this year. We’ve all grown in the way we shoot and interact with our couples. Amanda set goals for herself with her newborn photography and went way beyond those goals (Super proud of her!!). We worked with a number of talented photographers that second shot with us on a number of occasions. Its been pretty fantastic!

It was also a year of figuring out how to handle this increased workload at home, and we’re still working on having that healthy balance. We’ve got two kids, two dogs, and we still need to make time for each other. We’re learning that we need to make time for ourselves, for our health, to have fun and enjoy as much time together as we can. I think that will also make us better at our craft at the same time. We did manage to get out camping, fishing, hit the beach, go on adventures and have as much fun as we could with family and friends. This year we are going to try and make even more of that happen.

So what kind of stuff did we get up to this year?
We got to shoot a proposal in Vegas. Shot a wedding in Hawaii (we also stayed out there a bit longer to have a little vacay time), shot another wedding in Iceland (will gladly head out there every year!) and we shot a wedding in Mexico (We may have cried the most at that one).

We also shot one heck of a lot of weddings in and around Winnipeg and Lake of the Woods, Clear Lake, etc. We got to see so many familiar faces from previous weddings as guests or in wedding parties, so that is always fun! Each wedding was so special and unique and made for some really great times for us to work at. We can’t thank everyone enough for having us be part of such special times in their lives.

Engagements and couples shoots… holy smokes did we get out and do a lot of these. Did we ever have some good times while doing them too. From all the good laughs (mostly at my expense), the spectacular locations, and getting to know every one just a little bit better along the way.

2018 was something else! and we’re excited to see what we get up to in 2019. Im going to stop rambling away and let you get to scrolling through all of the photo’s. These are just a small sample of some of our favs from 2018, you’d be scrolling for far too long if we posted them all.

You can also check out the slideshows, they are a bit more fun to watch with the added music!

Enjoy!
Corey :)

Emma + Tom - Iceland Wedding Photographer

Well its no secret that I love Iceland, even Emma and Tom knew I loved it and they live in England!! So happy these two came across our work, and loved it enough to have me cover their amazing wedding day at the Black Church and Hotel Budir. Leading up to the day we’d had skype calls, lots of emails back and forth, and I felt like I knew them already. The day before the wedding my Dad and I spent the day out in the area where i’d be shooting and checked out some great locations. The weather was amazing that day. The next day I headed out bright and early for the nearly 3 hour drive from Reykjavik, the skies were clear and I was excited that the weather was going to be perfect. I should have known better though as Iceland likes to change the weather every 15 minutes. By the time I got out there the clouds were rolling in and it was getting pretty cool.

The ceremony was held in one of the most iconic churches in the world, the Black Church at Budir. Its just a small little place, but its wonderful and had enough room for Emma and Tom and their close family and friends that attended.

After the ceremony I hopped into the car with Will (the videographer) and Emma and Tom followed us in their car.

First stop was at the Arnarstapi Arch, what a super cool spot, kinda frightening walking over it especially with the wild winds out there.

After that it was back in the car and off to Djúpalónssandur Beach, this place was epic! When we first seen it we were like this place is something from Game of Thrones, turns out it was used in the show! We spent a good amount of time shooting around here. Then it started to get real windy and cold, and then a bit of rain joined the party, then not wanting to be left out the snow joined us too! At that point we called it a day and headed back to Hotel Budir to get the reception started.

If you’ve never seen or been to Hotel Budir, its a pretty fantastic place, so much charm and character. Love it there. We enjoyed a wonderful dinner and great speeches and some dancing.

All the time while we were in there that storm outside kept getting stronger and stronger. We talked to some staff and they said it was so bad they weren’t going to drive home that night. Well, I jumped in my car, and Will got into his and we followed each other back to Reykjavik. What a white knuckle drive that was. Luckily we both made it back safe and sound.

Emma and Tom, thank you both once again for having me come all the way out there to document this amazing time, and for making me feel like part of the family while with you guys!

Can’t wait for the next chance we get to head out to this magical country!

Saki + Edwin - Manoa Falls, Oahu Wedding Part 2

We met up with Saki and Edwin pretty early in the morning to head out on this hike to do some more wedding photos with them. To start it should be noted that Saki did the entire hike in her wedding dress and flip flops (no big deal). This was some of the hottest, most humid hiking i've ever done, we were all sweating like crazy, except for Saki!

When the trail first starts you get this crazy view of so much lush greenery, this got us all kinds of excited and shooting right away, then you walk like 20 steps further and the view gets even better!! 

There was so many great little spots to stop and shoot on the way up to the falls, and then on the way back down you get to view every thing just a little bit differently and get excited about it all over again.

It was a good thing we got started on the hike early as when we reached the falls there was already a crowd of people starting and by the time we were done shooting at the falls it was packed with people. 

This was really one hell of an amazing shoot, and so much fun. We can't wait to get back out to Hawaii again one of these days. 

