Tag Archive for: wedding photography

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Utopia waterfall gully wedding – Gemma & Ryan

Gemma and Ryan’s wedding at Utopia waterfall gully was an absolute blast to be a part of as their wedding photographer, not only because of the amazing wedding venue, but also because Gemma ad Ryan, along with their entourage were really fun to be around and couldn’t have been nicer people. Their affinity with the fantasy genre and their goal to incorporate their fandom into their wedding photos made it even better 🙂 From their preparation photos with weaponry, through to more personal affects such as personal charms and style of their wedding rings.

Preparation Photos

First off, Gemma and Ryan wanted to throw as many wedding traditions out the window as was passable by their respective families. This was apparent right off the bat when I arrived at their preparation location of the old Mt Lofty Railway station in Stirling. It was a joint preparation, where everyone was being prepared within the same space, both the groom’s party and the bridal party. What made it even more fun was the inclusion of larp weaponry, straight from the Lord of the Rings.

Weapons
Bridal preparation
Grooms katana
Bride and groom
Wedding rings
Wedding rings
The bard
Bridal preparation
Bridal party with weapons
Bridal Party
Bridal preparation
Groom preparation
Face off
Bride smiling
Checking pocket watches
Groom putting on tie
Wedding dress
Engagement ring
Groomsmen playing boardgames

Utopia waterfall gully wedding ceremony

Utopia waterfall gully was chosen by Gemma and Ryan as it reminded them of Rivendell, the Elvish city in Lord of the Rings. This was fine with me as I absolutely love the location as a wedding venue, and it’s pretty much second to none in Adelaide. The timing of their wedding was also perfect for Utopia waterfall gully, as the Autumn colours were in full swing, which provided the perfect backdrop to an already beautiful place.

Utopia waterfall gully

The chalet that now makes Utopia waterfall gully was originally constructed as a tea room in 1912. It was built in the style of a Swiss chalet and is now considered Australia’s earliest example of a ‘refreshment room’ set in a national park. Today the heritage listed building still stands, and has been recently updated to accommodate a larger gathering of people for events such as wedding receptions. The inside really is quite spectacular and has a wonderfully homely feel perfect for weddings.

Gemma and Ryan’s wedding ceremony took place on a small patch of grass near a gazebo erected below the chalet, which is where most weddings take place when opting to have Utopia waterfall gully as the venue.

Autumnal wedding
Groom
Exchanging wedding rings
Utopia waterfall gully wedding
Signing marriage registry
Autumnal wedding
Utopia waterfall gully wedding
Wedding rings on certificate
Groom looking nervous
Bridal party
Bride and groom
Best man speech
Bride and groom

Waterfall Gully Glamour shoot

It had been a long time since I last visited waterfall gully, and I can’t remember ever visiting during the Autumn, but the colours in waterfall gully were absolutely amazing for wedding photography. But this also meant that truckloads of tourists were also wandering about in the background of almost every composition I lined up to shoot! The experience was much different to the last wedding I took in Waterfall Gully almost 3 years ago in the winter. Gemma and Ryan were quite adventurous also, which made taking wonderful nature-clad photos that much easier as they were keen to climb about the hills and through foliage as I directed 😀

Bridal party
Bride suprising groom
Wedding in Autumn
waterfall gully wedding
Waterfall gully wedding
Bridal party throwing leaves
Bride and groom under autumnal colours
waterfall gully weding
Bride and groom under autumnal colours
Waterfall gully wedding
Bride and groom sitting

Utopia waterfall gully wedding reception

Gemma and Ryan’s wedding reception filled out the chalet of Utopia waterfall gully, spilling out onto what would usually be used for the dance floor. With that many guests, with varying dietary requirements, Gemma and Ryan also opted for something I hadn’t seen before, which was a selection of two different wedding cakes! One traditional, the other whole cheese wheels stacked upon one another! And if that wasn’t thoughtful enough, they had what I consider to be the best bomboniere idea ever, which was lego men for all! This catered for both the large compliment of children, and the children at heart that were in attendance. 🙂

Bride and groom
Wedding cake two
Wedding cake
Bride and groom cutting cake
Center pieces

Thank you Gemma and Ryan for having be as part of your amazing wedding day. I had an absolute blast, and you even gave me ideas for my own upcoming wedding! Definitely stealing the Lego minifig idea!

