Christina & Robin are good friends of my brother, Steve. When they found out that I’m a photographer, they asked Steve to introduce me to them. They soon asked me to photograph their wedding. In the few short meetings I had with the couple, it became evident why my brother had become such good friends with them.

The things Steve had told me about Christina & Robin were absolutely true: they are indeed two of the most genuine and easygoing people I’ve met. After a long and challenging final semester of university, Christina & Robin’s wedding, at Casablanca Winery Inn in Grimsby, ON, was a great way to finish it off.

While the bridesmaids were celebrating with some champaign in the bridal suite, Robin and his groomsmen resorted to YouTube to figure out how to fold their pocket squares.

Christina & Robin toasted from a traditional German maiden cup, which allows both the bride and groom to, with some difficulty, simultaneously drink from the same cup.

I hope the happy couple enjoyed their honeymoon in Mexico and I wish all the best to Christina & Robin as they build their future together.

I want to thank Bailey & Lee for being so patient since I’ve been so busy with my thesis that I haven’t had a chance to post the blog from their wedding yet. But behold – here it finally is.

The girls got ready at Bailey’s lovely home in Niagara Falls, ON. Her family was incredibly welcoming and accommodating for me, which is so appreciated.

Once the ladies were ready, we all piled into the limo and headed to Fort Erie for the ceremony.

After the ceremony, we headed outside for some photos, despite the insane wind storm.

After photos, we headed to Welland for the reception.

Bailey & Lee will soon be welcoming their first child into the world. Congratulations!

If you’re interested in seeing my fine art, I will be exhibiting at Maximum Exposure this year. The opening reception will be held at The Gladstone Hotel (Second Floor) on April 27th at 6pm.

Sarah, a good friend of mine, asked me to shoot some engagement photos of her and her fiancé, Reid. If you follow my work, you may recognize her from her Headshots and from my First Impressions series.

Both Sarah and Reid are actors who met when they were both attending school for theatre. I love working with actors, specifically because they’re almost always up for any suggestion and they’re always full of personality.

This was the first time I had met Reid and it was obvious right away that he was a perfect match for Sarah. They kept each other laughing and smiling through the whole shoot.

This shoot was fairly impromptu, since we shot these photos about a week before Sarah took a flight to Japan to work for Universal Studios Japan for a year. Sarah and Reid are getting married in 2013.

I was honoured to be asked to photograph the couple shortly before they spend a year apart, but I wish them all the best. I’m looking forward to capturing their wedding day in 2013.

First of all, I want to send out a great big thank you. I want to thank my family and friends for always supporting my artistic endeavours. It’s not always easy to stay motivated when you’re trying your best to develop your skills as an artist while simultaneously getting a university education and trying to support yourself and all the while building a small business from scratch. Becoming a successful professional artist/photographer is no small feat and I’ve certainly had lots of high points and low points over the past four years. It can, at times, be difficult to stay motivated and positive to continue to work towards bigger and better things, but the love and support of my friends and family have certainly been one of my strongest motivations.

I want to also thank all of the brides and grooms who invited me to witness, experience and capture one of the happiest, most exciting days of their lives thus far. The trust you’ve all placed in me to both experience your wedding days with you and to capture them is a real honour to me.

In addition to all of my clients, I can’t forget to thank everybody who frequents my website and/or twitter and facebook updates. There’s a lot of you that I don’t know personally or see very infrequently and this is really the only way I can show my appreciation to all of you out there. Thanks for your support.

Now that all that mushy stuff is taken care of, I want to update you about what I’ve been up to since I stopped posting my wedding blogs. I’m currently a little more than halfway through my final year of the four-year photography studies BFA program at Ryerson University. I’m creating two bodies of work for my thesis.

