British Columbia · Canada · Elopement Curator
Tofino
49.15°N · 125.91°W
One curator for the whole coastal day: I design it, plan it, book it, permit it, style it, photograph it, film it, and hand it back to you. A complete companion to eloping in Tofino and across Vancouver Island.
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Tofino puts more wild coast within reach of one small town than anywhere else in Canada: surf beaches that mirror the sky at low tide, sea caves and waterfall coves down the south island, thousand-year rainforest minutes from the sand, hot springs reached by boat, and a storm season that turns the whole Pacific into scenery.
I do not just show up to shoot. I design the day around you and book every piece of it, the officiant, the florals, the activity, the boat or the floatplane, the dinner, the beach and park permits, then photograph and film it and hand back the record. One person, start to finish, with the timeline built from the tide chart and the last hour of light, from Tofino and Ucluelet down to Victoria and Port Renfrew.
Sweet spotSept to Oct
The curationEnd to end
Packages from$6,900 CAD
Guides on file15
Why an elopement, and why me
The Spiritual Union
An elopement is unlike a wedding. Whereas the wedding is purely focused on aesthetics and performance, elopements are about the spiritual merge: the two of you, a place that means something, and a day built to be lived instead of performed. Done right, it is the most honest set of photographs a couple will ever have. Done by committee, it falls apart in ways you only see later, in the pictures.
Buy a package from a planner
and the day is beautifully arranged, but there is no real “photographer” involved. The pictures come back looking like they were taken on a smartphone. You planned a film and got a receipt.
Bring your own photographer
and you get a good eye with no say in the day. There is a disconnect between what the plan was and what the pictures turn out to be, because the person shooting it did not build it.
Work with me
and you get the best of both worlds. I am a photographer first who plans the entire thing, then brings it home. The person who designs the light is the person standing in it with a camera.
Everyone else plans a day around an activity.
I write a story and play it through one.
It starts with your story, never a location. Before I plan a single thing, I sit with you and listen: how you met, what you are like when no one is watching, the small private details no one else would think to ask for. I write that into a narrative, and then I design the day to play it out. The hike, the boat, the drive up the mountain, that is only the vessel I run your story through, here in Tofino.
This is why the film and the album land the way they do. They are built to carry your story, beat by beat, so that years from now they still move you. Anyone can film two people doing something photogenic in a beautiful place. Turning who you actually are into a film and a set of stills that mean something is the harder thing, and it is the whole of what separates me from everyone else.
What it means to just be present.
Every extra person on an elopement is a seam. A planner to update, a second photographer angling for the same shot, a small crowd of vendors to be aware of. Each one pulls you a little out of the day, and the pictures inherit that split. The reason I hold the whole thing, the plan and the camera, is so that on the day there is no one to manage and no one to perform for.
Present means you are only ever looking at each other. You are not thinking about the schedule, because I am. You forget the camera is there, and that is the exact moment the real frames happen.
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15 dispatches on fileThe Directory
Everything I have filed about eloping in Tofino and across Vancouver Island, from Ucluelet down to Victoria and Port Renfrew, organized by what you are trying to figure out. Start with the planning guide, then come back for the pieces that answer the questions that come up next.
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02
Four days I photographed on Vancouver IslandReal Elopements
Four coastal elopements, written the way I remember them: the tide, the light, what was decided in advance, what happened that nobody planned. Open any card to read the full story.
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Two tiers · everything handled end to endThe Packages
One person plans, books, permits, styles, photographs, films, and delivers your Tofino elopement: a curated coastal day rather than a block of photography hours. Two tiers, and the Signature adds the full day and the premium experiences, the floatplane, the boat to the hot springs, the storm-season staging, that turn a session into a story.
Two ways to work together. Both are the whole day, designed, planned, booked, styled, and shot by one person. The Blueprint is the essential day. The Signature adds the film, the experiences, and the printed album. Everything is listed. There is no hourly meter and no add-on column.
Tier I
The Blueprint
$6,900 CAD
4 to 5 hours · photography
- ✓The whole day designed around your story, not a shot list
- ✓Full planning and the hour-by-hour timeline
- ✓Officiant and every permit booked and handled
- ✓Styling direction for the two of you
- ✓Four to five hours of coverage
- ✓Every frame shot by me alone, no second shooter and no handoff
- ✓A curated, hand-edited gallery
Tier II · Recommended
The Signature
$8,900 CAD
8 to 12 hours · photography + film
Everything in the Blueprint, plus:
- ✓A full eight-hour day, dawn to dark if you want it
- ✓A cinematic film of the day, cut by hand
- ✓Florals, hair and makeup arranged with the people I trust
- ✓Transport between locations and a chef's dinner for two
- ✓The bundled experiences below, woven into the story
- ✓An heirloom album, printed
Signature experiences in Tofino
·A floatplane flight over Clayoquot Sound
·The boat to Hot Springs Cove and the thermal pools
·A storm-watching day with lanterns on the headland
·A chef's dinner for two over the water
Signature locations in Tofino
The Chesterman sandbar and Cox Bay · Long Beach in Pacific Rim National Park Reserve · The sea caves and waterfall beaches of the south island · Hot Springs Cove and the old-growth groves
Frames from Tofino
A few of mine, from this city
Cover
Click arrows to turn pages
Tap sides to turn · swipe to navigate
Start here
Find your elopement archetype first.
