Weddings

view the story

When I heard H&M’s wedding day would be at Secret Gardens, I was over the moon happy for them. It is by far one of our top favourite wedding venues in Abbotsford. I was excited to be shooting alongside Marvin Herrera for this set of Secret Garden wedding photos. Marvin is a long-standing team member at MKP and you’ll often see him shooting alongside & assisting me at weddings throughout the season. I am so grateful to have him and was stoked for the opportunity to work with him in this capacity.

This was just one of the weddings we shot at the Secret Garden at Ripples Winery last summer. You can catch up on this beautiful summer wedding day there on The Blog if you missed it! H&M’s wedding day was perfectly overcast and we took full advantage of the greenhouses on the property as well as the grounds surrounding the venue. Maybe it’s the lush tropical greenhouses & wedding venue, maybe it’s the fields with mountains in the distance, or maybe it’s the fantastic team at Ripples Winery. Regardless, Secret Garden wedding photos always end up placing in my top favourite images of the season year after year.

Secret Garden Wedding Photos:

Here’s a little glimpse into a typical gorgeous wedding day at the Secret Garden at Ripples Winery in the Fraser Valley…

Ceremony:

Wedding Portraits at Ripples Winery:

Reception:

vancouver wedding blog meg kristina

All Photos here by Meg Kristina Photography 

authentic joyful adventurous 

www.megkristina.com

Now Booking 2024 Weddings.. limited 2023 dates available. 

Loved this wedding venue? You’ll love this wedding also at the Secret Garden at Ripples Winery.

See this sweet Tulip festival engagement gallery here!  

Secret Garden Wedding Photos | Ripples Winery, Abbotsford BC

Family

view the story

While weddings & engagements are my jam, I can’t resist a good family portrait session every so often. I especially love sneaking these sessions in during the wedding off-season! It’s a great way to re-connect with past clients & friends while taking advantage of fall & spring colours and the odd snowfall!

It had been a few years since I last saw this sweet family! They had recently added a new family member in the form of a new puppy, and he was growing up fast! We quickly agreed upon the perfect fall evening for their family portrait session and had a great time together!

Any time a session includes fur babies, I am all for it! It definitely can make a shoot more challenging and keeps me on my toes, but I am also just such a big dog lover that I am always elated to sneak in some cuddles between photos! It was so nice catching up with this beautiful family.

Family Portrait Session Gallery:

What a picture perfect evening it was for this shoot! Here are some favourite images from this recent family portrait session in Langley, BC…

vancouver wedding blog meg kristina

All Photos here by Meg Kristina Photography.

Check out our Family & Lifestyle Page here: http://lifestyle.megkristina.com

Click here to view this sweet summer sunset maternity session.

Loved this fall session? Catch up on this family fall maternity session here.

authentic joyful adventurous 

www.megkristina.com

Books Open for 2023 ✨

Family Portrait Session | Langley Lifestyle Photographer

Weddings

view the story

This sweet snowy Bloedel Conservatory winter wedding day was picture perfect. It had been snowing heavily over the last 24 hours (a bit of an anomaly in the lower mainland) and cars & buses alike were having trouble navigating through the snowfall – surprise surprise! Fortunately everyone in the wedding party including myself were able to make it up the hill at Queen Elizabeth Park to the highest point in the city of Vancouver – the domed lush paradise known as the Bloedel Conservatory. It was an absolute winter wonderland for their micro-wedding. R&A had chosen the winter solstice (December 21 – also known as the shortest day of the year) to tie the knot! It was magical. The contrast between the snowy winter wonderland outside and the lush tropical paradise inside made this an absolute dream to photograph. (I also really enjoyed the technical challenges of this wedding day shooting in almost complete darkness for the ceremony & portraits inside!)

Usually I do caution couples from booking the evening time slot at Bloedel in the winter (this leaves you in the dark after sunset for ceremony & post-ceremony portraits typically). However, it couldn’t have been more perfect and as always the staff at the conservatory were so warm & accommodating. I really feel like it enhanced the romantic intimate vibes of the wedding for these two.

Bloedel Conservatory Winter Wedding Gallery:

Here’s a curated selection of my favourite photos from this magical snowy Bloedel Conservatory winter wedding day…

First Look:

Ceremony:

Bride & Groom Wedding Photos at Bloedel Conservatory:

vancouver wedding blog meg kristina

All Photos here by Meg Kristina Photography 

authentic joyful adventurous 

www.megkristina.com

Now Booking 2024 Weddings.. limited 2023 dates available. 

Loved this summer wedding? You’re absolutely going to love this wedding at the Secret Garden at Ripples Winery.

See this sweet Tulip festival engagement gallery here!  

Bloedel Conservatory Winter Wedding

Personal/Other

view the story

Back in November 2022, I had the incredible opportunity to travel to AUSTRALIA for the first time – crossing off a major item on my bucket list! Growing up, I always have had a huge passion for travel, new cultures, animals, geography + more. Naturally, the Discovery channel was often my channel of choice as a young girl and I quickly found myself obsessed with The Crocodile Hunter (RIP Steve Irwin). My admiration for the show & wildlife work they were doing stretched so far that as a 7 year old I remember carefully crafting an email to Steve and diligently sending it off to their zoo’s head office. Surprisingly enough, I received a response back and it made my year – I wish I still had that email! As you can imagine, I was devastated by Irwin’s death years later and have always held a strong desire to come to Australia. Throughout my teen years, my father would end up frequently making annual business trips to Australia and together we would plan scheme plot and hope for him to one day share this country with me. While we haven’t made it to this continent together yet, I hope to one day in the future.

While this was always a goal of mine, I probably never would have followed through on making it a reality until much later in life if fate had not intervened. You see, cut to 2012 and a young naive me walked into a pet store in Kelowna on a whim to hand in a resume for a job. The manager, Michelle, was incredibly enthusiastic, warm, and receptive. We immediately hit it off and I soon found myself rushing home to change and come right back to start at my new job. Michelle & I quickly found out that we were kindred spirits – two peas in a pod we might as well be related. More often than not (okay more like 99.9% of the time), we were on EXACTLY the same page – food cravings, what we were doing, feeling, thinking, etc. You can imagine how devastated we both were 4 years later when we both found our personal lives crumbling, causing us both to have to start over on our own, move cities (& in Michelle’s case – move countries back to her home country of Australia). I feared I may never see her again in person yet we both knew we could not and would not let that happen. And then the pandemic hit.

As COVID-19 closed borders and cancelled plans, we Facetimed and waited. Waited for restrictions to lift, for a flight deal, for vacation time at my office job, & for fate to intervene once more for us. By 2022, Australia had just opened up it’s borders and I coincidentally had everything fall perfectly into place on my end. Before I knew it, a roundtrip ticket had been bought and this trip of a lifetime was officially happening.

While I couldn’t stay as long as I would have liked, this first trip was my first taste of Australia and of course I have entirely fallen in love with New South Wales. There’s so much more to see of this beautiful country, and more visits & hugs to be had with Michelle. It’s safe to say I will hopefully be back again very soon. Until then, here’s a look at just some of my favourite shots wandering around New South Wales…

vancouver wedding blog meg kristina

All Photos here by Meg Kristina Photography 

authentic joyful adventurous 

www.megkristina.com

Now Booking 2023 Weddings & beyond.. 

Australia Travel Blog | Lifestyle Photographer