I thought I'd better get on top of things and blog a few photographs of Elmer, since we've been in the UK for two weeks already!

The plane trip went pretty well, considering we had a 32 hour trip door to door and not a great deal of opportunity for unbroken sleep. It would have been virtually impossible without a laptop full of movies and a lifetime's supply of chocolate buttons. Despite being exhausted off the plane, Elmer's face broke into a beautiful smile as soon as he saw his Grandma and Grandad at the gate in Heathrow, and they have been in-separable since. He loves his Auntie Roisin, and has also caught up with Uncle Aidan and Auntie Katie, spending an afternoon playing in the woods nearby.

My last wedding of the summer season, and an utterly stunning day. Greig and Rachel are two of the loveliest people, welcoming and down to earth, and they managed to pull off a day that was beautiful and full of stylish details.

Rachel is pregnant, with a baby due in September, so she had a gorgeous dress made to show off her (tiny!) bump. I think most pregnant brides go for a simple empire line gown, but I really admired Rachel collaborating on such a fun and totally unique design. Amongst all the little details at the reception marquee, there was also a black and white photograph of baby's 20 week scan.

Rachel and Greig are dairy farmers, and the wedding was set in rural Waimate, with a ceremony at the little stone church in town, followed by a reception at Centrewood Estate, with its beautiful big autumnal trees. To top off the day.. our run of beautiful sunny weather continued, with a bright warm day and a starry night. LOTS of children at this wedding, including 4 flower girls and 4 page boys. Very cute...

Trudy and Ben live in Auckland but returned to Dunedin to get married surrounded by family and friends. ALL of Trudy's siblings married in the very same church in East Taeiri! We were a little worried about the weather since once you live in Auckland for a while you get a bit soft and can't handle the cooler temperatures, but Trudy and Ben's wedding day was absolutely stunning - the sun stayed out all day long. Actually we've had incredible weather here for about two months now.

After the ceremony and some mingling, we headed out for some creative location shots, and luckily Trudy's parents live adjacent to a beautiful little apple orchard. I tell you what, if I could shoot in an apple orchard, in autumn, at that perfect hour before the sun starts to set, every week, I would be a happy chap. The light was BEAUTIFUL. After that we headed to the yacht club since Ben is into his boats, and we captured the sunset. I have to say, it wasn't so warm anymore at that point!

Oh and Trudy and Ben are really into their sweets (lollies if you're an NZer!) so they made all the bouquets out of.... sweets!! I was a little hesitant when I heard that initially, but they looked amazing. The girls had great restraint and only ploughed into them at the reception.

Once again I've been blessed with a couple who are utterly into eachother, and madly in love. Beautiful!

Pretty much the best looking family I know, looking particularly good in this lovely autumn late afternoon light.

Shelley and I arranged this shoot in a slightly last minute fashion, and we only spent about 40 minutes playing in the grass, but got lots of different set ups. Partly of course because 6 month old babies have a 30 second attention span. Rocco is AMAZING though, and spent the entire shoot laughing and smiling, even though he was simultaneously trying to have a poo. Imagine that!

It's so nice to be able to document Shelley and Bailey's new family because I've photographed their engagement shoot, their wedding in 2010, and maternity shots (last winter). Shelley is an amazing photographer in her own right, and you can see her work here. Looking forward to many more happy years being photography nerds together...

It's been a funny kind of a day, so I feel like I need to blog this totally and utterly gorgeous wedding and remember what a beautiful day this was, and how incredibly lucky I am to do this.

Marilyn and Ryan contacted me a while back to ask about photographing their simple, quirky wedding at Grandview Gardens in Outram. Marilyn described the day to me and I instantly wanted to say "yes, however it works, I want to photograph your wedding."

The day would start early in the morning (10am people, is VERY early for me), with a garden ceremony surrounded by close friends and family. Most of whom would travel from places like Singapore, Canada and Australia to spend time in NZ with Marilyn and Ryan. Afterwards, they would drink teas from vintage china cups, and set up an outdoor photobooth and an indoor scrapbooking area. Guests would be photographed with props, and then be able to create a personalised scrapbook page for M&R with a huge range of papers and bitty things to be found neatly arranged on the tables inside.

Marilyn and Ryan live in Singapore, which is, obviously, quite hot. Dunedin isn't necessarily that warm... so guests were advised to be weather aware! The wedding morning was beautiful though, sunny, with that autumn crispness and magical light. Two of the loveliest people I've had the pleasure of photographing had their simple ceremony, and then we all had some fun with silly photographs, scrapbooking and icecream cake. Marilyn and Ryan insisted I do a scrapbook page myself, and I have to admit, it was probably one of the best ones there...