Julia + Matt | Cherry Beach Engagement Session in Toronto

Some engagement sessions feel less like a photoshoot and more like spending an evening together somewhere beautiful.

That's what I wanted for Julia and Matt.

We headed to Cherry Beach in Toronto for a relaxed summer engagement session by Lake Ontario—wandering through the trees, exploring the shoreline and eventually making our way into the water as the light softened toward sunset. No elaborate setup. No need for everything to feel perfectly posed. Just Julia and Matt, bare feet, sand, water and an evening together before they became husband and wife.

An Engagement Session at Cherry Beach

Cherry Beach is one of my favourite places for couples photography in Toronto because there is so much variety within one location.

There are wooded areas and tall grasses, open stretches of beach, rocks along the shoreline and Lake Ontario stretching out behind you. That variety lets a session evolve naturally.

We can start by walking beneath the trees while everyone settles into the experience of being photographed. From there, we can make our way toward the beach as the light changes, take off our shoes and eventually get into the water if the evening calls for it. And this one definitely did.

Engagement Photos That Feel Like a Date

Most people aren't accustomed to spending an hour or two being photographed.

You aren't supposed to arrive knowing how to pose or what to do with your hands. That's my job to help with.

But I also don't want an engagement session to become an hour of me arranging every part of your body and asking you to hold a position while I take a photograph. I'd rather give you something to do - walk together, talk, explore, hold hands, run into the water, make each other laugh.

I'll offer direction when it's helpful, but then I want to leave enough room for the two of you to take over. Because somewhere between the photographs I'm intentionally creating are the little moments I couldn't have planned—the expressions, gestures, laughter and instinctive ways you reach for one another.

Those are usually my favourites.

Barefoot at the Beach

By the time Julia and Matt reached the shoreline, shoes came off and the session became even more relaxed.

That's one of the reasons I love beach sessions.

Sand and water have a way of making perfection impossible. Hair moves. Clothes get wet. A wave comes farther up the shore than expected. Someone gets splashed. And suddenly you're responding to something other than the camera.

The photographs become about what you're experiencing together rather than what you're supposed to look like while experiencing it.

Julia and Matt walked through the shallow water, held each other along the shoreline and simply had some fun together.

The result feels much more like them than a collection of perfectly constructed engagement poses ever could.

Why Have an Engagement Session?

Engagement photographs are obviously a chance to document this particular chapter before getting married. But I think the experience itself has value too. If I'm also photographing your wedding, an engagement session gives us an opportunity to get to know each other before the wedding day. You learn how I work. I learn how the two of you naturally interact. We figure out what makes you laugh, what feels comfortable, what doesn't, and how much direction you like from me. And hopefully you discover that you don't actually need to be “good at photos.” By the time the wedding arrives, I'm no longer someone you've hired who suddenly appears with a camera. We've done this before.

From Cherry Beach to Their Belcroft Estate Wedding

One of the things I especially love about this gallery now is knowing what came next.

After photographing Julia and Matt barefoot along the shores of Lake Ontario, I had the privilege of photographing them again when they got married at Belcroft Estate in Gilford, Ontario.

Their wedding day gave us an entirely different setting—heritage buildings, old barns, willow trees, open fields and a quiet sunset by the pond—but the connection I'd first photographed at Cherry Beach was still there.

You can see the next chapter of their story in Julia + Matt's Belcroft Estate wedding.

I love being able to look at the two galleries together.

One preserves the anticipation.

The other preserves the day they'd been anticipating.

Your Engagement Photos Should Feel Like You

You don't need an elaborate concept for your engagement photographs.

Choose somewhere you genuinely want to spend an evening together.

Wear something that feels like you.

Come prepared to move, explore and probably feel a little awkward for the first few minutes.

That's completely normal.

The goal isn't to perform your relationship for me.

It's to give you enough space to settle into it while I'm there to notice what happens.

For Julia and Matt, that meant a summer evening at Cherry Beach—walking through the trees, getting barefoot, wandering into Lake Ontario and creating photographs of this particular version of the two of them before the next chapter began.

Looking for an engagement photographer in Toronto? I photograph couples with a candid, documentary-inspired approach that combines thoughtful direction with plenty of room for movement, connection and the beautifully unscripted moments in between.

If you're planning an engagement session and want photographs that feel relaxed, connected and genuinely like the two of you — get in touch — I'd love to hear what you're imagining.