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Coriole Winery Wedding – Georgia & Ben

  • Holding one another in the vineyards
  • Dancing in the Coriole vineyards
  • Smiles
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Georgia & Ben

Coriole Winery Wedding

Georgia and Ben travelled from Tasmania for their Coriole Winery wedding in McLaren Vale, where I photographed their first look and ceremony. in Mclaren Vale. And despite the weather being slightly overcast, the weather stayed fine and was a wonderful afternoon for all involved! Georgia and Ben opted to have me as their wedding photographer for 3 hours, capturing their ‘first look’ photos, through to the end of their ceremony. As it turned out this was a smart way of doing things as their ceremony happened to be quite late in the day, and by the time the ceremony had ended there was hardly any natural light left to use!

First look

A ‘first look’ is a trend at weddings where by the bride presents herself to her groom before the wedding ceremony in order to capture the emotion from the meeting in a more intimate place rather than at the altar. The idea also being usually that their glamour photos are to be taken before the wedding even takes place. In this regard it’s not the most traditional of wedding activities, but if you’re planning a later wedding ceremony, it may be your only option.

After seeing each other for the first time, we had around an hour to walk around the Coriole Winery and use it’s incredible scenery as the backdrop to their wedding photography. I myself originally wanted to use Coriole Winery as the wedding venue at my own wedding, such is my love for the place. The Winery boasts rolling hills of vineyards, and and old house, complete with a pretty little garden surrounding.

After walking about the winery taking these photos, we had a bit of a rest period before the wedding ceremony took place. The girls hid themselves within the house to hide themselves from their guests that were arriving slowly, and the men sat outside.

Coriole Winery Wedding Ceremony

Wedding ceremonies that take place on location at the Coriole Winery usually take place in one of two locations if it isn’t raining, either within the courtyard area of the house, or in Georgia and Ben’;s case, overlooking the incredible valley that is Mclaren Vale on the grassy area to the side of the house. As the light was fading quite quickly during the ceremony, by the end the sun had well and truly left.

After the ceremony, I quickly launched the drone to take an aerial photo of all the guests together, with the Coriole Winery in the background. As I said however the light was fading very fast, so it was pretty tricky! I hung around for a bit after to capture their entrance to the reception, and also to have the groomsmen smoke their celebratory cigars!

Thanks so much to Georgia and Ben for having me as their wedding photographer. I hope you like your photos! 😀

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Adelaide Botanic Gardens Wedding – Ciara & Max

  • CIARA & MAX

    Adelaide Botanic Gardens Wedding

    Adelaide Botanic Gardens Wedding

It was a beautifully sunny day for Ciara and Max’s Adelaide Botanic Gardens wedding in April, which was great considering the kind of unpredictable weather we had been having leading up to the big day. With Ciara’s Irish heritage and Max’s Korean heritage, their wedding was a wonderful example of the coming together of two very separate cultures within one of the most multicultural of cities, Adelaide. I was asked to be their wedding photographer for the entire day, and we made good use of the time, covering a lot of ground to get the most diverse portfolio of wedding photography as possible in and around the Adelaide CBD and botanic gardens.

Preparation

I was to cover the preparation of just Ciara and her bridal party, who were getting ready nearby in the Mayfair hotel, as Max was spending the morning running about putting final finishing touches on things before the wedding ceremony. The girls were fairly laid back and had a lovely morning being pampered and getting pretty. Unfortunately the plan was to have a few photos taken in the upstairs Hennessy rooftop bar, only to find out it required a prior booking. This didn’t dampen spirits however while we took a few photos in and around the hotel room instead.

Adelaide Botanic Gardens Wedding Ceremony

Ciara and Max’s Adelaide Botanic Gardens Wedding Ceremony took place on the far side of the gardens, nearby the ‘Friends Gates’ on Plane Tree drive. The location boasts a beautiful grassy area, bordered by a small stream and a picturesque footbridge in the background of the whole setting. Despite the Adelaide Botanic Gardens being a public place, the venue can easily host around 3-4 weddings on the same day in different locations around the gardens without having too much of a hassle with members of the public wandering in the way of any photos or guests attending a wedding. The area also provides for some top notch vantage points for some incredible wedding photography, so I always enjoy visiting the gardens!

The ceremony was a lovely affair, complete with a traditional giving away of the bride by the father, and a rather beautiful hand binding ceremony that brought together the customs of the celtic together with Korean culture by using a traditionally woven sash brought from Korea specially for the occasion. The sun was out, and provided for a stunning backdrop filtering in through the giant gum tree Ciara and Max were wed under.

Adelaide Botanic Gardens Wedding Photos

After taking the family photos, Ciara and Max, flanked by their bridal party went for a walk around the gardens for their glamour photos. As I said before, I love covering Adelaide Botanic Gardens Weddings as the area in and around the vicinity of the gardens provides for an incredibly diverse pool of scenery I can call upon as a wedding photographer.

Once we exhausted the areas we wanted to visit within the gardens, we said farewell to the majority of the bridal party to expand out around the Torrens and North Terrace where we made use of Government House, and the buildings in and around Adelaide University. Ciara and Max had one of their first dates near the Torrens so it was important for them to revisit on their wedding day.

Adelaide Botanic Gardens Wedding Reception

What was absolutely glorious about Ciara and Max’s wedding as opposed to any other wedding I had covered at the Botanic Gardens was that they chose to have their reception at the cafe located at the very center of the entire place which meant that I had the very rare opportunity to make use of the Gardens after dark! The Botanic Gardens Restaurant is a lovely intimate venue that can cater for a smaller wedding guest list. The food was wonderful, and staff more than friendly which all combined for a wonderful evening.

During the night I took Ciara and Max out into the night to make use of the magnificent arch way of trees at night, which is a rare opportunity as member of the public aren’t allowed to enter the gardens at night.

Thanks so much to Ciara and Max who had me as their wedding photographer and I hope they enjoy their photos as much as I enjoyed taking them! 😀

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Thorngrove Manor engagement shoot – Rya & Evan

It was quite an exciting time when Rya contacted me from Indonesia asking me to shoot her engagement shoot as she was coming out to Adelaide specifically to use the Autumn colours around the Thorngrove Manor for her engagement shoot. I had never shot there before, but I had seen it’s beauty in the past through other wedding photographer colleagues in the AIPP. Rya was quite keen on having a castle-style photo shoot and chose the Thorngrove Manor as her ideal location. She also originally planned to go on a whirlwind tour of Adelaide, shooting at the Manor, Mt Lofty Botanic Park, then head up to Cleland nature preserve to hug a kangaroo, and also head into the city to use Veal Gardens and North Terrace, all within 3 hours. We ended up only going to two of these locations, but I think they turned out great!

Thorngrove Manor Shoot

The Thorngrove Manor is a small luxury hotel located amongst the side streets of Crafers. Despite it’s medieval looks, the hotel was actually built relatively recently, only around 32 years ago. The hotel is billed as one of the most romantic and intimate places to hold a wedding, or photoshoot as the surrounds are something out of a fairytale. It really is quite an incredible place to shoot at.

Mt Lofty Botanic Park Shoot

After the shoot around the Thorngrove Manor, we head down the road to the Mt Lofty Botanic Park to make use of the waning autumnal colours still present around the gardens. With the sun popping over the hills, the colours came to life quite quickly however and created some lovely bright  scenes – much to the delight of Rya. 🙂

It was a lot of fun shooting at the Thorngrove Manor and I hope Rya and Evan enjoy their photos! 🙂

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