5. Features.

Green Wedding Shoes recently featured Becky and Ymir’s glacier wedding, Style Me Pretty featured Annika and Doug’s Icelandic countryside wedding, and Junebug Weddings featured Susan and Jag’s Sikh wedding in Vancouver. These wedding blogs are arguably three of the biggest in North America.

A short while ago The National Post, one of Canada’s two largest papers, contacted us out of the blue. They found us in the ocean of photographers across Canada and we were featured in their weekend addition. Flattered. Honoured. Take your pick. It was very cool to see Nordica make it into a national publication. The web version of the interview can be viewed here.

This final “feature” is not really a feature at all, but an example of the weird and wonderful place our work ends up from time to time. About a month ago, we were following our web site’s stats and all of a sudden, it just went crazy. We’re talking a hundred new viewers a minute crazy. And even weirder was that all the viewers were from Poland. It turns out a Polish cartoon character named “WŁÓCZYKIJ” posted a link on its Facebook wall to an Iceland wedding we did, and this resulted in our site crashing from the influx of viewers. Hi, Poland.

4. Workshops.

A couple of months back, we started offering full-day workshops and online consultations. The Interwebs picked up on this.

We have done quite a few Skype chats since we started offering the consultations, and people are coming from all over the world to Vancouver for the day-long two-on-ones. This makes us happy (and humbled) because we really want to share our story and experiences – so we welcome any photographer who wants to see how we roll.

Also, we have added another slice to the service pie: Photography Business Evaluations. You can read about what that means here.

Staying with the workshop theme, we’ve got one more word for you: Fer. Yep, that Fer. He is a world-class Mexican wedding photographer and he’s coming up to Vancouver for a workshop. We’re helping him with the logistics, and apart from Fer’s general awesomeness, we’re also excited about the venue: Our good friend Matt from the Vogue Theatre is allowing us to host the workshop there. You might remember the Vogue engagement session we did there a while back. That’s happening in March. Sexy like iguana.

3. 2012 + 2013.

Our first wedding of the year happened recently in (freezing, Arctic cold) Edmonton, and we’re gearing up for another busy year. A ranch wedding in British Columbia Interior (with this couple), a destination wedding in Dominican Republic, a fall wedding in Finland, and a July wedding in Iceland are some of the weddings we’ll be travelling for. And of course all the local weddings we have lined up. We can’t wait to get this year going.

2013. Yeah, who knew people planned this far ahead? We’ve started booking weddings for 2013 already and we have some exciting things planned for next year. We aren’t going to let the cat out of the bag quite yet, but let’s just say Europe is on the horizon.

2. Social.

We’ve quietly been active all over the web on different websites, but you probably haven’t had those sites easily passed along your way. By design. But, here are a few places where we can be found:

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/nordicaphoto (also, @allan_cole and @jakobg)
Formspring: www.formspring.me/Nordicaphoto
Google Plus: http://goo.gl/bpwFh
Tumblr: http://nordicaphoto.tumblr.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nordicaphotography

Also, it seems the happy pinners of Pinterest have found us. Pin on. (And if you want to follow us on Pinterest, we’re here: Cole, Jakob)

1. Motivated. Happy.

On the personal side of things, we are two happy dudes and we want to thank all the people we’ve networked with online and in person, and also all the couples we’ve worked with throughout 2010 and 2011. We had no idea what to expect when we started Nordica, and to come as far as we have is very cool. But, we couldn’t have done it without all the input and opportunities we’ve received from everyone, so thank you.

We’re massively motivated right now to smash our potential as wedding photographers, and we can’t wait for all the 2012 action.

There’s one wedding in Mexico before that, but essentially until mid-January, we’ll be on holidays.

With that in mind, we picked our favourite images of the year. The pictures selected could be because we thought they were awesome pictures or they could have sentimental meaning to us personally. But these are the standouts after year one.

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Cole’s Picks

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Jakob’s Picks

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But we think it’s time you get to know us a little better as individuals. Because even though we share the same photography vision, we are rather different people.

So let’s start with the European guy. The Finn. Or Swede. Or whatever he is.

Jakob.

Yeah. Finn, Swede, whatever I am.

It’s very confusing. But it’s really not.

