The super talented and wonderful Jen + Brian were one of our first industry friends! SO lucky for us given that we clicked immediately, both friendship wise and creatively. Over the years we have shared tons of amazing, lovely brides and created many beautiful and fun styled shoots together. If you look through our website or social media you will notice lots of our photos are taken by these gems. This team is also a sweet couple, with Jen focusing on the photos and Brian the videography. They are kind, caring and calm and will always go out of their way to help their clients while delivering absolutely gorgeous, cinematic, story telling imagery. We are so pleased to introduce you to this awesome team!
Meet Jennifer Picard & Brian Thompson of Jen + Brian, Photo & Film!
DESCRIBE YOURSELF/YOUR COMPANY IN FIVE WORDS?
Jen: Genuine, present, story-tellers, creative, connected.
HOW DID YOU GET INTO THE WEDDING INDUSTRY?
Jen: When I moved from Vancouver to the Sunshine Coast 7 years ago, I had only photographed a couple of weddings in the city and those weddings were the toughest photography jobs I’ve ever had because of the little experience I had with wedding work. I wasn’t sure if I was going to pursue weddings anymore. When I moved to Gibsons, I was asked to photograph some weddings within the first few months of living here. Those weddings introduced me to a whole new way of documenting a wedding, immersed in nature with lots of beautiful natural light and a more connected setting and relaxed couples. This changed everything for me and I really fell in love with nature based weddings and photographing weddings in a more documentary style and natural way. Since then my partner, Brian and I have photographed/filmed over 150+ weddings. Brian came on as our filmmaker almost 3 years ago. It’s been so wonderful working together as a couple and as artists. Learning and growing together running a creative business has really brought us closer together.
WHAT IS YOUR IDEA OF A PERFECT WEDDING?
Jen: I’m not sure there’s such thing, however I do feel like the perfect feel to a wedding day is when our couples are feeling relaxed, present and connected. We also really love when weddings are in one place for the full day. We feel that our couples are much more relaxed and in the moment and not rushing around from location to location. Especially when we’re creating wedding films, being able to fully tell the couples story of their day without it feeling super rushed and stressful makes for a much more connected wedding film and wedding day. We also love working with these two super talented and lovely ladies, Kristy and Shaina from Save the Date Beauty, they always help make a wedding day even more amazing. :)
WHAT ARE YOUR FAVOURITE STYLES TO CREATE?
Jen: We love to create meaningful, storytelling, emotion filled, creative photos that are true to the moment.
WHO ARE YOUR IDEAL CLIENTS?
Jen: We love working with couples that are kindhearted, down to earth and don’t take themselves too seriously. Couples who want to do things their way for their wedding day and truly make the day about their love and their story vs trying to please their friends and families and aren’t concerned with everything being perfect. Couples who appreciate photography/filmmaking as an art form and want genuine/timeless wedding photos that truly reflect how their day felt.
WHAT DO YOU LOVE MOST ABOUT YOUR JOB?
Jen: Photography is a magical thing. That has never changed for me, since the first time I bought a professional camera 13 years ago and began my journey. Brian and I love be able to document such a special and memorable time in people’s lives. We love that weddings are one of the only times where friends and families are all together in one place celebrating love and happiness. We love getting to know so many couples, learning about their stories, their journeys and being able to capture their connection in a genuine way that reflects who they are together. We love that we get to work from home and live here in gorgeous Gibsons on the Sunshine Coast. We are so grateful for that, every single day. We love that we get to create for a living and that we keep on growing and learning as artists and as humans, throughout this creative process.
We also love getting to know other creatives and working alongside them at weddings. We wouldn’t be able to create what we create without the entire team of creatives coming together to make couples wedding dreams come to life. We are all in it together!
WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE CURRENT TREND? MOST OVERPLAYED?
Jen: Brian and I have never been into trends. Trends have always come and gone and have their place. However, It’s always fun seeing trends in the wedding industry change every year and it keeps us creative when we get to shoot different styles of weddings every year, so that is a nice bonus. With our work, we really want it to stay timeless and true.
We also really love seeing that more couples are eloping and having intimate weddings. We hope this isn’t a trend and that it will continue to be the norm as we think these weddings are so beautiful. We love the connectedness and intimacy of small weddings and we love that the true focus of the day is on the couple and spending it alone, or with their closest friends and family.
WHAT IS YOUR BEST ADVICE TO COUPLES PLANNING THEIR WEDDING?
Jen: Stay true to who you are as a couple. Make the day about YOU two. Don’t be scared to elope or have a smaller wedding with less guests, you won’t regret it. We find that our happiest and less stressed couples have been the ones that have had smaller weddings.
When planning your wedding, find your dream photographer/videographer first. We have had so many couples book their venue first, then contact us all excited only to find out we are already booked. Put more of your budget into photography/videography. A good and experienced photographer/videographer can make any wedding look AMAZING and you will have such a better experience on your wedding day with an experienced photography team. Your photographer will be with you the entire day and are a big part of the energy of the day. When booking your photographer, go to their website, look at their work on a bigger screen (vs just instagram) and see if their work is quality. Look at a full day from getting ready to the end of the night to make sure the quality of their work is consistent.
DREAM LOCATION?
Jen: Brian and I road-tripped around Iceland 5 years ago and fell in love. Since then we have been dreaming of photographing/filming weddings there. We love cooler climates and places where there aren’t tons of people. Scotland is also on our dream list of an amazing place for us to photograph a wedding. We would love to explore Canada more and be a part of more weddings out East in the Maritimes and in Alberta in the rockies.
IF YOU WERE AN ANIMAL WHAT ANIMAL WOULD YOU BE AND WHY?
Jen: I don’t know about Brian, but I would probably be a cat. We have 2 at home that we can’t stop snuggling and kissing. They seem to really get what life is all about. They are very in the moment, they love to nap, cuddle and play. They are very unconditional in how they love you. They have taught us so much. But I would have to be a vegan cat :) haha!
Brian would probably be a bird of some kind. Probably a crow. He is very fascinated with them and has always wanted a crow as a friend.
Check out more of their incredible work HERE!