Welcome

Welcome to our website! Let's start by introducing ourselves... We are Dave & Charlotte. We're photographers. Our passion is photographing the relationships between people just like you. We call this lifestyle photography. Often people arrive on our blog looking for wedding photography in Toronto or surrounding area, but we also take on destination weddings around the world. Over the past couple of years we have photographed weddings in places as remote as Australia, India, Mexico, England, Barbados, Jamaica, Puerto Rico to events closer to home, like Montreal, New York and The Muskokas.

If you're newly engaged and in search of two fun loving, easy going wedding photographers, we're sure you'll love viewing our engagement & wedding photography portfolios. If you like what you see and want to find out more, please drop us a line and we'll be happy to answer any questions you have.

We hope to meet you soon!

Toronto Wedding Planner, Crystal’s New Head Shots

By Dave Biesse \\ April 10, 2011

Recently, we had the pleasure to photograph Toronto Wedding Planner, Crystal Adair-Benning of Distinct Occasions. She is an amazing woman and such an inspiration to so many wedding professionals world-wide. Crystal works across the globe but is most well known for her wedding work in in Perth, Australia; Toronto, Canada and Glasgow, Scotland. She is responsible for planning some of the most elaborate and stunning weddings these cities have seen. Crystals’ recent international work has also included Iceland and India.

We were thrilled when she asked us to put our portrait photography skills to use and take some head shots of her for her newly revamped website. Crystal looked so fabulous it was easy to get some great captures for her website!

I love this one too. This adorable shot was taken at Kings Park in Perth. We took a quick drive down to see the sunset and the city scape at night. I love the playfulness of this shot. Very cute!

Thanks so much for choosing us to do your new Wedding Planner head shots Crystal! We had so much fun and look forward to working with you on many more weddings in  Toronto & Perth!


by Dave Biesse

2 comments

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August 21, 2011 - 2:21 am vencanice cacak - Great pictures and great wedding planner. You can see the strength in her eyes.

April 12, 2011 - 1:28 am obturations.com - Love the 2cd one !! Congratulation for your wedding !

Our Honeymoon in Paradise

By Charlotte Leonard \\ April 8, 2011

Hey Everyone! There is so much that has been going on around here lately. Dave and I are so excited with all that’s been happening. Firstly we had our beautiful wedding here in Perth, Australia at the gorgeous Cottesloe Civic Centre and Barchetta on the beach. How thrilled we were that we were able to host our wedding here in one of the most beautiful places with the most stunning ocean views in the in the world, Perth, Western Australia.

43 of our closest friends and family traveled from all around the world to be with us on our big day. It was so amazing to have everyone there with us to celebrate our wedding day here in sunny Perth. Not only have we launched our second photography studio here in W.A. but we just had a fabulous opportunity to photograph an amazing wedding in Singapore before we left for our honeymoon!!

Dave and I spent 10 spectacular days in exotic Boracay in The Philippines and what an adventure we had. We stayed at the 20 room Asya Premier Suites on Boat Station 3. We loved our stay at Asya and it was so nice to have such a tranquil space to relax and come back to every day. Since it’s such a small hotel we often were the only ones around. The gracious staff were always close by to see if we needed anything to make our stay even more enjoyable. Asya truly is heaven on earth!

This is a shot that was taken from our patio. I love the little blue catarmarans that sailed each day. Every evening at sunset, the little boats would commute the same route home to the big island. It looked like a little toy boat traffic jam, so peaceful to watch from our room.

All of the bamboo catarmarans had the same blue sails, so nice to see them all lined up along the horizon.

On one of our adventures we hired a tricycle, basically a motorcycle with a sidecar attached, to the infamous bat cave. What a wild ride that was!!

When traveling in a tricycle sometimes passengers have to get out and push as the roads are rocky and very, very steep. Our bat cave tour guide was nice enough to lend a hand to help get us up the hill.