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Bomboniere ideas for your wedding

Bomboniere gifts, or ‘favours’ to your guests on a wedding day have become quite common place over the years, however it’s usually a bit of a task to find bomboniere ideas that really speak about who you are as a couple and that your guests might actually want. As a wedding photographer I’m in a great position to get to experience weddings of all sorts, of couples of all different personalities, so I get to see a whole heap of different bomboniere ideas. I thought it might be helpful if I gave you a bit of a list of the more unique, or practical I’ve seen.

bomboniere ideas

What is a Bomboniere?

But first, a bit of history behind the idea of bomboniere gifts. The practice of giving bomboniere dates right back to 14th century Italy, when the families of engaged couples swapped small packages filled with sweets as a sign of good fortune. Over time, those horrible sugar-coated almonds became the preferred choice of sweets and are pretty much now the staple of Australian bomboniere gifts… unfortunately. Hopefully this list will give you other ideas! 🙂

Bomboniere ideas

Lolly Bar

This idea I’ve seen a few times at weddings I’ve covered. The idea is that your guests are given a small bag or basket of some description in order to fill up themselves with a selection of sweets. It’s also there to augment your menu during the reception of course 🙂

bomboniere bar

Bridal party deck of cards

This one can be fun, how about printing off a deck of cards featuring an image of the bride and groom, along with their entourage as King, queen, Jack, etc? Doing this is surprisingly cost effective when done on the scale needed for wedding favours, and you can literally personalise it with yourself!

Home made sauce or Jam

I often mention this to new wedding photography clients as an idea to get the older members of your family involved in your wedding day. It’s common to have members of the family who might want to be involved with your wedding, but cant for whatever reason. Why not let them sort out your bomboniere gifts with their cooking skills? This is right up there with the lolly bar in terms of how often I see this at weddings.

Home made jam

A scratchy lottery ticket

While perhaps not the most personal of bomboniere ideas, an instant win lottery ticket would be very cost effective (or expensive, depending on how much you want to spend) and can create a sense of excitement and even delirious joy in the off chance someone strikes it lucky! Could even double as a last minute gift for your guests to give back to you via your wishing well.

A picture frame

If you happen to have a photo booth at your wedding reception, and if it’s like the SvenStudios photo booth, that prints proper sizes prints for your guests to keep, why not keep them in style with their own photo frame?

photo frame

Polaroids

As a bit of a segway from the photo frames, perhaps have a few polaroid instant cameras floating about your reception? your guests can pick one up and create their own little keepsake from your wedding.

Individual caricatures

Or how about even having a cartoon artist wandering about drawing everyone? This bomboniere ideas as it always makes people smile and how awesome is having a piece of art to take home from your wedding?

Wedding Reception Keepsake SketchArtist

Lego minifigs or small toys

For the child in all of us, a recent wedding I was a photographer at had little bags of toys for every guest, and included were lego minifigs. Both young and old had a blast opening their little lego man and spending time building them while waiting for their entrée to arrive. By the end of the night, every table had a small army of little men running about. It was pretty awesome… Because everything is awesome.

Lego

Selecting the perfect bomboniere for your special occasion can be a daunting task, but with a little creativity and thoughtfulness, you can create a meaningful and memorable gift for your guests.

Whether you choose to go with a classic favor or a more personalized option, the key is to keep your guests in mind and choose something that reflects the overall theme and style of your event. With these bomboniere ideas and tips, you can make sure that your guests leave with a special token of appreciation that will be treasured for years to come.

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Maxwell Winery Wedding – Julie & Dave

  • JULIE & DAVE

    Maxwell Winery Wedding

    Maxwell wines Cellar wedding photo

The rolling hills of Mclaren Vale was the setting of Julie and Dave’s wedding at the Maxwell winery. Julie and Dave took advantage of my flexible customizable wedding package to have me be their wedding photographer for 5 hours, this was plenty of time for me to travel to both of their preparation locations between Hackham and Moana, then a small part of their reception at the Maxwell winery.

Preparation photos

Dave was being prepared at their house in Hackham along with his grooms men. I think I surprised them as I turned up, as Dave jumped up and started getting dressed as I walked in. Apparently I wasn’t expected for another hour or so 🙂 Anyway, this drew the boys away from thir horse racing and started getting ready at least. The guys were really laid back, making quips amongst one another and keeping one eye on the horse racing. I don’t think anyone won any money unfortunately.

