Or a mountain wedding. Or a beach wedding. Or a bingo-hall wedding (if bingo is your thing).

If it makes sense and it fits, you could really have a wedding almost anywhere. As long as it’s non-contrived.

Same goes for Document You sessions. Hahn and John made it crystal clear when we first met them: They like nature and they like to hike. This is what they do together in their spare time and for them to get out into the woods is a very natural thing to do.

Their wedding will be in a mountainous rainforest this summer. For their Document You, we picked a different mountainous rainforest, about a two hour drive from downtown Vancouver.

It was a natural fit.

If you are interested in learning more about the full-day workshops with us, email info@nordicaphotography.com for more information.

Here is what Erin had to say about her time:

1. What are the three most valuable things that you took away from the workshop?

Learning how you two scout your locations for the elements that are important in creating a vision that is consistent with your look.

How to increase my web presence and manage my seo (on my own) using the tools that have worked well for you in your business.

Helping to affirm the vision and direction that I want to move my business toward, by providing suggestions on how to get there and what steps to consider.

2. Were all of your goals/expectations met with the workshop?

Yes. We packed a lot in to our day, and everything moved quite quickly. But I’m happy to have received as much information and direction as I did and didn’t leave feeling like we had missed anything.

3. Was there anything that surprised you about the workshop that you didn’t see coming when you signed up?

Yeah, You guys drink a LOT of coffee.

Seriously, The two of you were humble and real. I felt like I was hanging out with two friends.

4. Do you have any suggestions for improvements for our future workshops?

I loved that I was your one and only student. Having the ability to ask questions at any time and have your full attention was refreshing compared to workshops that i had done in the past. Don’t change this!! Having the undivided attention of not one, but two of you was perfect.

5. What would you say to another photographer who was considering a workshop with Nordica based on your experience?

I put off contacting Cole and Jakob since I first came across their work in Sept of 2011, after attending a wedding that they photographed. I instantly fell in love with their work and wanted to know what made them tick, and what made their work so special. I must have started and deleted my email to them a half a dozen times. I felt like I was really making myself vulnerable, but once i received an email back from them I could see how down to earth they really were.

As far as the actual workshopping,  the entire day flowed really well, and I felt like there was just the right amount of time spent addressing everything that I wanted to; from scouting, to shooting, and plenty of time for discussion. What was so great about this workshop in particular is that the guys created an itinerary tailored specific to my needs and questions that I had about my business. I can say that I’ve wasted money on workshops in the past, but feel like I got good value for my money here.  In short, these guys are here to help you and were open about everything they do that has made them so successful. I feel like they’ve equipped me an arsenal of tools to take my business to the next level. Throw your fears aside and call them.

And a few of us working it.

Everyone is weird in their own way, and when you embrace the weirdness, life is that much more awesome.

Weird is a good thing.

When we met Karen and Cameron in 2010, we left thinking this: “Penguin ice sculpture? That’s weird.” You see, Cameron had intended on building a massive ice sculpture for their wedding. Penguins was the theme for their wedding, so Cam wanted to smash a home-run with this ice sculpture idea.

So, missing a few details, our first impression of the pengiun-ice-sculpture-wedding was, well, weird.

We basically envisioned a totally tripped-out wedding. Hunter S. Thompson greeting at us the door with penguin shaped jello shots. Oompa loompas in penguin outfits roller blading around the reception with trays of absinthe. And the whole kumbaya revolving around a humongous penguin ice sculpture that would be spraying Bacardi out of it’s stout.

It would be weird. It would be awesome.

Even though the penguin ice sculpture never actually happened, hearing of a wedding that had something a bit different and a bit off the wall was awesome.

And weird or not, we liked Karen and Cam a lot from day one. They found us through Rebecca Bollwitt (aka Miss 604 - a Vancouver blogger) and pictures of her dangling from a building (which is weird), and we’re glad they did.

We’ve always referred to Nordica as our baby, and it is. Nordica’s roots are deep within both our lives and we’ve nurtured it, fed it, and watched it grow ever since we gave it a name and started shaping it’s identity in November of 2009. Like any proud parents, we shone the limelight a bit too bright on a baby that we knew nothing about, and we may have blinded ourselves a bit along the way.

But, with naive in full force, we pushed forward believing our baby would grow to be awesome.

Nordica took a few steps in 2010 – steps that we were very proud of and still are – but those steps were not unlike a crazy teenager’s.

More confident then experienced, more talking then listening, more dreaming then action. In 2010, Nordica was the loud-mouthed guy who screamed greatness having yet achieved a thing, and yelling to the world all the things he wanted to achieve one day.

Then, in 2011, it started to happen.

Some – not all – of the things the loud-mouthed teenager was screaming began to happen. It was as though Nordica had just cruised the university, had a dream job in mind, and actually got hired.

We dreamt about photographing a wedding in Iceland. Nordica ended up beside glaciers on one trip, and isolated countryside the next.

We dreamt about photographing multicultural weddings. We found ourselves in Sikh temples, Mexican jungles, Swedish archipelagos, historical farmlands, Indian ceremonies and faraway ranches.

Throughout 2011, we lived the dreams that we envisioned to be possible when we first started. We had big ideas, and somehow they came true.

And as 2011 drew to a close, we realize that we weren’t yelling a bunch of bullshit without substance anymore, and we weren’t living in some sort of fantasy that would be whisked away.

We realized that our little man, Nordica, had done a great deal of maturing, and we are proud of who he’s becoming. There are many lessons to be learned still, but experience and achieving goals has lit a fire in our little man, and we look forward to seeing where the journey takes him in 2012.

That is the statement you’ll see when you read about Thrive Alive, a foundation that Stephanie and Walter started in 2009. Their passion in life is to make the lives of those effected by cancer more positive, and most of their focus in life is the betterment of others.

Their story is very inspiring.

When they’re not making the world a better place, they share another passion together: sailing their boat. The boat is a big part of Steph and Walt’s lives and you can feel their love for that thing the second you step onto it.

So, it was logical for us to do their Document You session amidst something that held such esteem in their lives. Boating is a passion they share and being together on that boat clearly means a lot to them.

It’s tough for us to put into pictures and a few sentences how much we respect what these two do for others. The world could surely use a few more Stephanies and Walters, and we feel honoured to be photographing their wedding in 2012.

If ever there was a beer slinging, shot-gun firing, barn dancing, deer-antlericious wedding, this was it. 

Meg had a vision for her wedding and there was nothing that could hold her back. She was amazing. Her wingman, Adam, wasn’t so bad either at putting it all together.

Massive props to the two of them for such an incredible wedding. We’ll post the whole thing another day.

We’re actually even taking some time to chill. Recharge the batteries.

Jakob is off to Vegas for a short holiday and Cole will enjoy a week in the land of delicious Tequila. Cole’s even bringing our lovely Nordica accountant, and God knows she deserves it too. We’d be lost without her.

We’re taking turns though, since there are still albums to be designed and photos to be delivered. Plus the usual flood of emails.

We’ve pretty much been either shooting or spending time in our editing caves every day for the last few months. And now as things get a bit lighter, we’ll actually have time to focus on moving things forward. Coming up with new ideas, both for our business and for our photography.

Time to brainstorm. Not that we’re planning on reinventing the wheel for next season, but we have a few ideas floating around.

We’ve actually got something pretty exciting to share very soon, involving sharing what we know and what we’ve learned in the last few years. But more on that in a bit.

Now we’re gonna enjoy a few (in our opinions) well-deserved days off. And get some sun.

Over and out.

/C&J

PS. We’ve also got some cool weddings coming up on the blog. Like this one, for example.