Best Photography Locations for Toronto Weddings

Toronto's best wedding portrait locations are not interchangeable. Each has a specific time of day and season that produces the strongest results, and the combination of two or three locations in a single portrait session gives the gallery more visual range than any single location alone.

The Distillery District

Best between 7am and 9am, any season. The cobblestone lanes empty out in the morning before the outdoor cafe seating fills. The brick and iron details photograph in any weather, including overcast and rain, which actually produce stronger light diffusion than direct sun. October and November give you the deepest colour from the brick in horizontal light. Summer gives you the most vibrant green from the plants growing along the building walls.

High Park

Best in three specific windows: cherry blossom (late April, early May, dawn to 9am), mid-summer (green forest canopy, any morning), and fall colour (mid-October, afternoon). The cherry blossom window is specific and crowded; plan accordingly. The fall ravine in High Park is underrated for wedding portraits: the combination of leaf colour and the relative quiet of the ravine trails gives the images a warmth that the more manicured areas of the park cannot replicate.

Toronto Islands

Best at golden hour, facing west toward the city. Ward's Island beach and the Hanlan's Point shoreline both face the downtown skyline from across the Inner Harbour. The light on the skyline in late afternoon and the water reflecting both the sky and the buildings make this location strongest in the last two hours of the day. Ferry scheduling determines the practical window.

Scarborough Bluffs

The Scarborough Bluffs, east of the city, offer dramatic cliff face and lakeshore combinations that exist nowhere else within the city limits. The bluff face at Bluffer's Park, with the white and ochre clay cliffs rising above the beach, produces images that look nothing like the rest of Toronto. Best in morning light when the cliffs face east and the light on the face is direct and warm.

Combining Locations

For a four-to-six hour portrait session, combining two locations gives the best gallery range. Distillery District in the morning followed by the Islands at golden hour covers architecture and water in a single day. High Park in the morning followed by Evergreen Brick Works in the afternoon covers nature and industrial heritage. The Bluffs followed by the Beaches boardwalk in the afternoon covers landscape and neighbourhood character. The key is scheduling the transitions to land at each location in its best light window.