Local wedding photographers Joey and Shannon Holoien from Rock Bamboo Photo and Film are being featured in British Vogue and Vanity Fair magazines throughout this summer. 

Shannon said the publisher, Conde Nast, had sent them an email and, at first, they didn’t believe it and thought it was a scam. After doing some research they realized it was the real deal. 

“We had no idea how they found us, but we definitely were surprised and super excited to be featured in their magazine in the wedding section,” Shannon said. 

The Holoiens will be featured in the “Match Made in Vogue” section for May, June and July in British Vogue and June, July/August and September for Vanity Fair. Each month there will be a short write-up and photos by the Holoiens. 

Along with being featured in the magazine, the couple recently shot a unique wedding in the Arctic in Inuvik, NWT.  

The bride knew Joey and Shannon from high school and had asked them to shoot her engagement photos as well as her wedding. 

Shooting a wedding in the Arctic posed some challenges for the couple compared to your typical destination wedding. 

First, the white, snowy landscape didn’t leave much contrast. They ended up shooting a lot of the photos on a frozen section of the Mackenzie River with blue-coloured ice. 

The other challenge was daylight as it was virtually impossible to get any sunset pictures. 

“Photographers, we typically love sunset and the hour before and the hour after. It's kind of the golden hour they call it. Up there, though, the sunset at 11 p.m. So, we hit that part of the year where there was no sunset available,” Joey said. 

“It was like taking a nap when you went to bed because it was so bright out. Our hotel didn’t have blackout curtains or anything like that, so it literally felt like you were taking a nap in the evening,” Shannon said. 

Along with taking pictures, Joey and Shannon had the opportunity to take in some Inuit culture and tried foods such as Muktuk (Beluga Whale skin and blubber Inuit delicacy), elk or caribou soup and arctic char fish.