Because their ceremony and reception venue was a 20 minute drive from Echuca and they wanted to be married in the late afternoon, we decided it would be a great idea to take the majority of their photographs before the ceremony. We arranged a special meeting in Lauren and Steve’s new home, which is not yet completed. This was the first time they saw each other on their wedding day, and it was a very special moment. The builders and painters got to have a short break from their work, and seemed highly entertained at the proceedings! After Lauren and Steve’s emotional meeting we moved on to some locations, including  a lovely private property on the Murray and the old Echuca Court House. On a whim I decided to get the bridal party to dance around Lauren and Steve in front of the Court House. I just love the colours and joyous mood of this photograph.

Back to the start of the day. We began in the morning photographing Steve and his groomsmen getting ready. The guys looked so dashing in their charcoal suits, and they were all in very high spirits. Steve looked very suave, and was calm, confident and very easy to photograph. After leaving the guys we moved on to the house where Lauren and her bridesmaids were getting ready. The girls were very well organised, and we had lots of time to photograph Lauren’s gorgeous details and her preparations. Lauren looked stunning in her wedding gown, and was positively glowing with the excitement and anticipation of marrying her wonderful man! Her bridesmaids were a gorgeous group of ladies and looked brilliant in their flowing, coral pink dresses. Now on to the slideshow. I hope you enjoy the following highlights from Lauren and Steve’s amazing wedding day.

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It was such a pleasure photographing your wonderful day Lauren and Steve. Everything was beautiful, and the entire day was very relaxed and enjoyable.  I think your ceremony location was absolutely breathtaking, and the beauty of the Murray just added to the emotion of the event. I wish you both a lifetime of love and happiness, and feel very honoured to have had the pleasure of meeting you both and spending such an amazing day with you, your friends and family.

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After the ceremony and family photographs we headed off to an amazing private property on the Murray River for location photographs of the bridal party. This property was fantastic with gardens, a lake, and the biggest old Morton Bay Fig tree I have ever seen! We were extremely fortunate that although the weather forecast was for rain all day, it somehow managed to pass us by for most of the day. After leaving the gardens we headed to the Port of Echuca in the early evening for some final photographs when our luck with the weather finally ran out, and the heavens opened up. As I sat in the car in the pouring rain I was thinking to myself what a shame it was that Kath and Marc would miss out on photographs in the laneway they loved. So I was amazed to see the entire bridal party leap out of the cars, umbrellas in hand! What’s more… they were all perfectly happy about it. Laughing, joking, totally prepared to get a bit wet and not a single complaint! What an amazing group. Here is one of my favourite images from the day, taken of Kath & Marc in the rain!

And now here is a slideshow of highlights from Kathryn & Marc’s gorgeous wedding. We started the day photographing Marc and his groomsmen getting ready, then moved on to Kathryn and her bridesmaids. I have chosen to start this gallery with the ladies first. Kathryn had a beautiful group of girls attending her on her wedding day, with her two sisters, Marc’s sister and two special friends making up a group of five lovely bridesmaids.  Kathryn was such a stunning bride, and looked divine in her magnificent Angela Marcuccio gown. Just WOW! I was also in love with all of her beautiful details, especially the bouquets featuring peony roses. They always remind me of paper flowers, like something delicate and faded from a bygone era.

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YOU CAN SCROLL THROUGH THE IMAGES WITH THE ARROWS ON YOUR KEYBOARD  ◄   ►




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Kathryn & Marc, it was such a pleasure to share this wonderful occassion with you. I thought your wedding was just beautiful. Very classy and elegant yet still casual, fun and very relaxed. Your bridal party were just brilliant and really embraced the spirit of the occassion. I was especially taken with your parents and really appreciated the extra care they took of Sue and I. We felt very special, like we were part of your day and part of the gang. I never take for granted the level of trust and faith that my couples place in me when they ask me to photograph their wedding. It’s so important to me to do a great job, and I take my role of capturing peoples memories very seriously. However working with people like you and your family is such a pleasure it’s very hard to see it as work!

I truly hope you both enjoy this preview of your beautiful wedding day. Oh, and Happy New Year guys! I hope you have a blast seeing in your first New Year as husband and wife. You are my last journal post for 2010. What a way to end the year!

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I’ve really enjoyed designing pretty layouts of my detail images lately, so once again I’ll begin my post with some of the bride’s beautiful details.

Tina’s two lovely sisters helping her to get ready.

Tina looked utterly breathtaking. Oh wow, I was in wedding photographer heaven taking these images. Sophisticated, elegant and very classy… she was such a beautiful bride.




For the next couple of images I closed the curtains to block out the ambient light and used a video light to create extra ambience and glamour.

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Now some photographs of  Josh and his groomsmen getting ready. I’ll start with a couple of shots of Josh taken in gorgeous window light.

This was without doubt the wildest part of the day. These guys were loud, raucous and full of fun, complete with ‘Hit the Road Jack’ blaring on the stereo. I had such a blast photographing them! I simply cannot imagine missing out on photographing the groomsmen. My day would not be complete!