Groom and Dad
Boys looking dapper
Cufflinks
Grooms men preparation
Boys walking the sunshine
Grooms men preparation

Julie was being prepared at a rental in Moana overlooking the beach. The setting was a lovely simple apartment which allowed for beautifully soft light which lent itself well to the style of dress Julie chose, along with her wonderfully long veil. Like the boys, the girls were fairly laid back, making sure everything was perfect as they were getting prepared. They even arrived almost an hour early to the ceremony, meaning they had to do a bit of a lap around McLaren Vale.

Bride and bridesmaids
Engagement ring in flowers
Bride and bridesmaids
Bride in doorway
Bride in doorway
Bride in car
Bride in wedding dress

Maxwell Winery Wedding

The Maxwell Winery in Mclaren Vale is famed for it’s large hedge maze located at the foot of a vineyard covered hill it stands upon. As a wedding venue its facilities are perfect for intimate cocktail receptions. The main attraction for unique wedding photography in Mclaren Vale is the inside of the old Maxwell winery cellar, however it’s not really that old at all. The winery itself was built in the 1990s after expanding to the location due to good business. I might just point out here that Maxwell winery does produce some very nice wine, but they are also Australia’s largest producer of mead – a honey based drink which is delicious 😉

Mclaren vale wedding
First kiss
Bride and groom at ceremony
Bride arriving
Winery wedding
Mclaren vale wedding
Signing the registry
Signing the registry
Groom waiting
Maxwell winery wedding ceremony
Bride arriving

As Julie and Dave opted to have their wedding ceremony rather late at 7pm, towards the end of their ceremony, the sun as completely vanished, as a result our choices for glamour shots after the ceremony was limited to artificially lit locations, such as the famed Maxwell winery cellar, which was wonderfully lit with candles. I had a lot of fun in here 🙂 The Maxwell Winery cellar is such a unique spot to have photos taken, it even looks as though Maxwell Winery have taken to using some of my photos in their own wedding advertising 🙂 Nice to see they like my photos!

Maxwell Winery wedding photo
Bride and groom in cellar
Maxwell winery Cellar wedding photo

Maxwell Winery Wedding Reception

I was able to stay until the end of Julie and Dave’s first dance at their cocktail reception, which was pretty perfect as I was able to capture all the official events they had planned before I left. The reception was a lovely family affair and you could really feel the love.

Wedding cake
Reception fun
Reception fun
First dance
Groom speech
Blow up slide
Dad speech
Wedding rings
Cocktail food
Reception group photo
First dance

I’d like to thank Julie and Dave for having me as their wedding photographer and I hope they enjoy their wedding photographs as much as I enjoyed creating them!

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Carclew House Wedding – Vivian & Rohan

  • Vivian & Rohan

    Carclew House Wedding

    Carclew house wedding

You can’t get more well known in the Adelaide wedding industry as venues than Carclew house and the Mortlock wing of the Adelaide state library. So when Vivian and Rohan asked me to be their wedding photographer for their wedding, I could not have been more excited. The locations they chose for their wedding ceremony and reception are absolutely beautiful locations that provide some stunning visuals for wedding photographers such as myself. Both locations really compliment each other well, having been part of the historic institution of Adelaide since their inception. Their interior are where the best photographs were taken, with old world  high class charm.

Preparation

Rohan was prepared for his big day at their house in Torrensville, north of the city. Rohan’s passion for model cars was obviously pride of place in their house, with their tyre-shaped wedding rings being photographed with them, and also their lovely antique furniture creating what was colourful referred to as ‘new tinder pics’ for the grooms men.

grooms men gifts
wedding rings
grooms men jumping
Grooms men playing about
grooms men preparation
groom preparation
Groom and his grooms men
New tinder pic

Vivian and her entourage were being prepared at a rental apartment in the city which provided some nice open areas for photos, including a beautiful archway of trees which we made good use of for group shots. Everyone was quite laid back and were having a lot of fun.