Finally, after an hour of the bumpiest taxi ride we’ve ever been on we reached our destination! The bat cave was not for the faint of heart. Dark, slippery and surrounded by sharp, jagged rocks. This adventure not only required fearlessness but rock climbing skills. Difficult to do in sandal’s. Dave never lets much stop him from adventure so took the trek down into the cave while I waited safely at the surface. Very glad I did, sea snakes are not my thing!

Anita, my cousin, had been to the tiny island of Boracay once before and highly recommended the Shangri-La Hotel for dinner. We left from our hotel beach and took an amazing ride on our own personal catamaran to the gorgeous resort on the other side of the island. What a romantic ride. The water was crystal clean and you could see all the way down to the bottom!

No life vests required and not much in the way of seating. Good thing the water was so glassy :) Sailing and shopping are two of Boracay’s biggest industries. Of course we had to take part in both! Boracay is well know for their amazing pearls. I bought this black pearl strand on the beach earlier that day!

Once we arrived at Shangri-La we enjoyed the view for a little while and had the most amazing food! On a small island like this one, the food has to be fresh.

Thanks for checking out photos from our latest adventure. Stay tuned to the blog, we’ll be posting some more Perth weddings and our fun Singapore travel shots very soon!


by Charlotte Leonard

5 comments

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May 7, 2011 - 2:54 am Lydia - Congratulations you two!!

April 21, 2011 - 5:42 pm Bogdan - Congratulations! Dave, you're a lucky guy, Charlotte's like a movie star on that catamaran shot :). All the best for you guys! Gorgeous shots! I'm jealous :-) Cheers! Bogdan

April 12, 2011 - 11:57 am fotograf Gdynia - Nice place, beautifully photos!!

April 11, 2011 - 7:56 am Vencanice Nis - This is really paradise island. I cant`t wait to see your wedding pictures.

April 8, 2011 - 9:01 am Richard - Congratulations guys! Here's wishing you both long life and happiness! Boracay looks as beautiful as I remember it if not a bit more developed. Looking forward to seeing pics from the wedding.

Howie & Alona Engagement Pictures in Toronto

By Dave Biesse \\ April 6, 2011

Engagement photography is so much fun. No matter how many different sessions we do, we love every single photo shoot. Each couple brings such a different dynamic – and influencing our creative process in a different way. On top of that, the weather, time of day and chance all play a part in the locations we end up using for a session.

Alona & Howie had the idea to do their engagement pictures in downtown Toronto, where they’ve spent a lot of the time since they started dating. We thought paying homage to Alona’s Russian background would be cool by doing a portion of the shoot in Pravda – a really cool Russian themed bar just across from the Flat Iron building.

From there we cruised down Colborne Street, ending up at BCE Place for some indoor shots.

Isn’t the light in BCE Place just awesome??! Amazing perspectives too.

As we walked back to the car we had some fun as the sunlight was at it’s best. Next we scooted over to Cabbagetown to wrap up the shoot in Howie’s old stomping ground. He even showed me the antique store his family owns where he worked as a kid – we walked in and the phone rang and she’s like “Howie, get that would you? Haha. Mum’s are the best.

I can’t wait for Alona & Howie’s wedding in June at Atlantis! It’s going to be gorgeous.


by Dave Biesse

8 comments

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June 27, 2011 - 10:23 am tamara - Hello, I am writing to inquire about your package pricing for a engagement photos and a full day wedding shoot for June 8th 2012. Your photos are stunning? Out of curiuousity what church was Alvin and Erin's wedding ceremony shot at? We are having our reception at the Old Mill and are looking for a church for the ceremony. Thanks so much. Please respond at your convenience with pricing. Tamara

June 10, 2011 - 4:56 am Cheshire wedding photographer - some amazing photographs here, composition, lighting and framing throughout the images are great!

June 1, 2011 - 12:52 am Dave Biesse - Hi Lizette - we LOVE the Canon 5D MkII's... We use them exclusively.