A few nice quiet portraits of Josh. A very handsome groom!


Time for a quick game of Poker with Honey the Lab in her rightful place. I think if you’re going to play poker, you SHOULD have a Labrador under the table whenever possible.

FTW!

Oh MAN I love this shot. Just awesome!

Tina walked down the aisle with her father, and a smile that lit up the room.

An absolutely beautiful moment, and a mutual gaze that says so much about how this man and woman feel about one another.

Married!

After the ceremony and family photographs we went to a private property on the Murray River in Moama. With barely a cloud in the sky I must say the light was a little challenging, but by compensating with off camera flashes the end result is brilliant, vivid colour and a fantastic image of the group.

The party…. partying!

The same location taken from the opposite angle, with the Murray River in the background.


As luck would have it a guy with a Harley arrived just as we were about to leave. Tina leapt at his offer to be photographed on his bike. It couldn’t have been better even if we’d actually planned it!

At my suggestion Tina and Josh had scouted around the area before the wedding to find a nice shady location for some of their photographs. They had found this fantastic wall in Moama, and it really was a relief for everyone to get out of the hot sun for a while. A fab shot of the ladies laughing….

Cool….

Very hot….

Tina owns the ‘dress swish’.

On to a third location, underneath the Echuca Moama bridge. I love this part of the day, when the sun is getting lower and the light is much easier to manage.

I really loved this rusty concrete wall. Such amazing colours and texture. Wow… what a gorgeous husband and wife. They look amazing together!



Just for the record, Benji wins! What an awesome pose!!! Can you guess which one he is? Ha ha ha ha….

We finished up at the Moama Bowling Club for Tina and Josh’s reception. The speeches were fantastic, and at times very funny. The sun was very low, and streaming in through the window behind so that you can actually see tiny particles floating in the air. How beautiful.

Cheers!

The bridal dance was sensational. See for yourself!

Clearly this was just the start of a very serious PARTY.

Tina and Josh…. I can barely find the words to sufficiently describe how much I loved your wedding. Everything was so beautiful and classy, with attention paid to every detail. Your siblings and friends who made up your wedding party were so amazing, and their joy, exuberance and sense of occasion demonstrated very clearly how much they love and care about you both. I also want to mention how utterly taken I was with your parents. Just thinking about the joy and pride on their faces during the speeches brings a big lump to my throat. Seriously, both of your mothers lavished so much care and attention on Sue and I, and an abundance of tight, squeezy cuddles. (how I LOVE cuddles) I’m somewhat overwhelmed at how close I felt to these two amazing women that I’d only just met! Lastly, I think you two are an amazing couple, who truly deserved such a divine wedding to celebrate the love and commitment that you have for one another. I feel so privileged to have been part of your day, and to have witnessed the love and support that surrounded you. I hope you have a brilliant honeymoon guys. Drink one of those ridiculous big cocktails in a pinapple with an excessive amount of little paper umbrellas for me!
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I’ll begin with some images of Chantelle getting ready with her 3 lovely bridesmaids.

The bridesmaid’s dresses were the palest pink chiffon. Soft, flowing and feminine… and rather Grecian looking.  Just gorgeous.

Oh my, what a beautiful bride! With her divine long dark hair and those mesmerising blue eyes, Chantelle looked amazing. 

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Now some images of Marc and his groomsmen getting ready. I should mention that I always photograph the men getting ready before going to photograph the bride, but I prefer to have images of the bride first in the post, so I swap them around. Ladies first, as they say…..

Putting on shoes…..

And ties.

Marc looks calm, composed, and very handsome.

I would love to tell you that Marc had no idea what was going on behind him, but that would have been impossible given my assistant Sue and I were laughing hysterically at the groomsmen’s antics. I actually got the idea for this shot when I saw one of the guys walk past that window behind Marc. It was my idea to stand them there, but the hands and tongues on the glass…. that was all their idea! What a hoot!Chantelle and her father arriving at St Joseph’s College, where the ceremony was held.

The wedding ceremony. St Joseph’s Chapel has the most beautiful, ornate ceiling.

The entire wedding party, standing in front of the Murray River, with the old historical port behind them. By this time all of the wedding guests were on a paddle steamer cruising the Murray, so we waited at this area, locally known as the onion patch, to wave them by!

This is a great laneway in the Port of Echuca area. Chantelle found her dancing shoes!

Such an elegant wedding party.

The guys being extremely cool….

And the ladies strutting their stuff. I LOVE the way the fabric of the dresses moves with a fabulous ‘wiggle walk’……

The beautiful, bright and cheery boquets.

One last kiss in the back seat of the car, before going in to their reception at Morrison’s Winery… also right on the bank of the Murray River.

This was only my second wedding in Echuca, but I have to say between the beautiful old buildings, historical locations and the magnificent Murray River it’s a dream come true taking wedding images there. Chantelle and Marc are amazing people, and such a beautiful loving couple. I want to thank them for trusting me to capture all of the special moments and emotions of their wedding day.