I grew up in a swedish speaking part of Finland, moved to Sweden when I was 19 and lived there till I moved to Vancouver late 2009. Finnish citizen. Swedish speaking.

Not that complicated.

There. Now we’ve straightened that out. Let’s move on.

I moved to Vancouver in November last year, which means I’ve lived here for a year now. I think it took me a month or two to make this city feel like home. And another couple of months to really fall in love with it. Now it’s definitely one of my favorite places on earth.

I’ve even started saying “eh” like a real canadian. Weird, eh?

“So why Vancouver?“ is the first question I always get. Well, it’s all Cole’s fault. But I’ll get to that in a bit.

“And why photography and why weddings?” is the next question.

To that, there’s really no short answer. It’s not like I knew that I wanted to be a wedding photographer when I was six years old (like my sister the doctor did).

Nope, far from it actually.

By coincidence I started doing photography professionally. Journalistic and corporate stuff. And as the guy with the fancy camera I ended up shooting a friend’s wedding a couple of years ago.

That’s how it all started and now there’s nothing I’d rather do.

One of the main reasons I love wedding photography is that the people we work with actually care about the results. They care enough to sometimes even cry seeing their photos.

It’s a great feeling knowing that what you do makes people happy. That it makes a difference. Kinda what makes the job meaningful.

My goal in life has always been to do something I really like for a living (and become insanely rich of course) and that’s exactly what I’m doing right now (the like part that is, the insanely rich is still to come).

I guess I have Cole to thank for that. He’s the one that convinced me to move across the globe and do this whole Nordica thing. Well – to be honest – what he really said was something like “the chicks are gonna love you here”.

Yeah. I usually go with the I-moved-here-to-start-up-a-business story.

I did actually run my own business (JG Media, doing photography and various design stuff) in Stockholm before I came too. But only as a side thing. And I’m not totally convinced it would ever have become anything more. Now I can’t imagine having a 9 to 5 job again.

So thanks eh, Cole.

What else?

I grew up in a small town where winters were too dark and too long. Our neighbours had cows and hens. I played soccer throughout my youth. I still love soccer. I’m a sucker for minimalism. I’m a Mac. I’ve been to 22 countries (or something like that). I could live on sushi alone. I took German in school for about 5 years and could probably not even order a beer in Germany. My grandpa’s first name was Viking. I’ve got a masters degree in business and entrepreneurship. I had higher scores than Cole throughout that masters year (I’m pretty sure that’s how it was, but Cole may be of another opinion). I’ve had cats named The Dark Man and Jesus. I’m not very religious.

There.

Hopefully you know me – one half of the Nordica machine – a little better now. Cole will tell you his story in a couple of days (or when he’s ready, he hates writing about himself almost as much as he hates having his picture taken).

:)

- Jakob

Granville Island is a very busy, touristy place and if you ever venture into Vancouver, you can be certain that you will visit this juggernaut of an attraction.

So, this engagement session is our interpretation of Granville Island, so to speak, with Janine and Cam on who are set to wed in 2011.

Vancouver is an absolute top-notch spot for photography. It’s got the mountains, the ocean, the beaches, the big-ass buildings and everything in between.

But we’re constantly looking for adventures and we love to see new places.

Jakob’s been all over the place, visiting some 25 countries. Cole’s no slouch either having lived in places like Helsinki, northern Sweden and being suitcased all over North America during his junior hockey days.

Add that up and you’ve got two guys who are primed and ready for destination weddings.

So for today’s blog post, we thought we would give you our individual top three wedding destinations. Why three? Well, we’re two dudes with different opinions and we don’t want this post to turn into a monster.

Jakob’s Top Three

3 // Hawaii

Hawaii is pretty much as exotic as it gets for me. Maybe it’s because I come from the complete opposite side of the globe, I don’t know, but I’ve always wanted to visit Hawaii.

And I love sun, beaches, palm trees and all that stuff.

So bring on Honolulu, Hilo or any other place on the 50th state and I’m all over it.

2 // India

I’ve never experienced an indian wedding in real life, but from the photos I’ve seen and from the stories I’ve heard, it seems like an absolute dream for a wedding photographer.

The weddings go on for days. It’s an overflow of awesome colours and patterns. And there are lots of traditions.

I’d love to do a wedding in India.

