Our Engagement Shoot with Alexa Studios

I wish I remembered exactly how I found Alexa on Instagram. Maybe the explore page? A friend of a friend’s tagged photos (which is the creepier route I guess, but also the most likely..?)

See, I pretty much knew what I wanted from my wedding photos. And stiffly posed, forced smiling directly at the camera photos definitely wasn’t it. The problem is that wedding photographers in Toronto (at least the good ones) are CRAZY expensive (I was quoted $10,000 for an 8hr wedding day shoot before I found Alexa Studios, which I very quickly and politely declined.)

By the time I’d reached out to Alexa, I was feeling like I’d either need to spend my entire wedding budget on hiring a photographer, or settle for mediocre pictures at a lower price. But as soon as Alexa and I started chatting, I knew she was the one.

Firstly, the coincidences. Alexa and I share the same last name (okay, Lewis is pretty common, but hey, it’s something!) She also happened to marry her high school sweetheart (hello 2012 River and Chay.)

Peep River in the top right corner, putting on my corsage on June 21, 2012

AND through chatting, we found out that we used to live on the same street, a mere 5 houses away from each other!

Coincidences aside, Alexa also offers terrific pricing. Her body of work is incredible — so candid and intimate and raw, exactly what I wanted. She made us so comfortable throughout the process leading up to the shoot, as well as during the whole thing (some pre-photo shoot bourbon and mid-photo champagne definitely helped with that too.)

So, without further ado, my favourite photos from our engagement session.

We started the shoot at home on our balcony, clearly not yet done with our confidence-inducing bourbon. I think it really helped ease us into the photo shoot process being in our own private and safe space.

Not to brag, but after this pic, he got down on his knees and wiped the dirt off my heels so like… pretty sure he's the one

From there, we walked two blocks over (or what felt like 10 blocks in those heels) to The Bentway, an area under the Gardiner Expressway that I walk by on my way to work each morning. I’ve always thought it would make a great place to take pictures.

For those of you non-Torontonians, The Bentway becomes an ice skating trail in the winter time, so there’s plenty of seating in the area to lace up your skates (or rest your haggard feet.) These colourful bleachers were the perfect resting point for me to gain more strength to go on.

Off to the top of the Fort York Visitors Centre for a semi-successful champagne pop. We spent our first 3 minutes up there kicking empty cans of White Claw out of the way to set up the perfect shot.

Up and over the Garrison Crossing bridge. I do this walk on most mornings and am always impressed by the view. I think it depicts Toronto exactly as I see it -- what I can only describe as ugly-cool.

It's right around here that the champagne kicked in.

Finished the shoot with a little light dancing... but not before performing some sort of secret handshake that neither of us quite recall doing…

Now we’re twiddling our thumbs, super excited for the wedding. And only like 60% of that excitement is the anticipation of seeing how hot Alexa will make us look.

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photographer // alexa studios

location // garrison commons + the bentway

my dress // lulus

my shoes // napoleoni

engagement ring // olive ave.

river's pants // topshop

river's shoes // sully wong