Wedding Photography Melbourne

To be honest, when you’re at a wedding every week, there could be the expectation that you’ve seen pretty much everything that could happen. But not in my wildest dreams could I have expected to be involved in something like James and Lauren’s wedding. Over the space of two days, I had the opportunity to document something that I’ve never ever seen nor could possibly expect to see again – a circus wedding where every guest was dressed up, circus performers did amazing acts, a well trained dog brought the rings down the aisle and photographs with a motorbike that not only was the bride’s father’s labour of love, but in essence a family heirloom.

After over 10 years together, Lauren decided that 2012 (having a February 29th which traditionally was the day women are “allowed” to propose to their partners) was an apt opportunity to propose. She hung a banner on a bridge over a motorway and shocked the life out of James as they drove underneath. And here they were with beaming smiles, Lauren dressed as a showgirl and James as an circus ringmaster, getting married in The Spiegeltent surrounded by the most colourful set of guests the world will probably ever see.

I need to thank my awesome friend Ian who filled in at the last minute when Kristen was taken ill – he’d never photographed using Canon before but read the manual on the morning of the wedding to figure out where all the buttons were and took a whole bunch of amazing photographs which are intermingled in the images below.

When Tash first spoke to me, I was given the following information:

- The wedding would be at a Raspberry Farm in Tasmania
- They were lovers of theatre so there would be singing and dancing
- There would be a flashmob dance performed by the bridal party
- They would walk down the aisle to the ‘Game of Thrones’ theme
- There would be Lego involved somehow
- A flaming arch was going to be above them during their twilight ceremony.

By the time I reached the end of her email, my excitement was palpable.

Now not all of these things went ahead. On the wedding day, the flaming arch thing didn’t happen (I imagine there were some OH&S issues involved) and Lego was replaced by Japanese mini-blocks. But it didn’t matter – Jules and Tash did everything with style and it matched exactly with them as people. “Why would brides wear white?” could have been Tash’s motto as she walked in wearing a bright purple dress. And why not eat before the ceremony, surely everyone is hungry? And to finish it all off there were interactive musical performances by the groomsmen and a specially written song from Tash to Jules (sung to the tune of ‘Hey Jude’ by The Beatles). And let’s not even mention the breakfast in the 50s diner, the customised M&M’s with Tash and Jules’ faces on them brought lovingly all the way from the USA by one of the bridesmaids and the game of laser tag we all played the evening before. This was two people in their element and loving it.

A few days after I got home, I shared one image. Tash saw it and then shared it with her friends online with the caption “Victory of awesome. 19/1/13 The happiest day of my life — not only marrying my man but being surrounded by PURPLENESS.” Nothing I can say will top that.