May 31, 2011 - 1:03 pm Lizette Mendez Barrios - Wow, the photos are wonderful. What camera do you recommend buying? I want to continue with my passion, photography.

May 18, 2011 - 9:56 am David Ferguson - Love the shot in the window of the cafe. The reflection really gives you a sense of the world surrounding this intimate little moment. Cool!

April 17, 2011 - 9:32 pm Peter Nikolaidis - I came to your website from google by looking for downtown underground toronto location and you were the top of that list. The problem is that i can not leave your website. the look and the feel. And the Photos ALL THE photos are outstanding. they make me want to do more as a photography. Keep up the great work you do. Cause it is an inspiration to me, and i hope others

April 7, 2011 - 2:25 am obturations.com - The last one, mmmhh so great !!

April 6, 2011 - 11:39 pm Alona - Dave, you are simply the best! Not only that we had such an amazing time at this shoot with you, we also got such a beautiful memory. Everyone who saw the pictures complimented the outstanding photographer. You're so good at your job! Hope you're enjoying Australia and married life.. How was the big day? :):) Alona& Howie p.s I forgot about Howie answering the phone at the store, hahaha:)

A Singapore Wedding

By Dave Biesse \\ March 22, 2011

It’ll be quite a surprise for most of you to see a new blog post up. We have so many awesome weddings we wish we’d had time to blog, but we’ll post some more soon! We’ve been so busy around here with our own wedding here in gorgeous Perth, Australia, honeymooning in exotic Boracay, Philippines. Opening a second photography studio in Perth, Australia and running our busy Toronto studio. Did I mention destination weddings too?? Yes we were lucky enough to recently photograph an amazing Singapore couple that found us through our Toronto studio.Meet Jocelyn and Michel! They found us in Canada and had to have us in Singapore for their wedding day even if it meant going to the opposite side of the world to do it! We knew that it was going to be a trip of a lifetime and couldn’t imagine a better couple to photograph in such an incredible location. Singapore, in South East Asia, is a very sophisticated and cosmopolitan place. The architecture and cityscapes are second to none. Singapore is so modern and futuristic, something you’d read about in a Sci Fi novel. It’s very clear that Singapore is one amazing place to have a wedding.

Jocelyn and Michel’s wedding took place over two days at the 5 star, ultra luxurious Four Season’s Hotel. We had so many favourites, this blog post is full of them but this is truly just the tip of the iceberg! It was an awesome day indeed.

Jocelyn’s house was all aflutter with fun and laughter as her family and friends helped her get ready for her big day!

As she put on her veil her mother told her how beautiful she was and that’s when Jocelyn truly felt like a bride. Their were also a few very special, emotional and touching moments that happened for her and her family before the ceremony. It’s moments like these that really mean so much to family and we feel honoured to capture moments like these.

No Singapore wedding would be complete without some door crashing shenanigans!!! These boys were ready for some craziness and the girls weren’t going to let Michel have Jocelyn that easily. They demanded begging and pleading ;) . As the girls chanted… “We don’t want your money, we just want your dignity!!!” All we could do was try to hold the cameras steady and laugh!!

This couple had fabulous style. You can’t get any more stylish than Cartier wedding bands, can you?!

They were both so sweet, you can see how thrilled they are to be married and in LOVE!!

We headed out to Singapore’s Botanical Gardens for their bridal session. The gardens were sooo lush and green… and dreamy. Perfect location for our photo shoot.

These guys really are SO incredibly happy together. It was hard to find a moment when they weren’t smiling from ear to ear. So great photographing amazing couples like these two!

I love these gorgeous ferns. How magical is that?

What a beauty Jocelyn is, such a gorgeous smile!

