Intimate Santorini Greece Wedding

Working with Emily + Tate over the last 3 years has been incredible. They were my first couple for who I’ve gotten to document a proposal, engagement & wedding. In 2014, I traveled out to Puerto Rico for Tate’s proposal to Emily. Last year, I met them in San Francisco and we ventured around Point Reyes for their engagement session. Now finally this year, I got to document their wedding. I still remember getting the email from Emily asking if I’d be interested in photographing their wedding in Greece. Seems like such a long time ago but time flies quick.

This was my first time in Greece and one place I was super excited to visit and experience. I arrived a few days prior to the wedding, which meant I had ample time to walk around and explore the area. I woke up around 5am every morning to catch sunrise and walk around the desolate streets of the city before people began to wake up. It was so tranquil and allowed me to get a lot of rad shots of the area without people in them. One of my favorite things about Emily + Tate is that I can ask them to do pretty much anything and they’ll be onboard for it. That included waking up at 4am and driving to the other side of the island for a pre-wedding shoot at a red beach. What can sometimes be an overly crowded small stretch of beach was deserted and extremely peaceful. We shot for about an hour before heading back to Oia, grabbing breakfast and continuing on with our day.

Everything was going pretty well except for one hiccup that took place over the weekend. My good friend, Derek Copenhaver, was going to be meeting me in Greece to film the wedding. He was set to arrive a couple days after me due to prior arrangements he had. I didn’t know it at the time but apparently strikes are a very common thing in Greece and wouldn’t you know it, it happened while I was there and while Derek was making his way out here. He arrived to Toronto to find out his flight to Athens had been cancelled. Air traffic control in Greece had gone on strike and that meant all flights in/out of Greece were cancelled. Not only that, but they were planning to be on strike for a week which would mean I would be stuck in Greece for three days longer than I had planned (and could potentially miss a wedding I had the following weekend in California). Thankfully a few hours later they called it off. I still don’t know how it worked out but Derek somehow managed to make it to Santorini the night before the wedding and all was well.

I had not seen the exact area where they would be getting married (which was in Fira) so when I showed up and saw it, my jaw dropped. It’s one of the highest points of the island and gave incredible views of the water and islands in the distance. After the wedding, we took some portraits around the area and hopped in a cab back to Oia. While we were in the cab, the driver mentioned he knew he a really cool spot with another beautiful view. Next thing we know, he’s driving out of his way to take us up high to another viewpoint. He is the man.

We planned to venture out to the opposite side of the island once more for some more portraits the following day since there wouldn’t be enough time to shoot there the evening of the wedding. After a bit of scouting via Google Maps we had figured out a general area of where we wanted to go. When we arrived we had some really good diffused light. It’s a type of light I don’t get to shoot in too often but it’s a super warm light but without the harshness. It was great. After we finished shooting, Derek and I caught a ride to the airport and started our journey back home. The long flights were so worth it. I can’t thank Emily + Tate enough for letting me follow them around the last few years with a camera. Now, onto the photos!

Featured in print and online on Together Journal