There will be one more Oahu blog post coming, but it will be of personal photo's we took of our time out there, so be on the look out for that. 

Saki and Edwin - Paradise Cove Oahu Wedding

For as long as I can remember it’s been a dream of mine to visit Hawaii, well it finally happened! I’ve known Edwin for longer than I can remember, him and my brother were always great friends so I’d see Edwin around the house quite a bit. One day I got a message from Edwin telling me he wanted us to shoot his wedding in Hawaii, on the island of Oahu. I may have gotten a slight bit excited by this. We got together at their condo, I met Saki for the first time and we had some pizza together and talked about the plans for the big exciting day.

So here we go, Amanda and I hopped on a plane to Vancouver followed up with another to Waikiki!! First thoughts upon landing in Waikiki.. holy smokes it’s hot here and whaaaaaaat!! We’re in Hawaii!!!!!

We stayed in Waikiki a block from the beach, pretty much perfect! If you’ve never been to Waikiki let’s just say it’s kinda like Vegas, minus the casinos and smoking but with an amazing beach and far friendlier people. We soaked up the sun, watched surfers surf, enjoyed great food and maybe a few mai tai’s!

I’ll get back to a few of our adventures in a bit or maybe I’ll do a separate post for those.

Now for Saki and Edwin’s wedding day! Obviously we kicked it off with a power breakfast at McDonald’s! Amanda made her way to the guys hotel while they got ready and I went over to Saki’s hotel while she got ready with her girls. We then met up with all their family and friends on the big tour bus to make our way to Paradise Cove for the ceremony and reception. The heat that day was no joke! It was hot, like crazy hot! That didn’t stop everyone from having a great time though. Their ceremony included some fun Hawaiian traditions (they had to kiss for as long as the officiant could blow into a conch shell). Cocktail hour was fantastic, they even had Hawaiian shave ice available for everyone (seriously good stuff!). We wandered along the beach and took so many photos! Paradise Cove was a spectacular wedding venue. Once the sun started to get close to where the sky meets the ocean we headed back down to the beach for some more photos, and wow the Hawaiian sunset didn’t disappoint! We spent the rest of the night partying with everyone there and having an amazing good time!

No apologies for all the pics below. Also stay tuned for part two of our time with Saki and Edwin where we hike to Manoa Falls for another shoot!

Robyn + Lionel - Iceland Couples Shoot

Part 3 - The last day in Iceland

Im actually going to start this off on the evening of Day 2, better yet I'll start it off from my birthday, back in June. Amanda arranged to take me out for wings (I love hot wings!) for my birthday. I figured it was just the two of us, but her being the amazing wife she is, she invited a bunch of our good friends out. Surprise!  After getting over the fact that I get to enjoy wings with all my friends, we got to chatting about the upcoming trip to Iceland. This peeked some interest with Robyn and Lionel, and gave them a gentle push to plan a trip there for the same time as us. We also persuaded them with the offer to take their photo's out there! So next thing ya know they've booked their flights to be there the same time as us! 

Fast forward now back to the evening of Day 2 in Iceland. We just drove back from Budir shooting Mikaila and Wills elopement. We were running on very little sleep, and pretty exhausted, however Robyn and Lionel we're headed over to our AirBNB and we were going to have a night out, dinner and a "couple" drinks. We made our way down to the bumpin' and fun part of Reykjavik for some dinner. After a drink and a shot of Icelandic vodka we wandered around finding all the cool little places we could to stop in for more drinks. We even ended up in the Big Lebowski bar... super random right! That night was a blast, as it always seems to be, when we get together with those two! If you happened to catch our live insta stories from out there, you'd see a bit of the fun we were having. 

The plan for Day 3 was to head out with Robyn and Lionel and check out waterfalls, and adventure and take wild pictures wherever we could. That morning our bodies said NO. Amanda had come down with a terrible cold before we even left Canada, and was being a trooper keeping up with this crazy busy adventurous trip, and my body was feeling the exhaustion of being on the go with very little sleep. So we had to let them head out on their own. After getting some energy back after a lazy day spent eating fish and chips in our room, we decided we'd head out on the road and meet Robyn and Lionel on their way back to Reykjavik. We found this amazing spot on the side of the highway with steam coming from the ground, hot springs, and hot water seeping out of the mountain side. As usual in Iceland it was raining too. Robyn and Lionel managed to get to the spot with about 15 minutes of light left, and we managed to pull off the shoot you see below. Super glad we could make it happen, and snag some amazing photo's of these fantastic friends of ours. 

As of just a couple days before writing and posting this blog, we have just confirmed another elopement in Iceland. I am extremely stoked to be heading back out there, to seeing more of that wild country, and having my mind blown by its wild landscapes! Oh yeah and those amazing gas station bacon wrapped hot dogs!!! 

Enjoy!!

-C&A