2021 South Australian ABIA Awards Results

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ABIA Award badges

2021 South Australian ABIA Awards Results

Yet another year has been and past, and what a year it has been for the wedding industry! This past week saw the announcement of the winners of the 2021 South Australian ABIA Awards and I can proudly say that SvenStudios has once again shown to be one of the top rated wedding suppliers in South Australia!

The ABIA awards (Australian Bridal Industry Academy) are awarded to wedding vendors in a wide variety of categories in each state, and also nationally each year. In previous years, SvenStudios has proudly been a finalist in a number of categories, including wedding photographer, photobooth supplier, and this year also being a fionalist int he wedding videography category. In the 2020 edition of the awards, SvenStudios was awarded the runner-up wedding photographer of the year and the runner-up best photobooth supplier of the year gongs in South Australia so we were quite optimistic about the results of the 2021 South Australian ABIA Awards!

Unfortunately we diddn’t quite take out the golden star as the best wedding photographer, nor the best wedding videographer in the state, although we are very proud to have been selected as a finalist in both these categories!

Wedding photographer 2021 ABIA SA Finalist
Wedding videographer 2021 ABIA SA Finalist

In order to be a finalist in a category an aggregate rating drawn from reviews direct from previous couples are collated and run through an algorithm to find the best rated supplier in each category. A finalist is a supplier who achieved a rating of 95% or above. SvenStudios recieved an aggregate rating of 97.94% for wedding photography, and 96.18% as a wedding videographer!

The ABIA Awards are a unique way of running awards with the winners soley selected by the reviews given by previous couples the supplier has served at their actual wedding in the previous year. In this way future engaged couples are better informed by how well a certain supplier has bee recieved in the past by other couples, without having to rely on ‘industry expert’ awards awarded by people not in any way involved with a supplier’s past work.

As a result SvenStudios are super happy and proud to have recieved such glowing reviews over the past year by our newly wedded couples and super pleased to be a finalist wedding photographer and videographer in the 2021 South Australian ABIA Awards! Thanks so much for those who took the time to write out a lovely review, and hopefully next year we can take out the golden star!

Announcing the 2021 Wedding Photo of the year contest

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  • Sarah Ricardo

 

2021 Wedding Photo of the year contest

Each and every year I run a little bit of a contest for all the married couples I covered their wedding for in the previous year. I ask for each couple I was their wedding photographer for to select a single favourite photo from all of the wedding photos I took on their day and put them up for vote to win the title of ‘SvenStudios 2021 wedding photo of the year’.

Usually I try to run this contest much earlier in the year – and certainly not mid year, however this past 6 months have been absolutely insane in the wedding service industry – I personally have covered as many weddings as I would usually have had in a whole 12 months! This was of course all due to the roll-on effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, causing everyone to postpone their weddings to around the same time as everyone else! As a result I’ve been lagging behind a bit with editing, not just the weddings I covered at the end of 2020, but also the 2021 weddings I had to edit and get back as fast as I could.

As with any of my wedding photo of the year contests, I always keep completely hands off with selecting any of the images, allowing my wedded couples to select their own personal favourite photos, or none at all! This means that these images are not necessarily the same images I would have chosen if I were to do the same thing when looking at their images. If you were interested in what images I would have chosen however I’ve put together a simple slideshow video of some of my favourite images from each of the weddings I have covered in 2020.

To entice as many people to vote as possible, I also always offer a AU$100 cash prize to one random voter chosen once voting has ended. I record and vette each vote as they come in and have a rather sophisticated anti-duplicate detection system in place so as to deter any cheating or duplicate voting to keep things fair. To make things a little more interesting this year, I’m also going to add an additional entry into this $100 draw for each person who shares their vote on their social media!

Keep in mind you do not need to share on your social media in order to submit a vote as not everyone has social media accounts.

The owner of the winning photo will recieve a large framed print or perspex mounted print of their image – of if they have already had one printed of their favourite image – of another of their choice.

In past contests, and I’m sure it will be the same in the 2021 wedding photo of the year contest, the winning image has been not only the most voted on, but also the most shared on social media – remember every individual vote, and sharing individual that is recorded goes into the draw to win a simple $100, so after voting, share your favourite photo on facebook to support it as much as possible!

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Click here to vote and win $100!

Voting opens 1/7/2021

 

2021 Wedding Photo of the year contest entries

Kirsty Andrew
Georgia Nick
Jayne Pete
Jenna John
Kasia ben
Nikki Trenton
Alice Dion
Paula Andrew
Passionate kiss in between wedding cars
Andrae Gerry
Monique Anthony
Anna Isuru
Sarah Ricardo
Letichia Carrie
Kate John

The Advertiser wedding of the week

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This week I was awarded the ‘Advertiser wedding of the week’ from the Adelaide-based Newspaper The Advertiser. Published on page 30 of the Weddings section in the Monday 27th October edition of the newspaper, the Advertiser wedding of the week was actually a wedding I had shot almost 2 months prior.

