Nick and I have been mates for a couple of years, we used to study together at Uni. He met Leah a few years ago and straight away we could tell that she was the girl for him. Everyone was amazed that he’d managed to score himself such a fantastic girl, but in all honesty, he’s a pretty top guy himself. It was all a bit of a surprise when Nick sent us text messages on Boxing Day (December 26th) last year telling us that he’d proposed and they were going to get married!

Nick was doing a PhD which required him to travel to the USA for extended periods  meaning Leah was left all in charge of their wedding. Such a lovely thoughtful fella! :)

We went up the local “mountain”, which in all reality is more of a hill, to take these shots. Thankfully, mother nature held off long enough with the rain and gave us some dramatic fog to work with.

Either Nick is extra light or Leah is super strong!

I 2nd shot for another local wedding photographer Rowen Atkinson (yes, he has heard ALL the jokes) last weekend. I was a last minute ring-in because his usual 2nd shooter was recovering from a hospital visit due to gallstones! Unfortunately, I didn’t really get to know Shane and Victoria that well, but they both seemed like lovely people, and were amazingly relaxed considering how awful the weather was on their wedding day.

I followed Rowen around, firstly to the groom’s house and then onto the bride’s. It was mostly holding of light stands, adjusting flash output levels and the occasional snap! In fact, in the whole day of 7 hours I took 150 photos!

It always seems like the attention is on the bride…

The wedding was held at their church, followed by an informal gathering in the hall behind the church for all of their friends, including the ones from the church who they weren’t able to invite to the reception. Those little old church ladies can definitely put on a good feed!

Unfortunately, the day was horribly wet and their plans of outdoors wedding photos were foiled and we ended up resorting to photos inside the church and then a few under cover.

So thanks to Rowen for the last minute call up and also to Shane and Victoria handling my lame jokes all day!

Michael (better known to me as Mick or Micky!) has been a friend of mine for nearly 7 or 8 years now, we met playing soccer and bonded over a similar sense of humour. Mick is one of those guys that’s been charmed with good looks, a top notch intellect and a fantastic personality, so let’s say he wasn’t unpopular with the ladies. When he met Amy a few years ago, I made the point of telling him not to stuff it up because she was an awesome girl. I guess he took my advice (yes, I’m claiming all the credit!) and married her last weekend.

They had plans of a wonderful outdoor wedding on the edge of Lake Burley-Griffin in Canberra, but it ended up being one of the wettest days recorded in the city for the last 100 years! It’s a good thing they had a backup plan.

I got to meet both sets of parents before the wedding, including Mick’s dad who was decked out in one of the best retro suits I’ve ever seen. They were such warm and hospitable people, I felt at home with them immediately. It makes my job so much easier and I really hope all parents of couples understand that!

I then hurried over to Amy’s place on the other side of town to get some shots of her getting ready.

Amy is beautiful to begin with so it wasn’t hard to doll her up to make her look perfect for her wedding day! We couldn’t go outside (much) to get any portraits so we had to make do with what we had incide the building where the reception was.

We braved the weather outside for a few minutes, we couldn’t resist getting out the lovely white umbrellas we had! And yes, I did brave the weather and I have to tell you, holding an umbrella and using a camera with your other hand isn’t as hard as it sounds. :)

Mick and Amy partied well into the night with one of the best ever weddings and receptions I’ve been to. Everything was unconventional, with readings from Dr Seuss, participation from friends during the ceremony and plenty of humour throughout (including a mention of the Aussie soap “Neighbours” in the weddings vows!)

Thanks guys, what a fantastic day!