It’s actually pretty funny, Dave and I took these shots at totally different times while we were shooting the bride and groom separately around the gardens!! Maybe being married is making us think that same?! Who could resist a photo location like this! I stole away Jocelyn for this romantic shot and Dave was with Michel getting this cool groomsman shot. What an ethereal backdrop. It’s not often you see an orchid garden. Such a fantasy location!

To finish off the photo shoot we took a quick trip to the Singapore waterfront and this is where the real fun began.

Isn’t the city out of this world!! The building above was built to resemble a ship and the one below resembles a lotus flower. Because the city is still so young, the architecture is very innovative and modern.

While we were shooting, not only did we have a huge crowd of tourists surrounding us, haha, but we were also at the mercy of the rain. While we were waiting for the rain to stop, we grabbed this cute shot! Michel’s idea… very Singin’ In The Rain, don’t ya think!

The second day of the wedding took place at the Four Season’s Hotel Singapore. What an absolutely spectacular location for a wedding. Every time we shoot a wedding at the Four Seasons it’s always incredible. They are one of the worlds finest hotels and the first choice for celebrities for a reason!

Check out some of the amazing details from their wedding reception…

What an event! Almost 300 of their closest friends and family and perfect in every way…

Thanks so much to our lovely couple Jocelyn and Michel for having us fly all the way to Singapore to photograph one of the most important moments of your life. We’re so grateful you chose us to be there with you and cannot thank you enough for trusting us to document these memories. We wish you a life full of happiness and love!


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by Dave Biesse

6 comments

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April 27, 2011 - 9:36 am Vencanice Nis - Amazing location and even more amazing pictures. My favourite one is No.17 (Botanical garden)

March 28, 2011 - 4:43 am Beat Mumenthaler - beautiful and emotional pictures! congratulation! kind regards from switzerland beat

March 23, 2011 - 6:15 pm Flirt Photography / Amelia Thornton - Whoa! Albums AT the reception - NICE! Well done, guys :)

March 22, 2011 - 7:55 pm Carrie - So glad to see a post from you! Congrats on your marriage!

March 22, 2011 - 2:00 pm Andrew & Emily Sorlie - Amazing photos Dave & Charlotte! It's so incredible the emotion and moments you guys captured. Really beautiful shots. We love the shot of Jocelyn & Michel peeking through the door in anticipation! And the Botanical Gardens shots are stunning! Gorgeous!

March 22, 2011 - 10:48 am mario - Great location!

Yey! Bride’s Choice Award 2011 for Wedding Photography!

By Dave Biesse \\ January 25, 2011

Charlotte and I are very excited that we were selected to receive the prestigious annual WeddingWire Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2011 for Wedding Photography in Toronto.

We would like to send out a HUGE thank you for all our 2010 couples who took the time to provide a review on our WeddingWire sotrefront.

Recognition for the Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2011 is determined by recent reviews and extensive surveys from over 750,000 WeddingWire newlyweds. Our past clients are among those that shared their experiences.

We stands among the top five percent of wedding professionals in the WeddingWire community, representing quality and service excellence within the wedding industry. Awards were given to the top wedding professionals across 20 service categories, from wedding venues to wedding photographers, and were based on the overall professional achievements throughout the past year.


by Dave Biesse

3 comments

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March 28, 2011 - 2:45 am Vencanice Nis - Congratulations guys!

February 19, 2011 - 8:57 pm Katerina - Congrats guys! you totally deserve it!

January 28, 2011 - 8:52 am Michael - Congratulations guys! Also, a happy and successful new year! Cheers, Michael.

Vintage Engagement Session

By Dave Biesse \\ January 24, 2011

Today had a maximum temperature of -15 degrees. That’s just silly. So it’s with little regret that I share with you all that I’ll be sitting on an airplane bound for sunny Perth to get married this time next week! Charlotte’s already arrived and is setting up our new house… You see, we’ve decided that we’re going to life and endless summer. It’s an exciting time for us, we tie the knot in just three weeks… I’m dying to see my nieces and nephews again, catch up with my family. We’ll certainly keep you posted on everything as we figure it out.