The first, which I started in September and finished in December is a multimedia piece called First Impressions, wherein a created series of photographic portraits, photographed and manipulated to appear as if drawn caricatures, highlighting specific identity traits of each subject (of their choice). Each portrait was paired with a video interview, wherein each subject speaks about the way they perceive their identity to be perceived by others, upon a first impression. The piece speaks about identity and how stereotypes can often warp the perception of our own identities and the identities of others. View the final presentation of the piece: First Impressions by Ben Lariviere

In December, I was selected to exhibit a photograph in Full Frame at IMA Gallery, which was purchased during the buyer’s preview and awarded me an honourable mention for the Best in Show Award, guest-judged by the distinguished Maia-Mari Sutnik, Curator of Photography at the Art Gallery of Ontario. This was, no doubt, a much-needed confidence boost, after a long and difficult first semester. The photo, “Union,” is part of a multimedia piece I created in third-year, “public’SPace.” The piece pairs images of typically hustling-and-bustling locations in Toronto’s downtown core in a unfamiliar moment of calm with audio clips of those locations at rush hour. I will add that piece to my website once I figure out how best to present it online.

This semester, I’m working on a new photo series, wherein I will be recreating particular memories of moments in my subjects’ lives as accurately as their memories are able to recall. This project is very much in the beginning stages, but will be ready to present at the end of the semester, in April.

I’m also exhibiting at MaxEx, at The Gladstone Hotel at the end of April. I will post more information about that on my facebook and twitter as it gets closer. I hope to see some of you there.

Again, thanks for all of your support and if you want to help even more, click the “like” button below or comment on this blog post.

–Ben

When Brittany & Matt suggested that we shoot their engagement photos in Elora, Ontario, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. We were disappointed that the Elora Conservation Area was closed for the season, but we wandered around Elora and found some great locations for photos.

At first, Brittany seemed upset that we weren’t able to shoot in the Conservation Area, like we had planned, but I wasn’t worried. I knew we’d be able to find a good location for photos, but I wasn’t expecting a beautiful abandoned mill to shoot at. This was the perfect backdrop and I was almost relieved that the conservation area was closed. Although I’m sure the conservation area would have been beautiful, I don’t think we would have had the variety of backgrounds as we did.

I feel like almost every shoot I have where something doesn’t go to plan, my faith that everything will work out in the end is reinforced. It seems like every time something goes “wrong,” the results end up being better than they would have been if everything had gone to plan. It’s funny how that works.

A nice man suggested we walk around the corner, where we found a beautiful wooded area with some look-out points to the gorge.

Congratulations to Brittany & Matt on their engagement. All the best to you both.

Kristina & Yousif’s beautiful wedding took place at The Old Mill Inn & Spa in Toronto.

From the minute I arrived at The Old Mill, it became clear to me that it’s quite literally a wedding factory. Before I got to the front door, I had already passed two other brides. But despite the fact that 5 or 6 weddings were happening at the venue that day, it never felt crowded or impersonal. Pretty incredible.

Kristina and her bridesmaids were busy getting ready in a room at the inn, as I wandered around the maze-like hallways of the historic Old Mill.

Just a few hours later, we headed to the chapel for a very short and sweet ceremony.

The Old Mill wedding chapel is very charming, but incredibly dark. This was one of the most challenging ceremonies I’ve photographed, since the available light was so limited. Though difficult, it created very dramatic images.

After the ceremony, I took the wedding party around the Old Mill’s gorgeous grounds for some fun photos.

The wedding party was a lot of fun to work with. Everybody was so friendly and weloming through the whole photo shoot.

Kristina & Yousif were very playful while I shot them. They were always joking around and laughing, which made them so easy to work with.

I had the newlyweds pose to mimic their cake topper.

After photos, the wedding party was announced at the reception, in the Humber Room.

Kristina & Yousif had their base-less champagne glasses engraved. It was a very cool detail.

The couple requested that we take a group shot with all of their guests. Luckily, they only had about 60 guests, so everybody fit on the staircase outside of the banquet hall.

After that, the party really began.

