Wedding photographer. Prairie kid turned Sunshine Coast lifer. Mother of two, owner of one weird dog and two cats who do not respect me.
The Short Version
Hi,
I'm Chelsea.
I'm a homebody who comes
alive
at weddings.
Most days I'd rather be in my kitchen, in a fashion magazine, or watching a period film I've already seen four times than at a party. And then a wedding day starts and something flips. I'm fast, I'm tuned in, I'm reading the whole room at once. I love the work in a way I don't love many other things. It's the one place my quiet and my wildness get to be in the same body at the same time.
I came To the coast on my honeymoon
and never quite left.
I grew up on the prairies. A family farm in Saskatchewan, then a life in the Alberta badlands. Big sky, hard winters, the kind of horizon that goes on forever. I thought I knew what landscape was.
Then I came to the Sunshine Coast on my honeymoon and something cracked open. The ocean, the trees, the way the light hits everything sideways. I went home, talked to my brand-new husband, and convinced him to sell almost everything we owned, buy a sailboat, and come live on the water for a while before settling in for real. Which we did. Which is how I ended up here.
I've been photographing weddings on this coast ever since. I know it the way you only know a place you chose on purpose: every bay, every ferry schedule, every back road, every kind of weather. I didn't end up here by chance, I ran toward it.
HOW I GOT HERE
Four humans.
One weird dog.
Two cats who think
they run things.
I live on the Sunshine Coast with my husband and two kids - my son is sixteen, my daughter is twelve and is, somehow, my complete opposite. She dances multiple times a week, competes on weekends, and would rather be in a studio than basically anywhere else. She launched a dog-walking business this year, which I'm extremely proud of. My son tolerates me at a level appropriate to his age.
The dog has a personality I cannot explain in writing. The cats are, frankly, kind of assholes. The household runs on more chaos than I'd like and exactly the right amount, all at the same time.
My Life
our 10 yr vow renewal
Nova!
beach days
Moose!
Brady & Hal
Buy fashion magazines in print, like a person who hasn't accepted that the internet exists. Cook ambitious dinners for four people who are often unimpressed. Re-watch period dramas. Read books that take me forever to finish. Drive Halle to dance. Drive my son places he won't make eye contact at. Argue with the cats. Take very few photographs that aren't for work. Sit. Be quiet. Recover.
I am not, despite what the wedding photos suggest, a fundamentally outgoing person. I just have a job that I love, and the job asks me to show up boldly on the days when it counts.
When it matters, I'm close. When it doesn't, I'm out of the frame. You will mostly forget I'm there, which is the whole point.
Off the clock
What I do when I'm not at a wedding.
What I believe in
01
showing up prepared, calm, and observant
02
your wedding day deserves space to breathe
03
leaving room for spontaneity
04
fashion magazines over scrolling
05
Rainy days with a good book
06
never missing your cocktail hour
There are not enough kind words to express how lucky we were to have chelsea as our wedding photographer.
— Alyssa & Brenden,
2025 Couple
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