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Auchendarroch House Wedding – Rebecca & Simon

  • REBECCA & SIMON

    Auchendarroch House Wedding

    Auchendarroch House wedding

Auchendarroch House in Mt Barker was the venue for Rebecca and Simon’s stunning wedding day under the sun. The day was complete with fireworks, courtesy of the nearby Christmas celebrations and absolutely sublime weather which all made for an incredible day! Rebecca and Simon opted to have be as their wedding photographer for most of their day, leading up to their reception, and then took advantage of the SvenStudios photobooth throughout their reception complete with one of my new hand-made  wooden guests books!

Preparation photos

I began my day at the house that Simon and his grooms men were being prepared in. Simon was in high spirits, joking about and being super helpful in getting all his gear ready for some photos. Soon after we started, more of his family arrived and I think the reality of the situation sunk in a little bit as some nerves were starting to show 🙂

Rebecca and her bride’s maids were being prepared at their home in Mt Barker, nearby Auchendarroch house. The atmosphere was very laid back with  Rebecca’s brother being on hand at all times to lighten the mood with silly jokes. The morning went very smoothly with everything happening as it should so there wasn’t really any need for any nerves 🙂

Auchendarroch House wedding ceremony

Auchendarroch House was originally opened in 1860 by a Scottish migrant named Lachlan MacFarlane to be used as a hotel – then known as the Oakfield Hotel. Soon after, in 1878, it became the Summer residence of local businessman and philanthropist, Robert Barr Smith. It then became a convalescent home and Air Force hospital before being restored by the Wallis family in 2002 into the magnificent function center it is today. The house is a popular location for weddings in Mt Barker due to it’s old-world charm, surrounded by some quite impeccable gardens and local parks. All while still being the the center of the town of Mt Barker, so still quite convenient.

Rebecca and Simon were wed under the heritage listed tree next to the house. I’m sure their guests were quite thankful for this due to the weather becoming very hot by this time of day. It made for a wonderful backdrop to their wedding photos, complete with some easy to manage shadows over the entire party. It was wonderful!

Glamour Photos

After getting my drone out to take some family photos, we utilised the grounds of Auchendarroch House to take some glamour shots, with a few silly shots sprinkled in. We then made use of the magnificent interior of the house before heading over to the old main street of Mt Barker.

The interior of Auchendarroch House is everything you’d expect from an 1800s hotel. Grand, opulent and full of beautiful wooden details complete with contrasting carpets and drapes. The whole setting makes for some of the best scenes for some intimate wedding photography.

In between these amazing glamour photos we also took a moment to take a photo where the bridal party was to look concerned about something I’ll photoshop in later. In this case Rebecca and Simon are big fans of Star Wars, so they requested a scene where they were running from some Star Wars war machines. They also happened to have Simon’s car in the background so I decided to blow it up!

Auchendarroch House wedding reception

Rebecca and Simon also opted to have my photo booth set up at their reception, so I was tasked to take a few photos of the reception while also man the photobooth. The great thing about this wedding reception though was the fact that the local Christmas party was happening right next door, so we got some killer fireworks shots from above the house also!

Rebecca and Simon’s Auchendarroch House Wedding was such an awesome wedding to be a part of! Everything went smoothly from my perspective, and some amazing images were produced! I hope Rebecca and Simon enjoy their photos as much as I enjoyed producing them and I hope to cover another Auchendarroch House Wedding soon!

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Royal SA Yacht Squadron Wedding – Tracy & Jordan

  • Tracy & Jordan

    Royal SA Yacht Squadron Wedding

    Weee!

What a gorgeous wedding this was! Tracy and Jorden were wed on the grassy hill next to the Royal SA Yacht Squadron club houses in Outer Harbour on a super sunny, but not too hot day in November. The day provided for some amazing scenes thanks to Tracy and Jordan’s eagerness to travel and get to the right places for the best shots. It also helped quite a bit they had planned to go to some amazing spots for their photos after their ceremony. As they opted to take advantage of my value-packed full day package as their wedding photographer, I was on hand to capture every single moment of their stunning day.

Preparation

As s often the case, I began the day with Jordan and his grooms men. When I arrived in the morning, the boys sprang into action getting ready while also putting finishing touches on the best man’s speech. Most of the photos were taken in Tracy and Jordan’s house, which a small amount of time taken to take the dogs for a walk to the local park.

Tracy and her bridal party were being prepared in a room overlooking the Largs Pier at the Largs Pier Hotel. This stunning old building has some incredible details throughout the building, with none more impressive than the grand staircase meandering up the floors. The bridal party were in high spirits and were actually prepared quite quickly so after a few photos, we had a bit of time for a bit of a breather before heading down to the pier and bar for a few shots outside.

Royal SA Yacht Squadron wedding ceremony

The Royal SA Yacht Squadron has has a presence in Outer Harbour since 1924 after having been founded at Birkenhead in 1881. The Royal SA Yacht Squadron is a stoic institution, originally founded amongst the tall ships of Port Adelaide as a social organisation, the club was forced to move to Outer Harbour due to the port becoming too congested.

Today the clubhouse of the yacht squadron has become a very popular location for weddings, and receptions, especially due to it’s newly renovated function room overlooking the marina. I myself journey to the Yacht Squadron a number of times a year for weddings and their receptions. The most recent of which would be Vanessa and Justin’s only a few weeks prior.

Tracy and Jordan’s wedding ceremony took place on the grassy hill overlooking the marina. The wind picked up just before the ceremony so there was a bit of that to contend with, but other than that the ceremony went off without a hitch.

