Alanda Boudreau still lives in the house she grew up in. On Salt Spring Island, that kind of continuity isn't only sentimental — it's earned. She left to travel Australia, moved to Victoria, and eventually found her way back, drawn by something she couldn't quite outrun. "The island life is for me," she says, simply. It turns out that a lot of what defines her work as a wedding photographer starts there, in that particular relationship to place and the people who choose to gather in it.
Coast & Kin Photography, Boudreau's Salt Spring Island-based studio, is built around celebrations that feel at home outdoors. Windswept beaches, mountain viewpoints, forest clearings, waterfront venues — the landscape is a participant. Her approach is documentary and story-driven, shaped by years of reading rooms and building trust quickly with the people inside them. Intentionally small — around ten weddings a year — she keeps her season focused so that each couple gets her full attention, as well as her family.
A Camera in Thailand
Alanda's mother handed her a film camera when she was seven years old. They were traveling through Thailand together, and Alanda burned through a lot of rolls. "I'm always the one taking photos of friends and family," she says. "People's mannerisms always stuck in my mind."
Growing up in an artist household on Salt Spring Island — a community known for its painters, sculptors, and working creatives — the visual world was ambient. She studied painting, sculpture, and drawing. She absorbed it. Food, wine and art were "a way to her heart." Wedding photography, she says with characteristic honesty, "was a surprise career option."
She studied photography formally at Western Academy in Victoria, a school that has since closed. What she remembers most clearly isn't the technical instruction — it's noticing how much she thrived in the emotional register. Her friends called her their "therapist friend," the one who could move into someone's life quickly, build deep conversations out of thin air. She recognized something in that. "Emotions and feelings are my superpower," she says. "I will always find something to love about someone."
The Uncle, the Second Marriage
Boudreau's first wedding job came from family. Her uncle was getting married for the second time, and when he asked her to photograph it, her response was immediate: "I've never done that before, are you sure?" He was sure. They loved her family photos. Of course she should do it.
She showed up. She was more excited than she expected. "Then I did my aunt's wedding with another family member," she says. "I never thought I'd do it again. But — here I am."
What emerged over the years was a philosophy that treats the technical as given and the relational as everything. "My couples need to know that I truly care about their experience," she says. "I didn't get into wedding photography because I like cameras. I love seeing people happy — then I get a contact happy." The feeling is catching.
Networking and research moved things forward. She learned to talk to people like a real person, not a salesperson. She offered Zoom calls. She wanted to hear love stories. She took her ego out of the equation. "There's no room for it," she says, matter-of-factly. "Trust is earned."
She's also done other things in and around weddings: she's made wedding cakes at a local bakery. She has her Serving It Right certification. She once jumped behind a bar at a wedding as a guest, helped manage a situation, and nobody knew she wasn't staff until she was on the dance floor. "Keeping the flow of a wedding is best done without anyone knowing."
How She Works Now
Boudreau intentionally caps her season at around ten weddings a year. Most take place on Salt Spring Island, some on Vancouver Island or the Gulf Islands. She will travel when the couple is right.
Her style is "film inspired, true tone" — she edits to the light as it was, not as she wishes it had been. The process is honest about itself: "I usually get distracted by my favourites, edit those, realize my ADHD has taken me on a side quest, then go through them again from the beginning creating a story." The result is a document of a day, not a production.
Her Canon R5 Mark II is her workhorse. She keeps a film camera with a 35mm lens in rotation, a flash hanging around her belt. She offers coverage from four hours to full weekend celebrations.
Day-to-day, her approach adapts to whoever is in front of her. If a couple says they're nervous about having their photo taken, she doesn't pull out a shot list. She says: let's just go for a walk. On discovery calls, she spends more time asking about the person than talking about photography. "I want to know more about you as a person."
She describes her shooting style as room-reading: "Getting ready with the girls, ceremony, dinner, and dancing are all going to be different tones of the day, so we go with that flow." Her clients tend to be outdoor people, artists, couples who feel most at home when they're not performing.
Why This Work
Her influences land in unexpected places. Old photo albums found in homes. An unhinged family Christmas portrait from 1987 — mom's hair done up, martini in hand. A black-and-white family photograph outside a front door. Architecture she can't walk past without stopping. Underwater photography. Barbra Cole. Annie Leibowitz. Sculpture and painting.
"We are only here for a short time," she says, about what it means to make wedding photographs. "I want to capture that to hang on your wall in an old frame you found at a thrift store. It will age, but the memory won't."
When October hits and her body is aching and the editing queue is stacking up and there's a shoot in an hour: music. Always.
The honest accounting of the harder parts — the physical and emotional toll, the long sedentary hours after the high of being fully present on someone else's most charged day — she doesn't dress it up. "Photography can come with disappointment at times. Just like any art or relationship. I move through it just like I do with everything else: name it, feel it, and move on.” I focus on my family and enjoy this absolute stunning place we call home.
She's an ambivert by her own description, someone who loves making plans and having things to look forward to but needs quiet time day-to-day. She's currently a maid of honour at a wedding, which, she admits, is going to be a challenge not to have her camera "I bet I'll be reaching for it and grab thin air."
Her goal for the future is simple: stay inspired. Collaborate with other artists. Have her couples do a little happy dance when the album arrives.
Website: coastandkin.com
Instagram: @coast.and.kin
