Philana + Gary :: Flavours (Calgary/Lake Louise, AB) E-Session

Words by Maureen Young

Half their party was 3/4 of the way up the mountain feeding their baby as Philana + Gary stood at the top of Chinaman’s peak with all of Canmore spread out below them like a miniature town.  Gary, not one for romance but one for romantic gestures, asked Philana to marry him.

“So you wanna get married?”

How could Philana say no to the guy who picks her up a chocolate croissant from her favourite bakery, Manuel Latruwe, every Saturday?  After having travelled Europe and sample the pastries in France, Philana is adamant that there is no better place to enjoy a croissant than at Manuel Latruwe’s.  If it weren’t for her travels around Europe, Philana and Gary may never have got together as they’re first date was based on her wanting to chat with him about his European travels as he’d just got back from all the cities she was about to go to.

Thank you to Manuel Latruwe for letting us use his bakery to tell Philana + Gary’s love story – your croissants are truly some of the flakiest and best we’ve ever tasted!  Watching Manuel at work reminded us of a Lindt Master Chocolatier :).

We even got behind the scenes access, much to Gary’s delight, who loves to see the magic as it happens.  Philana + Gary were shown how to knead dough and introduced to the array of ovens, which left Philana feeling a bit intimated by all the staff and work that go behind her favourite Saturday morning treat.

We’ve always wanted to do a shoot on the railway tracks and Gary, formerly of Canadian Pacific Railway, made our dream come true.  His buddies worked it out so we could do part of the e-session in the train yard  and it was an absolute afternoon of boys and their toys!  We even had an tour of the driver’s cabin.

Philana + Gary first bonded over their shared love of travel and they tend to spend summers abroad whenever possible so they don’t get much of a chance to experience the Rockie’s sans snow.  For the third part of their e-session, we went to the backside of Lake Louise where, even though the bank was too muddy, we had an absolute blast!  Philana + Gary treated us to an impromptu performance à la Cirque du Soleil as they did back flips and leapfrogged over one another.

Philana + Gary, you guys were absolute stars during your e-session and we loved spending time with you.  Thank you for making our dream of a railway inspired e-session come true without the hefty trespassing fine!  We are thrilled to be in Hawaii scouting out the perfect locales to tell your wedding story & can’t wait for your big day tomorrow!

Much love,

A+R