“Funny how quiet has slipped to our corners
Worn all our edges away
You are watching, breathing and baiting
Wanting and warming and cautiously waiting
For some simple signal to creep cross your conscience
Uncover redemption and oh, did I mention
I carried you down to the St. Lawrence River
The banks running dirty, the water’s beginning to freeze here
Solid by morning
And I’ll freeze here
Winter by morning”
~ David Usher

Ugh…are those not some of the most beautiful words that you’ve ever heard?  Perhaps even the most desperate love story to ever cross your path?  If you come here often, you know that I heard this for the first time one random Friday in university.  Among the darkness of the night and the warmth of the summer, I fell in love.  I fell in love with David Usher and the St. Lawrence River.  It was my first great love.  Shortly before my first shattered love and long before my only true love.  And it made me believe.  It made me believe that all love worth waiting for could be found among the shores and once found, forever existed there in some capacity or another.  For some girls, they learned about love from romantic movies.  I learned it from David Usher!

This love affair with the St. Lawrence River has left me with over a decade of wishing that I could make it all come to life one day.  It’s left me with visions of what a great love along the shores would look like.  Every time I’ve picked up my camera or prepared for a shoot…I’ve always wondered what those images would look like.  And since then, I’ve just waited…patiently…intently…hopefully.

I don’t actually think that Lindsay and Brad knew this about me when we first met back in the spring.  I don’t think that they knew this about me when we first started to discuss their engagement pictures and I’m sure that they didn’t know this about me when they brought me to a dock twenty minutes just outside of Brockville on a gorgeous summer evening.

I don’t think they knew when they asked me “do you mind if we take some pictures along the water?” just how long I’d been waiting for this time.  This place.

It’s not every day that you meet a couple who not only embraces your passion…but also encourages your creativity.  A couple who allows you to make your vision a reality…who allows you to turn their love into part of your story.  But this is one of those couples.

Lindsay and Brad, I would be lying if I said that I haven’t fallen completely in love with you!  You brought me down to the St. Lawrence River and you stole my heart…with your yogurt covered pretzels, your laughter and your greatest of love stories.  You are the reason that I’ve been up way past my bedtime sitting in front of my computer.  You are the reason that I’ve spent the rest of my hours barely able to contain my excitement.  Couples like you are the reason that I dared to become a photographer…and I can’t thank you enough for it.

I absolutely LOVE this set of images.  I love what they mean to me and hopefully what they will mean to you.  I love that your passion radiates on your faces and that you chose this place to show it.  And I love that we will be seeing a whole lot more of each other over the course of the next year…your wedding simply can’t get here fast enough!

– Gen xoxo