Vancouver Wedding Photographer | Adventure Engagement Session in Greece | Aiota Photography

As you may have seen in my rambling blog posts, I went to Greece this summer to hang with the fam jam. It had been over 11 years since I'd been back to The Motherland. The trip was for play, rather than work, but when I fount out Kat & Priya, a couple whose wedding I am shooting next year, were going to be there at the same time as me and, well, we had to do an engagement session there.

Kat spent her teen years growing up in Athens, so she of course knew her way around really well, and it's a place that holds a lot of sentiment and value to her. We woke up early for an AM session (my fave, and even though I hate mornings, I love the morning light). Kat & Priya wanted to hit the most epic of spots, The Acropolis, for their engagement photos. It's not the easiest location to shoot at since it's packed with hundreds of people, so we started in the National Gardens (which was open and empty at that hour) and I followed them around for the morning documenting their adventure. I really loved the Gardens. The National Gardens offered a lot of interesting spots to shoot, as did the small streets in Athens. We then went up to The Acropolis for their 8ish AM open, did the tourist-y thing, and then finished off in another historical park. Everything in Greece is pretty much a ruin and it's almost as if 9/10 buildings are over 100 years old. There are so many ruins there it's overwhelming - photo opportunities are endless...it was strangely debilitating, having that many options! The main streets were actually littered with excavation sites, as they dug up ancient ruins just below the sidewalks. It's just not something that exists in Vancouver/GVRD/British Columbia/Canada because our country didn't have settled residents for thousands of years building structures in the same way that part of the world does, and that are still preserved in a way that we can unearth them. But I digress, let's talk a bit about Kat & Priya.

Kat & Priya are super smart, kind, hilarious, beautiful people. Kat is the more expressive and outgoing, as if she's the entertainer and Priya is the delighted audience. They have the sweetest, loveliest, happiest little pup (who isn't a pup, but a full adult dog who looks and acts like a puppy) and a really good aesthetic and taste in beer. They are the kind of people who make you feel like family when you meet them; open and forthcoming. They also have an excellent tendency toward silliness. Seeing their interactions with one another reminds me of the freeing excitement that love brings - the utter joy in having found "the one" and the joy and exuberance that one has when being in love. You can see and feel this love expressed in short, playful bursts and you can feel the elation in their hearts. Witnessing the love of others is pretty special, and I do hope my explanations do them justice.

We hung out at the end of the session for early lunch, on a patio filled with mismatched, colourful, vintage furniture - watching the hungry stray cats sneak, leap, and chase around the patio. Not yet late enough in the day to be unbearably hot, we enjoyed some traditional Greek salad, coffee, exchanged stories of Greece and our other travels. 

Then we were on our way, they went on their way; the beginning of their time in Greece, and the end of ours.