1 // Florence, Venice, Rome, or anywhere else in Italy

To me Italy’s got it all. Warm climate, awesome scenery, a lot of history, wicked food and a passion filled culture.

A wedding on a nice sunny evening in Italy is top of my wish list. It’d be absolute money.

Cole’s Top Three

3 // Inverness

I image Scottish weddings to be all-class. I’m not sure if it’s the kilts, the party-till-you-die attitudes I’m envisioning at the receptions or the killer accents, but there’s just something magical about Scotland. My cousins over there are probably gutting themselves reading that there’s something ‘magical’ about Scotland, but for me, there is.

The Highlands is my favourite region in Scotland by far. There are fistfuls of scenery in every direction and the people who lived there are insanely friendly, even if you can’t understand a word they were saying. Killer combo for a great wedding experience.

2 // Anywhere in Russia

Russia is a mind-bending place when it comes to digesting all of the culture going on. A wedding with some of those good-looking, vodka inhaling Ruskies would be challenging and intense, but what an experience it would be.

Aside from the beautiful people and the gorgeous cities, I think the most interesting part about photographing a Russian wedding would be the traditions and obsessive superstitions.

I was in Moscow on a May afternoon in 2005 and remember seeing a groom sprinting at breakneck speed across a bridge carrying his new-bride, both laughing hysterically. To me, seeing this was thoroughly confusing, but I’m sure there was a very good reason for this.

So Jakob and I would be totally lost the entire time if we were ever to do this, but man, would it be an amazing experience.

1 // Reykjavik or Akureyri

Anyone who knows me is fully aware that I have a weird obsession with Iceland. My dad’s side of the family comes from there, and since I was a kid, I’ve always been ridiculously curious about this odd little island.

When I was about 8 or 9 years old, my uncle gave me a book (or I took it, I can’t remember) with a badass picture of a Viking on the cover that contained all the Icelandic sagas, and I never put it down.

I was, and am, hooked. Shit, even as I’m writing this I’m listening to my favourite radio station that I’ve listened to for years, Xið 97,7.

But I’ve never been there.

So I’m not sure it’s totally necessary to delve into the million reasons why I want to photograph a wedding there, because we wanted to keep this post somewhat small. But, I will say it would be a surreal excuse to go there considering it’s all I’ve wanted to do for many years.

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There you go folks, our destination wedding bucket list. We like weddings for many reasons, but one of our favourite aspects about a them is the cultural emphasis that occurs. So, hopefully destination weddings will continue for us in the future, and we can learn more about the world.

“Don’t celebrate the attainment of the summit, celebrate the style of the climb”

You know the kind of days when the ground smells of a freshly beaten rain? That’s how it smelled on Meagan and Chad’s wedding due to the flash showers that pounded the Mayan Riviera resort, near Cancun in Mexico.

The situation was as such: No rain for the ceremony (thankfully), but monsoon right after our five minute portrait session with the bride and the groom (not so thankfully).

So our situation at that point was very straightforward. The weather wasn’t cooperative: figure it out. The lighting wasn’t mint: figure it out. We couldn’t see a thing through our cameras because they were covered in water: figure it out.

The style of this climb was seeing the actions of the group when that rain storm hit. You can’t predict or plan those types of moments, and those were the moments we’ll remember from this wedding.

There is a slideshow to music that contains more images at the bottom of the post.

This wedding had it all. The hair being done out at Interlakes, the groom and his family chilling out pre-wedding near Horse Lake, the actual ceremony occurring just off of Horse Lake Road towards 100 Mile, the portrait shoot occurring at the park in town and the reception being held at the Lone Butte Community Hall. It was a Cariboo wedding through and through.

There is a slideshow to music that contains more images at the bottom of the post.

We were recently flown down to Cancun for a wedding. Needless to say, it was an incredible experience and we felt very fortunate to be a part of it. Future weddings in Mexico are certainly high on our agenda.

This particular wedding was between Chad and Meagan, and while we were there, we spent a few minutes doing a pre-wedding photo session together. We just wanted to get comfortable with one another so on the day of their wedding, we would nail their pictures.

Voila. Engagement photography session Mexican style.

Here’s one picture from the pre-wedding shoot we did with the couple.

We’ll post the full engagement shoot later. Cerveza!