Glamour Shots

The first location we headed to directly after the wedding ceremony was the Yacht Club’s quaint little original boat house that is located under the newly renovated function center. The area provides for a stunning backdrop with some very interesting lighting suitable for striking couple shots framed by glowing light.

We then headed down to the Semaphore beachfront to take advantage of the sun and surf. Before heading to the jetty though, we first went for a bit of a walk toward the rocks that line the inlet towards Outer Harbour. Tracy was looking forward to using the rocks as a bit of a prop, and I was more than keen to oblige!

Finally we navigated the crowds congregating for the Port Adelaide Christmas pageant to drive to the wonderfully popular wedding photo location that are the old Wool sheds for some inductional themed shots. These turned out incredibly considering the amount of redirected traffic we had to contend with while shooting. I’ve never seen this road that busy!

Royal SA Yacht Squadron wedding reception

After having taken these amazing shots around Port Adelaide, we headed back to the newly renovated Yacht Squadron for the wedding reception. The party was a boisterous affair with some characters keeping the night from becoming boring 😉 All in all the entire day was an absolute blast and I really enjoyed myself!

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Why we give guests a gift for attending a wedding

Wedding favour in small plastic box

Why we give guests a gift for attending a wedding

Ever wonder why we give guests a gift for attending a wedding? Seems a bit odd doesn’t it? I mean you’ve just forked out a small fortune to host this spectacular wedding reception to celebrate your marriage, why should you spend any more on gifts? Surely the $100 per head 3 course dinner you’ve provided for them is enough, right? Well in my research of wedding traditions, the answer lies in what people believed to help with the vitality of the party.

Ever wonder why we give guests a gift for attending a wedding?

The origin of the tradition dates back to the 1600s when French aristocrats used to give out jeweled boxes full of sugar coated almonds as a means to increase vitality in the party. A gift of a bonbonnière was a symbol of care extended to all guests. Sugared almonds carried additional significance at weddings, as the bitterness of the almonds and the sweetness of the sugar was thought to symbolise the bitter-sweetness of marriage. The practice spread across Europe where the Italians, Greeks and Spanish also thought the sugar on almonds gave health giving properties. As the price of sugar fell, more and more people were able to copy society’s elite much in the same way white wedding gowns became the norm in the 1800s. The shape and colour of the almonds also mimicked eggs, a symbol of fertility.

While the opulent, jeweled boxes have fallen to the wayside in favour of cheaper options, such as paper bags in modern times; those sugar coated almonds remain. Love them or hate them, they are a staple at weddings and you’ll find them in almost every wedding. They are cheap, small and easy to give out, but these days people often opt for more substantial gifts to compliment them. From photo frames to lego minifigs right through to bottles of liquor and pieces of jewellery, modern bomboniere can be very diverse. You can find more inspiration in our Wedding Ideas.

The reason why we give guests a gift for attending a wedding all stems from the tradition of the French of getting a sugar high from eating too much sugar. Who knew? 🙂

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How to include guests who can’t attend your wedding

Spinning Photo Memory Charm with Rhinestones

How to include guests who can’t attend your wedding

More often than not, when organising your guest list for your wedding, you’ll find out that some guests you have a deep connection with cannot make it due to any number of reasons. These guests are people who perhaps are too old and frail to venture out to your wedding venue, or perhaps they are living overseas. I thought I might make a bit of a list of ideas I’ve seen when covering weddings as a wedding photographer of how to include guests who can’t attend your wedding.

Ideas for how to include guests who can’t attend your wedding

Live stream your ceremony

Providing of course that your wedding venue has good mobile phone coverage, you could opt to live stream your wedding ceremony via your mobile device. Modern smartphones with cameras all have this ability whereby you can set up a face to face call with the guest that could not make it and instead of facing the camera towards yourself, simply turn it around so that it’s facing the altar. In this way your guest can participate in the wedding ceremony in real time.

If you’re a little more tech minded one could also set up a live streaming event with a service such as livestream, where you’re able to hook up a camera with a PC with an internet connection. Using this kind of service more than just one guest could watch the stream at once.

Since writing this article in 2016, I have started offering not only live streaming services, but also Virtual reality recording services so let me know if you’d like to make use of what I offer! 🙂

Record a video message to play at your reception

One wedding that I fondly remember was the wedding of Michaela & Paddy at the SC Pannell Winery where the reception featured a video of well wishes from guests all around the world who could not make it. The reactions from Michaela seeing the faces of loved ones talking to her via video was a beautiful addition to the day.

Make use of a Videographer

As a wedding photographer, I’m often working alongside a videographer, and I will be soon expanding into this area as a new service. The best use of a wedding videographer is of course having a full video documenting your wedding day in ways that still photography cannot. A great idea for how to include guests who cannot attend your wedding is to hold a viewing party at some point after your wedding where you can take your video to the guests who couldn’t make it. You can also opt to send a copy of your video to guests abroad, or even use the internet.

Represent guests not present with their photo

Having guests who could not make it represented by framed photos is a wonderful idea to remember those who could not make it for one reason or another. For more ideas as you plan, see Wedding Ideas for your Big Day. This idea is often used for those guests who would have loved to attend but who had passed on before the wedding date.

Many brides often have a family member that is so important that they carry a photo charm of them attached to their bridal bouquet – whch is a lovely gesture for guests who have touched the heart of the bride.

These are just some of the ideas I’ve picked up throughout the dozens of weddings I’ve covered. If you have another idea to perhaps add to this list I’d love to hear about it!

 

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