Before the date, the tier, or the locations, take two minutes and find the kind of day you are actually after. It is where every day I design begins, and it tells me exactly where to point you in Tofino.
Take the Elopement Compass →04
What you will actually doThe Experiences
This is what you are really paying for: a handful of extraordinary coastal moments I design, book, and run for you, each one a chapter of the elopement and each tied to a tier. Turn the album: the photograph on one page, what it is on the other.
The Experiences
Click arrows to turn pages
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The ceremony · Chesterman at low tide
The Sandbar to Frank Island
Twice a day the tide pulls back and a hard ribbon of sand opens between Chesterman Beach and Frank Island. For an hour or two you can be married standing between two bodies of water, the wet sand mirroring the whole sky. I set the ceremony hour from the tide chart months out, and it anchors the essential coastal day.
The Blueprint · timed to the tide
Tap sides · swipe to turn pages
The day itself
How your elopement day goes
Once you have your archetype, here is how the day itself actually goes. Nothing here is your job to arrange. It is already arranged.
The slow morning
No rush, no room full of people. You get ready in your own time while I quietly catch the first frames: the note, the shoes, the light coming up.
We begin the story
We do not work a shot list. We live the day I designed around you, and I document it as it unfolds across Tofino, chasing the light I have already mapped.
The vows
Your words, out loud, with no audience but the place and me. This is the quietest and the most important part of the day, and I shoot it from a distance so it stays yours.
Through the activity
The hike, the boat, the dinner, the drive. This is where the story plays out and the best pictures live, because you are doing something real together, not posing beside it.
The last hour of light
I plan the whole day backward from it. When it arrives we are exactly where we need to be, unhurried, with time to spare.
The record
It comes back not as files but as a finished thing: a curated gallery, and on the Signature, a cinematic film and a printed album. The day, kept.
The full guide · free
The Canadian Elopement Guide
Before Tofino, the bigger picture. I wrote the complete guide to eloping in Canada: the legal steps, the regions and seasons worth building a day around, what it honestly costs, and how the whole thing comes together. It is the same thinking behind every day I design, in one place.
Read The Canadian Elopement Guide →
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A sample plan, counted backward from your dateThe Timeline
The legal process in BC is simpler than most people expect: a marriage licence, a registered commissioner, two witnesses, and a beach. I handle all of it, plus the coast-specific piece, the Parks Canada permits and a ceremony hour set from the tide table. This is the order it runs in.
Date, location, and photographer
For a September or October date, book these first: the sweet-spot weeks fill early, and storm-season weekends go faster than people expect. A flexible weekday or a summer shoulder date needs less lead time.
Book your officiant
BC requires a registered marriage commissioner or licensed officiant and two witnesses. I book the commissioner and can arrange witnesses if you are travelling alone. The registration paperwork is filed for you afterward.
Obtain your marriage licence
Available from any BC Registry Agent or online through Service BC. About $100, valid for three months, with no waiting period and no residency requirement.
Lock the tides and the permits
District of Tofino beaches run on light rules; Long Beach and anything inside Pacific Rim National Park Reserve needs Parks Canada ceremony and photography permits, which I file. Then the ceremony hour is set from the tide table and the last light.
Be unhurried, stay present
Your only job is to live it. Tides, timing, permits, and the light are already handled. I bring the coast home with you.
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Introductions on requestThe Company I Keep
The officiants, boat and air operators, restaurants, and lodges I recommend to couples eloping in Tofino. Every name here has been vetted. If you want a warm introduction to any of them, mention it when you write.
Ask and I will make warm introductions to the officiants, operators, and restaurants I trust on this coast.
Officiants
Experiences
Dinner for Two
Where to Stay
07
The ones couples ask firstQuestions
The questions I hear most often from couples planning a Tofino elopement, answered plainly. If yours is not here, it will be in my first reply when you reach out.
08
Vancouver Island dispatchesFrom the Journal
Longer reads for couples who want to go deeper: the location guides, the permit and licence walkthroughs, the storm-season case for winter, and what each window of the year actually delivers for elopement photography on this coast.
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Guide
Tofino Elopement Photography: The Full Guide
The complete companion: the beaches and their jurisdictions, the tides, the permits, the seasons, the light, and how a curated day on this coast actually runs from first fog to last candle.
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Guide
Best Places to Elope in Tofino
Cox Bay, Chesterman and the Frank Island sandbar, Long Beach in the national park reserve, the sea caves and waterfall beaches of the south island, and the coves you reach only by boat or floatplane.
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Story
The Tofino Storm Elopement
November to February the Pacific throws its full weight at this coast, and it is a reason to come. How a storm-season day is designed: the rainforest ceremony, the lanterns, the headland, the film.
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Field
Best Season for a Tofino Elopement
June to September for sun and sea fog, September and October for the sweet spot, and the storm months for drama. What each window actually delivers, and how the tides shape every one of them.
6 min read →Guide
How to Plan a Tofino Elopement
Marriage licence, registered commissioner, two witnesses, a beach and its tide table, the park permits. The complete practical guide to eloping on Vancouver Island's west coast, start to certificate.
7 min read →Tell me about your day in Tofino.
Share your date and I will come back within 48 hours with availability, an honest estimate, and the coastal plan and vendors I would point you toward.
Est. 1999 · Based in Canada · Travelling worldwide