Renae and Craig’s wedding was held at the Coriole Vineyards in Mclaren Vale and was a wedding that took advantage of my flexible hourly-based wedding package so to be awarded the Advertiser wedding of the week was quite a surprise as I did not have shots of the groom’s preparation, nor most of the reception. Renae and Craig said that the Advertiser had been in contact with them looking to use their photos for a feature in their paper, but I did not expect to be the Advertiser wedding of the week.

Advertiser wedding of the week

Advertiser wedding of the week

If the font is too small and hard to read in the image above, here is the writeup-

FOR Craig and Renae, when it comes to sentimental proposal locations, Devil’s Peak, in the Flinders Ranges, ticked all the boxes. After all, it was where the couple – who met through a friend – had their first date and lived for a year. So it was fitting then for Craig to ask Renae that life-changing question during a picturesque location.

For the happy duo, creating a relaxed atmosphere at their wedding was first and foremost. They chose McLaren Vale venue, Coriole Vineyards, to host both ceremony and reception. Family and friends travelled from near and far for the occasion, including guests from as far as Hong Kong. The reception venue was dressed in a rustic theme, and guests were treated to a Bracegirdle’s chocolate fountain and a candy bar. But when Then by Brad Paisley began to softly play, it was time for the bride and groom’s first dance as husband and wife.

Renae said the day was filled with highlights from start to finish. “But the standout moment would have to be dancing the night away with family and friends,” she said. The bridal party included Rebecca Scully, Belinda Kelly, Jodie Grimm, Michel Smale, Tim Brice and Hamish Smith. Pageboy was the couple’s son Rily Watson. Renae, 31, is the daughter of Francis and Ellen Watson of Marino. Craig, 36, is the son of Chris Ranger, of Glengowrie, and the late Mike Ranger.

Article by Roxanne Allan of Advertiser Weddings

SA ABIA 2020 Wedding Awards Results

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ABIA-Logo
ABIA-Logo

SA ABIA 2020 Wedding Awards

On the 9th of December, the SA ABIA 2020 Wedding Awards were announced, and I’m happy to say SvenStudios has once again come out as one of the best wedding suppliers in South Australia! SvenStudios has come runner up in both the wedding photography and photobooth supplier categories, meaning that as judged by our delightful bridal couples throughout the last year – we were just pipped at the post in attaining the title of wedding phtogroapher and photobooth supplier of the year!

2020AbiaRunnerup
2020AbiaRunnerupPbooth

The ABIA awards are a nationally-run organisation that give awards to wedding vendors a little differently than many other awards organisations. As a photographer I tend to take the AIPP photography awards quite seriously as that organisation awards the technical prowess of a photographer in capturing a scene – where as ABIA awards wedding vendors based directly on the feedback of a business’ every day clients.

One is judged by professionals based on technical ability, where as the other is based on the personal experience that a client has had directly with the business.

As a result my previous year’s wedded couples rated their customer satisfaction with me at a whopping 99.8% which has ranked me as the runner-up at the SA ABIA 2020 Wedding Awards. I’ts a little bit dissapointing to miss out on top spot by such a small margin, but that’s just the way it goes I guess!

Thank you so much to all my wedded couples who took the time to register their recommendation and reviews! It always helps out a lot!

Winner of the 2020 Wedding Photo of the year!

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Winner of the 2020 Wedding Photo of the year!

I’d like to thank once again all my couples I covered as their wedding photographer in 2019, and all those who submitted their favourite photo for my little annual wedding photo of the year contest! It’s always a little bit of fun to run this contest each year as I get to reconnect with all the couples I spent their wedding day with throughout this contest and find out which of the photos I took were their favourite. This in turn helps me in the future to be a better photographer!

So without further ado, here is the winner of the 2020 Wedding Photo of the year with 100 votes!

Winner of the 2020 Wedding Photo of the year!

Congratulations Leah and Jarron in receiving the most votes on their favourite photo from their wedding at Kuitpo Hall. I’ll get in contact soon to discuss details of your prize of a large framed print! They were lagging the photo from Hailey & Brad’s big day at Al-Ru Farm for quite a while, but a surge of Leah and Jarron voters last night put them over the line in a frantic finish hailey and Brad ended with 67 votes! There were also quite a few voters for Astrid and Corey and Chelsea and Nathan online last night, but unfortunately not enough 🙁 Chelsea and Nathan’s wedding at St Francis Winery came in third place with 55 votes.

Photo of the year contest HaileyBrad
Photo of the year contest ChealseaNathan

In all, this year’s contest, with 22 weddings entering recieved a total of 581 votes which is more than any of the previous 4 years in which I have run this contest, so that is an awesome turnout! Hopefully there will be even more in next year’s edition – providing of course I get out and shoot more weddings this year! There were a significant number more in total votes, however some people like to think I can’t detect those of you who try to vote twice or more by using different devices, emails addresses, etc 🙂

Winner of the $100 cash prize for voting

I also like to give away $100 cash to a random voter simply for casting their vote, so if your name is the one below, check your emails as I’ve sent you an email asking for your bank account details 🙂

Jasmine P.

Once again thanks to everyone who participated and congratulations to those who won! 😀 Looking forward to when the world returns to normal after all this COVID-19 stuff :/