I was really excited about this wedding for a few reasons. Firstly, it was my first ever wedding in Christchurch, New Zealand - it's such an English looking city, I thought it would be an interesting place to shoot (plus the reception location in a coffee co-op with lanterns and a bike hanging from the roof sounded SO cool!!). Secondly, the wedding was timed for 5.30pm. This time of year we are almost at the summer solstice so sunset is really late in the day. With the harsh NZ sun, Steve and Katie timed their wedding perfectly so we managed to get the sun as low in the sky as possible before it disappeared. Thirdly, and most importantly, I'd been chatting to Steve and Katie on Skype a few times and they seemed like such fun, quirky and lovely people.

Steve is a designer and created the amazing invitations and order of service. Katie is a school teacher and her ENTIRE class of 5 year olds attended the wedding! They sat opposite the choristers, and after the ceremony assembled outside to form a guard of honour for the exiting couple. Very cute. Katie was like a local celeb, every 5 year old wanted a piece of her, or a photograph taken, or a snotty hug.

During our coupley photo session, we stumbled across two drag queens, Ozzie Osbourne, and a giant Hummer Limo. It felt a little chaotic a times for me (without Liana..) but SO much fun. Katie insisted I take home an entire leg of ham for Steven (I did take a ham roll or two), and Steve kept checking to make sure I had enough to eat, enough to drink, was I okay?? Such lovely people, I hope these images show just a little how in love with eachother they are. A few favourites before I edit the rest....

(I've just realised I chose loads of flower girl images for the blog, but I couldn't resist, there were so many cute photograph opportunities..)





Katie's best friend Shar did her hair and it looked gorgeous, shame about the gale force winds!

This wedding turned out to be so much grander than I ever expected. Richelle and Ian live in Australia (as a blogger in New Zealand I'm probably expected to make some crass ozzy joke now, but I'm far too posh for that :)), so our communication beforehand was through email and Skype. I was assured that "It's going to be a very small, very relaxed wedding". These two were like the least demanding couple I've ever come across! And it was a small, super relaxed day... but I suppose the enormous landscape of Central Otago, and the stunning buildings the wedding was hosted in added a weight that made it really grand, and glamourous.

But at heart, this was a simple, intimate day that focussed on people; close family and friends. It was warm, and loving, and beautiful. This is my second wedding in a row with a small number of people, and I really love the atmosphere that creates. It makes me feel very honoured to record such close relationships. Ian, Richelle and guests made me and Liana feel so welcome. We felt sad to leave! But what fun to drive home for 3 hours in hideous thick fog! A great chance for us to bond.

Oh... and did I mention the STRAWBALE HOUSE???!!!! I did??!!!! Because next to beautiful, happy weddings, (and Elmer!) there isn't much else that gets so many exclamation marks on my blog. This is Richelle's parent's place and I love it. Isn't it just lush?? Look how lovely and thick the walls are. And all the details like those gorgeous green chairs in the kitchen, and the flowers...Ahh...

I just love the current trend for vintage style weddings. Jennifer and David managed to pull theirs off effortlessly and on a small budget. Plus they are such a good looking, creative, and chic couple, the whole day matched them perfectly. The ceremony was planned for one of the lawns at Glenfalloch, but it rained and was moved inside to the reception room at the old house. With an intimate number attending it all worked perfectly, with the fire, the simple little jars of flowers, the dark, cosy room....

Oh and Jennifer and David pretty much made EVERYTHING you see here. the table settings, floral arrangements, the cakes... which by the way I love!! The flowers are picked from David's parent's garden in Sawyers Bay.

Sometimes I get a feeling at a wedding and I'm on a roll creatively - this was one of those weddings, I loved it! But a big part of that is having a couple who put complete trust in me to do whatever I think will look best. Thank you to Jennifer and David for that...

Well, here we go again... :)

I'll be in the UK next year for the European summer (in Wales, ha!), and I'd love to shoot a couple of weddings whilst I'm home. Let me know if you, or anyone else fancies having me as their photographer. I'll bring along my newly acquired New Zealand accent, ey.

Helen and Doug got married 3 months after their GORGEOUS little boy Baxter arrived (what cute name by the way!!) in Glenfalloch Lodge, Dunedin. I applaud anyone who can plan an entire wedding whilst caring for such a little baby. Helen and Doug are the kind of people who make that kind of thing look effortless though.

The wedding was originally scheduled to be outside on the lawn, but we had one of those really changeable spring-like days and at the last minute we were moved up to the pavillion outside the lodge. Good job too, because just after the register was signed it started hailing! It soon cleared up, but man alive... it was cold and windy! We headed down to the pier afterwards for a couple of sexy sunset photographs and I very nearly got blown into the sea. The good thing about Glenfalloch though is that you can have a sunny outdoorsy day, but equally a cosy, fireside day too. So we had a bit of both!