About 2 years ago, I received a random message from someone on flickr saying basically “Hey, I really like your photos!”. The person who sent me this message was Ulrich, Heidi’s brother. It seemed that in the time between that message and Heidi and Leo booking me, Ulrich had been badgering them recommending me to photograph their wedding. I was immensely flattered when I found out and when I finally met Uli, it was a great chance to thank him for his advertising and spruiking skills! It’s fantastic having someone like that because I rely purely on word of mouth for my advertising and without it, I’d be nowhere!

I was planning on meeting up with Heidi and Leo the week before the wedding but Heidi fell quite ill and our meeting fell through. I turned up at her door on the morning of her wedding, made my introductions and started trying to build up a bit of rapport. I always find that I work better with people I’ve met before but Heidi was so unbelievably friendly and easy to get along with making my job a piece of cake.

I loved this little frog cupcake and couldn’t resist asking her to do this.

Heidi just has this timeless elegance to her, I didn’t even have to ask her to do anything, she was immediately quite natural in front of the camera.

I met Leo and his groomsmen at the church and snapped of 10 or so quick photos before the bride arrived. I had planned on getting to the church a little earlier but traffic in Sydney at that time of the day is horrendous.

This is Heidi and Leo’s little niece, who’s a gorgeous little kid. She was the flower girl and did a great job of creating a buzz as she walked down the aisle.

Heidi is in a reasonably successful band and one of her band mates played a song as the registry was being signed.

It was getting quite dark by the time we got out of the church and to the park where the photos were going to be taken so I had to be super quick. In the last photo, I had to push my 5D Mk II as hard as it could possibly go (*camera nerd alert*) shooting 1/60th of a second at ISO4000.

The night ended with Heidi and Leo playing a couple of Beatles songs to the crowd (and to each other). What a fantastic night!

Thank you so much for involving me in your day and I hope you guys have a great future together, filled with music and happiness!

The first time I met Heath and Marnie, within 10 minutes I could tell they were fantastic people. We went to a local restaurant and had some lovely dessert and chatted about ourselves and our lives. Again, Wollongong demonstrated how small a place it is as it turns out Heath plays in a band that has members I had played in another band with, totally random! We discussed their engagement, which had occurred in the north of Italy and how their wedding was going to be. They said “document the fun”, and I was happy to oblige!

Their wedding was held in some beautiful gardens on the Illawarra Escarpment. I’d been having some good luck with weather in recent weddings and this was another prime example.

Prior to Marnie arriving, I met and talked with Marnie’s sister and checked out some fantastic jazz from a local trio containing, unsurprisingly considering the circumstances, a guy I’d gone to primary school with!

Marnie and her dad arrived in a beautiful white vintage car, perfectly suiting their style for the day.

Heath and Marnie have a fantastic sense of humour, and it’s quite obvious where it’s come from for both of them as their dads are absolutely hilarious!

The afternoon sunshine was absolutely wonderful considering we were entering winter and it was apparently fantastic bubble blowing weather with Heath showing he could join in like the best of them!

Who needs a PA system when you have a Marshall Mini-Amplifier?!

Autumn was well and truly into full swing!

It’s hard to get Heath to keep a straight face a lot of the time, but apparently I caught him unguarded for this moment!

We left the gardens and headed to this wonderful vintage theater nearby to take a few more photos.

This is probably my favourite photo from the whole day!

Marnie’s dad had a surprise planned for all the weddings guests and word was going around it was a fireworks show. Apparently that word was right!

Numerous shenanigans took place during the reception including a fantastic quiz performed by Heath’s MC friend (sorry, I’ve forgotten your name!) and plenty of laughs followed by dancing and much enjoyment. Everything they told me they wanted their wedding to be on that first night we met was exactly how it turned out. Thanks to you Marnie and Heath for asking me to photograph your wedding, it was a lot of fun! You guys are made for each other and may you have long and prosperous lives together!

Nick and Leah’s wedding was at Headland’s Hotel, one of the most scenic points in Wollongong. It was a beautiful sunny Autumn afternoon with plenty of sunshine and blue skies.

Leah and her bridesmaid Jess both looked stunning, but what can one expect besides that on your wedding day?!

Leah had a *little* moment as she got to the end of the aisle and saw Nick for the first time, perhaps being overwhelmed by happiness. I’d prefer to think it had something to do with the fact that Nick had scrubbed up so well and she was surprised at the man standing there!

When it came time to take the “formal” portraits, both myself and the couple felt pretty comfortable with each other having had our pre-wedding engagement shoot a few weeks earlier. I think that shows in the photos, they look so relaxed and in control of themselves, it’s great as a photographer to be able to document that.

Leah and Jess posed for a photo of themselves and Nick and his best man Dane, being great sports, were more than willing to copy the pose!

Thank you guys so much for honouring me by asking me to photograph your wedding. You’re great friends and it means a lot that I could be involved on the day.