From cake and crinoline to flowers and favors, weddings are a lot of hassle.

Hire a photographer and shed convention, counsels Tristha Cruz, who seeks to expand her wedding and lifestyle photography business to embrace elopements this summer.

鈥淲hy should you elope? Because there is not another love story like yours. Why not plan a wedding day that鈥檚 never been done before?鈥� challenges Cruz. 鈥淚 believe your wedding day should be easy. I feel like there鈥檚 way more creative freedom in general (with an elopement) and I love how unique it is to the couple.鈥�

Cruz shoots weddings, too, even though they鈥檙e not as much fun in her estimation. Her business is still in the honeymoon stage, having just launched this past Mother鈥檚 Day.

鈥淚t marked a new chapter for me 鈥� the working Mom life!鈥� she said. 鈥淚 have a one-year-old I love spending time with and it just made sense for me to start my business.鈥�

Her proverbial shingle reads: Heart and Hue Studio.

鈥溾�橦eart鈥� for the human connections I love to photograph and 鈥榟ue鈥� for the artful approach I take,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 work with families and couples to make meaningful images.鈥�

Boreal beginnings

Born and raised in Yellowknife, Cruz bought her first camera in middle school.

鈥淚t was a purple Nikon point and shoot from Roy鈥檚 Audiotronics,鈥� Cruz recalled. 鈥淎nd then I eventually got a DSLR in high school.鈥�

In adulthood, photography matured from a hobby into therapy.

鈥淚 hit a very low point in my life. Photography was one of the things that helped with my depression. It allowed me to express myself when I couldn鈥檛 find the words, which was very healing,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 started taking more photographs and then my friends and family began asking me to shoot for them. If you look at my photos from that season of my life, you鈥檒l find they are a lot moodier with darker tones compared to what I create now. Isn鈥檛 it neat how our art evolves through different life experiences?鈥�

Cruz said 鈥淚 do鈥� to marrying photography with entrepreneurship in early 2020, while living in Australia.

鈥淏ut then Covid hit and that鈥檚 when I moved back to Yellowknife,鈥� she said, adding she brought her Australian husband, Matthew Jackson, North with her. (They didn鈥檛 elope, incidentally, choosing instead to hold a small, picturesque wedding with some family in B.C.)

鈥淔ast forward to today; I am incredibly grateful I can finally do work I love and stay home with my baby,鈥� said Cruz.

Though she flirted with inanimate commercial photography briefly, Cruz prefers people to objects because of the narratives that their photos help to share.

鈥淚 love photography because of the stories,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 helped me tell mine and now I want to give others a way to document their story, a space to be vulnerable, and the feeling of being truly seen.鈥�

Heart and Hue Studio hosts a kiosk at the Yellowknife Farmers Market.