Emma and Nickolai certainly chose the perfect time of year to hold their Al-Ru wedding – just at the end of Autumn so that they had all the amazing colours that such a stunningly curated garden like Al-Ru Farm can provide!
I would have expected nothing less from Nickolai – landscape extraordinaire – who was sure to give me a thorough botanic lesson on some of the trees we were using as backdrops during their photo shoot!
Emma and Nickolai’s day was beaiutifully laid back, and family-oriented which made for a lovely atmosphere and an over-all amazing day!
Preparation
Nickolai was being prepared nearby in a friend’s house in Gawler. The homebrew beers and some exceptional liquor was handy and paired nicely with the Dominos pizza they had sourced for lunch.
While Nickolai was being prepared alongside a number of friends, both Nickolai and Emma did not have any bridal party, and instead just wanted to be prepared along side friends and family without having to burden anyone with the rigour of official bridal party business.
One rather neat addition to the whole preparation was Nickolai’s gift to his father in the way of a tie adorned with sunflowers – which represented their Ukranian heritage and I thought was rather touching. I was half expecting some other Ukranian customs to be held later too!
Emma and her friends were being prepared at the cutre little cottage on site at Al-Ru Farm. This cottage, I feel is the best spot to be prepared for a wedding in all of Adelaide due to it’s cute aesthetic and huge sweeping windows that suit as a backdrop to almost anything wedding related!
The atmosphere here was fun and laid back, with the proceedings punctuated by a touching first look by Emma’s Dad who came in and made everyone tear up as he spun around and saw his daugher all dressed up as a bride for the first time 🙂
Al-Ru Wedding Ceremony
Emma and Nickolai’s Al-Ru Wedding ceremony took place at the foot of the pond and roman columns set amongst the greenery of the gardens. This meant that Emma approached her ceremony from behind Nickolai and did not walk through her waiting guests to beghin their ceremony.
An Auslan interpreter was on site all day for those who needed it, while the ceremony itself was lovely and simple with some heartfelt vows and readings throughout.
After the cermeony, we staged a bit of a bride and groom exit up on the homestead’s main lawn where the guests lined a corridor to throw petals over the newly wedded couple.
Glamour Photos
Oh boy did I have fun taking Emma and Nickolai’s photos! I mean they certainly made it simple for me by choosing an incredible time of year, they are both gorgeous looking people and the surronds you get to work with at an Al-Ru wedding is simply divine. The only thing that was a little dissapointing was the lack of any significant sunset due to cloud coverage, but it was still really pretty!
A big reason why Emma and Nickolai had me as their wedding phtographer was my tendancy to love taking photos with a bit of a landscape feel – bringing the entirety of the scenery into my photos rather than only focusing on them as portraits. There’s few better places to do this than at an Al-Ru Wedding!
We also made sure to use the famed Al-Ru greenhouse at night for a bit of night time photography, and walked around a bit int he dark with some smoke 🙂
Al-Ru Wedding Reception
Emma and Nickolai’s Al-Ru Wedding reception was punctuated by heartfelt speeches through Auslan and interpreters and highlighted by the personal touches they, and their friends had added to their most amazing day – including one of the most interesting wedding cakes I have seen!
The rest of their night was full of singing, dancing and just having a great time. The whole day was awesome to be a part of and I hope Emma and Nickolai enjoy their photos as much as I enjoyed creating them!
