Katherine and Johnathan's Wedding was such a special day with marquees and tweed vests it was a photographers dream and the venues were nothing short of awesome. Being St Johns Church in Broadstone and the Bride's childhood home as the reception venue.
I came to the wedding in the morning of and arrived super early in fact I think I was at the church before the pastor was. Though I had gone to school in Broadstone I don't think I have ever gone into St Johns church before and it was a lovely church with enough grounds to have a confetti shot as well as an area for group photos. Katherine had contacted me purely through email which I don't normally do but she seemed positive that my style would be a great fit for them and I couldn't agree more. Katherine and Johnathan were both pretty relaxed and since their wedding they have been travelling all over the place seeing wonderful sites of the world. Anyway back to the day in question, once the groomsmen and the groom himself had put their dickie-bows on and sorted out there button holes I think most people were pretty much at the venue and ready to start. I headed inside to grab a few candids of people arriving. I usually find this a perfect time to capture people hugging and greeting each other as this could be the first time they have seen each other in awhile. Sometimes there are people who only come to the ceremony as well so I feel it can be important to try and grab some good images of people that might not necessarily be there for the wedding reception later on.
Little wedding goer enjoying the churches play area.
The little dude in the photos above was a perfect subject for my kind of photography. Having had three of my own I find myself drawn to the smaller members of the congregation sometimes and this little guy was no exception he made the wedding a little more fun and it was great to see him exploring around before the ceremony. I managed to capture some spirit of the day in the first hour or so before the ceremony and the day just continued on being great throughout.
Once everyone had got themselves seated I then prepared myself for the entrance of the bride as she came into St Johns. If I haven't covered the getting ready part of the day then this can sometimes be the first time I see the bride that day and she'll usually look over and give me a nervous nod or hello and Katherine did just that.
As the nervous bride awaits her entrance with her father.
Once entered into the church it was quite a traditional ceremony and I managed to capture the main aspects of all that went on. It being a quite a grand church I had to do a bit of wondering to get my shots but it worked out well and I had a couple of my favourites from the day taken during the ceremony, really capturing the moment.
Broadstone held out weather-wise and we were able to get the group shots done pretty swiftly after the ceremony. Just before then though there was an awesome reportage moment that I haven't seen at a wedding before where the groomsmen and bridesmaids and the bride and groom had a moment outside of the church together where they all celebrated the marriage in awesome style, I'm so glad I managed to anticipate it coming and grabbed a couple of shots of the union of friends as it were. This was a moment that will be forever etched in my memory of the day and would be great to see happen more often to be honest. Even though you can't see them in the photo the bride and groom are pretty much in the middle of the post wedding embrace.
Once we had everyone outside we grabbed the group shots and I caught a few more of my kind of natural shots including a few of the dog and baby whilst I was at it. Other than tripping over my own camera bag at one point I feel it all went pretty well and we got plenty of smiles during it all. This is usually the best time to capture everyone looking their best and most sober, I tend to use this time to get to know some of the wedding guests as well so I can blend in a little better during the reportage photography moments.
Not long after we headed off to the reception venue which was the bride's fathers house I believe, so where she grew up. I love venues which are a bit more personal and their garden with all these different levels created awesome opportunities for unique angles during it all and again captured lots of moments with smiles and laughing. Having the venue on a hillside must of been a right pain for them to set everything up but they did a grand job of it and it wasn't long until we all had the awesome smell of curries that were being cooked in an oversized barrell cooker type contraption.
I stayed at the reception venue for a few hours covering the ins and outs but this wasn't really a traditional wedding day as they weren't having a first dance and cake cutting and what not. So once they all sat down for the rather awesome smelling feast I left them to it and headed on home to check through what images I captured that day. I was so glad to revisit Broadstone and it was an awesome wedding to cover so I'm very grateful to Katherine and Johnathan where ever they are at the moment around the world. I hope to have more weddings as good as this one as it was all very much vintage, organic and relaxed the way I love my weddings to be.
