Rouge National Urban Park Engagement Session
One of the perks of being a wedding photographer is that you get to discover your own city and its surroundings. There are so many hidden gems around, so many parks and historic locations that we’d have never heard of if it weren’t for our awesome couples. Just last month, Christina and Travis introduced us to Rouge National Urban Park. Believe it or not, it’s a HUGE park located right in the outskirts of the cit,y next to the Toronto Zoo. So huge that apparently it contains one of the last working farms in the GTA, Toronto’s only campground, one of the largest marshes in the region, a beach on Lake Ontario, AND even some of the oldest known Indigenous sites in Canada. Yep, all here in Toronto!
Since Christina and Travis had to postpone their wedding due to Covid, they still wanted to make their original wedding date special and commemorate it by having their engagement photos taken then. They were looking for an outdoor location with a natural feel and rich landscape, but something not too far from the downtown core. We thought finding such a spot in the city was going to be a challenge but then they suggested Rouge National Urban Park. Rouge Urban what and where?! We had never heard of it at this point but a quick Google search later and we knew we had a keeper of a location and we’d be going back there again and again.
When we arrived at Rouge National Urban Park for the engagement shoot, we were shocked by how quiet and peaceful it was. It was a beautiful fall day and the fall colours were already setting in all around, yet the expected herds of people weren’t there. It seemed like we had the whole park to ourselves, and we were ready to explore.
Christina and Travis actually brought their pupper along for the first part of the shoot, and he was just so excited to join us for the adventure and was happy to pose for all the photos, from cuddling with his humans on the porch to representing his favourite NFL team, the Buffalo Bills, in a field full of little yellow flowers, he did it all! Since we had a lot more walking and shooting to do, we continued the rest of the engagement shoot alone with Christina and Travis, who took us down stunning paths surrounded by bold pops of red, yellow, and orange fall foliage. We didn’t know how big Rouge National Urban Park truly was until we reached a lookout point overlooking the park and were blown away by how vast and diverse the park was, and by how rich the fall colours were throughout the park this early in the season.
The sun was already quickly setting at this point and we could see that the sunset colours were going to be amazing so we hurried along until we reached an open field with stunning sunset views. Christina and Travis were awesome sports as we had them running around the field for that perfect sunset silhouette shot, and with that, it was time to call it a wrap. Even after spending 2 hours exploring the park with Christina and Travis, we barely even scratched the surface of everything it has to offer. We still had ponds and rivers to explore, but that’ll be for next time. Christina and Travis, thank you so much for introducing us to such an amazing spot right in the city. It was absolutely perfect and we had an absolute blast exploring it with you!
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