Not every Toronto couple pictures their wedding in Toronto. Some dream of an intimate elopement in front of the Eiffel Tower, a mountaintop ceremony beside a turquoise Rocky Mountain lake, or barefoot vows on a Caribbean beach. Whatever the dream, the question we hear most often is the same: can our photographer come with us?
For us, the answer is yes. AGI Studio’s Toronto wedding photographers have travelled with couples to shoot destination weddings around the world, including in Banff National Park and Paris, France. Here are three of our favourite destinations for couples considering a wedding beyond the GTA, along with a few things worth knowing before you book.
Paris, France
Paris earns its reputation as the most romantic city in the world for good reason. The Eiffel Tower alone offers a dozen distinct backdrops, from the wide, dramatic view at Trocadéro to the quieter charm of the Seine’s riverbanks and the arched ironwork of the Bir-Hakeim bridge. Add in the Louvre, the cobblestone streets of Montmartre, and the gardens at the Luxembourg Palace, and a single day of photos can feel like a tour through the city’s most iconic corners.
A word of caution: some of Paris’s most photographed spots, including Trocadéro, have gone through renovations and access changes in recent years, so it’s worth confirming current conditions with a local coordinator close to your date.
Elaborate setups, like added décor or a larger production, generally require a permit along the Seine and at certain plazas, though a couple and their photographer alone can usually shoot without one. We always build a flexible backup plan into any Paris itinerary, since the weather and the crowds can shift quickly. Spring and early autumn tend to offer the best balance of comfortable weather and manageable crowds, and a sunrise session at the Eiffel Tower is almost always worth the early alarm.
Banff National Park, Alberta
For couples who want mountains instead of a skyline, Banff National Park is hard to top. Lake Louise and Moraine Lake offer some of the most photographed turquoise water in the world, framed by glaciers and the jagged peaks of the Rockies, while the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel adds a storybook, castle-like backdrop for couples who want a touch of grandeur. We’ve photographed a wedding here ourselves, and the scale of the scenery genuinely does most of the work.
Banff National Park requires a wedding ceremony registration through Parks Canada, with a cap of twenty participants and a park pass required for everyone attending, guests and vendors included. It’s a straightforward process, but it does take planning ahead, and popular spots like Moraine Lake are worth booking for sunrise if you want them without a crowd. Summer gives the most reliable access to high-alpine spots like Moraine Lake and the Icefields Parkway, while a winter wedding trades some of that accessibility for a hushed, snow-covered backdrop that few couples ever get to see.
The Caribbean
For couples who’d rather trade mountains for sand, the Caribbean remains one of the most popular destination wedding regions in the world, and it’s easy to see why. Each island brings its own personality: Turks and Caicos for powder-soft beaches and calm turquoise water, Jamaica for its lush hills and lively energy, and countless smaller islands offering a private, barefoot-in-the-sand ceremony most Toronto couples only get to see in photos.
Most Caribbean weddings run through an all-inclusive resort, which typically handles the legal paperwork and on-site coordination as part of the package. Where we come in is the photography itself: resort photographers are convenient, but bringing your own photographer means the same eye and editing style you may have already used for engagement photos, carried through to the wedding day and the days around it. Hurricane season runs roughly from June through November across most of the region, so couples set on a Caribbean wedding often plan for the winter and spring months instead, when the weather tends to be more predictable.
Planning a Destination Wedding? A Few Things to Keep in Mind
Marriage laws and legal requirements vary significantly by country, and some, including several Caribbean islands, require a residency period before you can legally marry there. Many couples handle the legal marriage quietly at home beforehand and treat the destination ceremony as a celebration, which also takes the pressure off if paperwork gets delayed.
Guest travel is worth thinking through early too. A destination wedding naturally shrinks the guest list to those who can make the trip, which some couples see as a downside and others see as the entire point. Either way, giving guests as much notice as possible, ideally six months or more, makes a real difference in how many people are able to join you.
Flying in your own photographer adds a travel day or two on either end, so it’s worth asking upfront how that’s factored into a package. For multi-day celebrations, it’s also worth setting aside a separate morning or evening for photos beyond the ceremony itself; some of our favourite destination images come from a quiet sunrise session the day after, once the pressure of the wedding day has passed. If you’d rather keep things closer to home, we’ve also put together our favourite outdoor wedding photo locations in Toronto, for couples who want a change of scenery without leaving the city.
Destination or not, the goal is always the same: photos that feel like you, in a place that means something to you. At AGI Studio, we plan around your specific location, whether that’s scouting Parisian side streets, timing a Banff sunrise, or working around a resort’s schedule in the Caribbean, so the logistics stay out of your way on the day itself.
We know a destination wedding comes with its own kind of planning, and we’re happy to talk through what that looks like well before you book any flights.
Dreaming of a destination wedding?
Let AGI Studio’s Toronto wedding photography team travel with you, wherever that dream takes you. Contact us today to learn more about our destination packages and availability.