One wedding wasn’t enough for Emily and Niko. After their beautiful backyard wedding in Seagrave last year, they decided to do it all over again and celebrate their love again with a bigger and more glamorous event in 2023. That meant trading the sleepy Seagrave for the hustle and bustle of a wedding ceremony in a downtown Toronto church, photos along the Toronto waterfront, and a long boat cruise in the Toronto harbour.
I love a wedding that I can walk to — I don’t have to worry about traffic or parking. Emily and Niko got ready at the Westin Harbour Castle hotel, which has stunning views of the lake and the city, and is conveniently walking distance from my downtown Toronto home. From there, it was a short ride in the limo bus for a traditional Greek Orthodox ceremony at St. George’s Greek Orthodox Church. The downtown Toronto church is a historic and majestic building that is the oldest Greek Orthodox community in Canada — it’s been around since 1909! The church is decorated with exquisite Byzantine frescoes and woodwork, creating a majestic atmosphere. You’ve probably seen photos of it before without even knowing it.
Post ceremony, the goal was to make the most of our downtown Toronto location for the formal photos and family photos. Because I’m a wedding photographer who lives in downtown Toronto, our first stop was my own rooftop patio which has one of the most perfect skyline views of the city (I’m very lucky). From there, our next stop was the relatively new Water’s Edge Promenade near Sherbourne Common, where the tree-lined boardwalk gave a pop of fall colour. Once these trees have matured in a few more years, I have a feeling this will be an extremely popular wedding photo location. Lastly we popped over to Front St., in front of Union Station, where we took some classic photos of the couple with the historic architecture and the busy street life. Although all of our locations were near one another, Emily and Niko also had the foresight to budget a ton of time for photos so we didn’t have to feel rushed.
The reception was a fun multi-hour boat cruise on Lake Ontario that went around the inner and outer harbour of Toronto. The Northern Spirit provided some of the best views of the city skyline I’ve ever experienced, with dinner and dancing too. Plus, I was able to walk home afterwards!