I had an amazing time shooting Kristina & Yousif’s wedding and I wish all the best for the happy couple.

I’m so thrilled that I got the opportunity to meet Nicole & Will. I would never have had the chance to meet such genuinely thoughtful & enjoyable people, if  they hadn’t asked me to photograph their wedding.

Will is such an easy-going, happy guy; probably one of the most animated grooms I’ve worked with. From his personality, you’d never know that Will is a soldier, who was badly wounded last year by a buried bomb while on duty in Afghanistan.

One thing that was immediately evident to me about Will is that he doesn’t take anything for granted. It’s obvious that Will is completely devoted to his family, friends, his beautiful blue Oldsmobile Cutlass and, of course, Nicole.

Nicole is a bride who knows what she wants. This is not to say that Nicole was a “bride-zilla” by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, there were a few hiccups in the schedule over the course of the day, and Nicole didn’t seem the least bit upset or stressed about it.

By “she wasn’t upset” I didn’t mean that she didn’t cry. The photo above was the first time (of many) that I captured Nicole crying. She had just finished having her dress tied up and I had her mom & bridesmaids stand behind me while I took a couple photos. I couldn’t see behind me, but I can only assume that tears were flowing behind me to inspire this reaction from Nicole.

Nicole asked me to take a photo of her sentimental tattoo. I love how it turned out.

The limo ride to the ceremony was, for the most part, a dance party. But there was a moment of calm just before we arrived.

As per tradition, the bride arrived fashionably late. Will waited patiently at the alter, for his bride to show up.

Will wasn’t about to waste this kiss. Soon after, we jumped back in the limo to go take some photos, where the wedding party enjoyed a bottle of champagne.

I rarely make solid plans for wedding party photos. Winging it seems to always work out for the best. And this time, it definitely worked out.

This group was loads of fun to photograph. Everybody was super co-operative, but felt relaxed enough to joke around, which made for some great moments for me to capture.

Nicole could barely keep her eyes off her husband. The way these two look at each other is like nothing else.

During the dance-party limo ride back to the reception, it was as if Nicole & Will were completely alone, just enjoying each others’ company.

The reception was beautiful, the food was delicious and their cake was amazing. It had slanted tiers and the bride atop drags her groom up the slant.

After seeing these photos, Nicole emailed me to say:

Will and I absolutly LOVE the pictures!! They look amazing and only make us even more excited to see the rest of them!
[...]
You were a great pleasure to work with! Very professional and fun and I have reccommended you to every one I know getting married :)

Spending the day with these two taught me a lot about how important it is to treasure the people you have around you. Nicole & Will are amazing people and like I said, I’m so happy to have met such a heroic couple.

Congrats, guys!

Mere & Nate’s wedding day was gorgeous. It was warm & sunny, but not so humid that it was unbearable. Perfect for an outdoor, countryside wedding.

I spent the early afternoon with Mere & her bridesmaids, finding lots of shade among the trees. Mere might be one of the most laid-back brides I’ve worked with and her big day followed suit from beginning to end.

Baby Isla was all dressed up for her big moment as the flower girl.

Their ceremony was short and sweet. Mere looked absolutely stunning.

Due to the heat, Nate made the executive decision to forgo jackets during photos, which worked just fine for me, since I wanted to capture a very casual, relaxed feeling for these photos.

There was no shortage of locations for photos, but my absolute favourite was under an old barn across the street from where the ceremony was held. At first glance, it looked like a pile of garbage, but upon further inspection, it turned out to be a beautiful pile of garbage that was the perfect backdrop for a photo.

Mere & Nate were a joy to work with. They were even patient enough to stay in the same pose for several minutes while I searched for the perfect shot.

The happy couple even got a quiet moment alone while the sun began to set, moments before we headed back across the street for dinner.

The bridesmaids took a musical approach to their speech. It was both funny and endearing and received a well-deserved standing ovation.

All the best to Mere & Nate. Congratulations!