Anyhow, enough about us! I’m super excited to share the engagement session I photographed yesterday. Meghan and Adam are an awesome downtown Toronto couple. They’re going to tie the knot this summer at the Muskoka Bay Resort… We can’t wait for it! Adam sells real estate and has the coolest website of any realtor I’ve seen.

Meghan came up with the idea to do a vintage engagement session and worked hard for the past week to find awesome outfits… As you’ll see, she put together some rockin combos.

We started the session in the bar in the King Edward Hotel – one of Toronto’s most glamorous wedding venues btw.

Check out the sweet wallpaper in the next shot.. gotta love how well suited this venue was for a vintage themed photo shoot.

As I mentioned earlier, it was -15 or something crazy as we left the King Eddy… We headed over to UofT to grab some very quick shots there…

To wrap up the session we headed over the Queen St West where we shop hopped to mix up the locations a bit. Check out the amazing colours we found!

I love looking for unique reflections during shoots… Isn’t this mirror the coolest?

Next we hit up a bar and I got a chance to do some cool shots of Adam. Right??

As we wrapped up the shoot I convinced Meg & Adam to let me make them bear with the cold a little longer so we could do one last really romantic shot. I shot just four frames and couldn’t be happier with this one.

Hope you’re all doing well – I’ll be sure to post some more wedding and engagement shoots from last year… We’ve been busy with the move.


by Dave Biesse

16 comments

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December 10, 2011 - 3:17 am Santorini Wedding Photographers - Great photos and also very good story telling!! Thanks.. :-)

June 17, 2011 - 12:50 pm Miami Wedding Photographer - Great vintage look! Very nice B&W treatment!

March 30, 2011 - 4:07 am kanchan - Hey Dave and Charlotte (Davelotteas i call you guys)...STRIKINGLY AMAZING...YOU GUYS ARE THE MOST BEAUTIFUL, CREATIVE , AND WHAT NOT...THE WAY YOU CAPTURE THINGS...IT SEEMS LIKE A DREAM COME TRUE MOMENT...YOUR WORK IS AN ADDICTION...I SIMPLY LOVE YOU GUYS...

March 29, 2011 - 9:07 pm mario - nice PP

March 10, 2011 - 5:31 am Luke Stanton - Is this engagement photography? it looks like a great idea. there's such a nice positive atmosphere in these photo's. really exciting and cool!

March 7, 2011 - 2:30 am Tamea Burd - These are just lovely. And that last shot is absolutely spectacular!

March 1, 2011 - 3:02 pm Barry - I love coming to this blog, cannot help but take inspiration from it.

February 28, 2011 - 3:17 am Char - Forgot to add... Your pics are so... crazy beautiful!!!

February 28, 2011 - 3:10 am Char - Woweee! 1st of all... CONGRATZ tonz on you two! What caught my eye was... I was Googling myself... nd saw this! I am Charlotte nd I am engaged to Dave! :P I hope youz for a long nd happy marriage! <3

February 27, 2011 - 9:47 pm Kristin Nicole - Gorgeous!

February 12, 2011 - 12:26 pm Chaba Vigh - Fantastic mood all the way long!!!

January 31, 2011 - 5:17 pm Tamas Millok - Great ones, congratulation! I like specially the couple at the bar in b&w! Good luck!

January 27, 2011 - 11:02 am julie - WOW!!! This photoshoot totally made me think about Titanic to beginning 'til end... love the romantic, vintage look...really well captured!

January 25, 2011 - 7:25 pm Becky - Are you moving to Perth?

January 25, 2011 - 8:04 am Kris - Beautiful images, love the vintage feel.

January 24, 2011 - 10:13 pm Flirt Photography / Amelia Thornton - Dave - GREAT job! That shot on the stairs makes me think of the Titanic. And I am totally in love with the mirror image. Safe travels!