Bridal preparation
Bride looking pretty
Bride and Father
Hanging Wedding dress
Bridal preparation
Engagement ring in flowers
bride in trees
Wedding dress
Bridal preparation

Carclew House Wedding Ceremony

Carclew House, after having been bought by the Adelaide city council in 1965, is a center to showcase youth arts under the moniker of the ‘Carclew Youth Arts Centre’. The magnificent house however has been standing next to the stoic statue of colonel light overlooking the city skyline since 1901, having been rebuilt on the same land as the original 1840 house by Sir Hugh Robert Dixon, however is was not known as Carclew house until 1908 when the Bonython family bought the land and renamed the estate. When the city of Adelaide bought the house in 1965, the land was originally planned to be the new site of the Adelaide Festival Hall, but this was later built where it stands today on the south side of the river Torrens.

Carclew House

Vivian and Rohan’s wedding ceremony took place out the front of Carclew house, taking advantage of the shadows that were creeping across the gardens so as to keep their guests happy. It also made for a wonderful backdrop to their wedding photos. I’d just like to point out here, that Vivian and Rohan had impeccable taste for their wedding locations, but also thought of amazing details like having a BARISTA on site making coffees for all their guests! Now this was a detail I had not seen before at a wedding and I certainly hope this is the type of thing that catches on!

Groom looking happy
Wedding in front of Carclew House
bride and groom
bride and groom
Carclew house wedding
After first kiss
Adelaide taxi
Exchanging wedding rings
Wedding in front of Carclew House
Wedding register
Wedding in front of Carclew House
Bride about to enter
Bride and Groom holding hands

Carclew House glamour photos

After the ceremony had finished and most of the guests had headed off to the city to wait for the reception later at the Mortlock wing of the state library, we used both the inside and outside of the historic building for some bridal shots.

Bride and groom on stairway
Stairway in Carclew House
Bride and groom chatting
out the front of Carclew House
Carclew house wedding
Bride on stairway
Wedding rings
Wedding party on stairway
Bride and groom
Continue to the Reception

Mortlock Library Wedding Reception – Vivian & Rohan

After their beautiful ceremony at the historic Carclew house in North Adelaide, Vivian and Rohan held their wedding reception at the magnificent Mortlock library. This place is one of those locations that wedding photographers such as myself dream of shooting at, as the Mortlock Library provides sumptuous backdrops for some really intricate looking wedding photographs. It’s just a stunning space to visit and work in.

While commonly known as the Mortlock library as a wedding venue title, the building is actually now only a wing of the overall State library. The building now known as the Mortlock Wing was opened on 18 December 1884 as a Public Library, Museum and Art Gallery for the colony of South Australia with 23,000 books and a staff of three. In modern times, the Mortlock wing has been sandwiched between more modern additions to the state library and state museum, but the old French Renaissance design of the building is still freely visible and celebrated. The Mortlock library as a wedding venue actually boasts two separate locations to hold wedding celebrations. In Vivian and Rohan’s case we were heading to the larger, and grander of the two galleries which had been set up as a grand dining hall, complete with the marvellous two tiered book shelves lined with thousands of books all propped up on huge masonry columns. It’s really not hard at all to see why the library has been included in the world’s top 20 most beautiful libraries.

Mortlock Library Glamour photos

After arriving at the library after their wedding ceremony at Carclew house, we had a bit of time to make use of the stunning surroundings for a few glamour shots of Vivian and Rohan. The most stereotypical shot at this locations would have to be the bride and groom hanging out doing lovey dovey stuff near the Dent and Sons clock at one end. That clock by the way cost £50 in 1885, which is equivalent to $7,000 today. It’s stereotypical for a reason.. just look at those wonderful leading lines straight through the image lined with the texture of old books. It’;s an incredible sight.

Bride and groom in library
Mortlock Wedding
Bride and groom walking through library
Mortlock library wedding
Mortlock library wedding
Bride and groom walking through library
Bride and groom reading together
Bride and groom in library
Bride and groom in library
Mortlock library wedding
Mortlock library wedding
Bride and groom in library

Mortlock Library Wedding Reception

The reception itself was spread right throughout the main hall, with tables from the dance floor at one end to the taxidermy eagle at the other. The head table was located at the center, allowing for easy access for all guests to congratulate Vivian and Rohan. It was a fun night to be a part of, everyone there were really fun loving people, eager to get up and dance, while being a blast to talk to. I had a lot of fun!

bride hugging bridesmaid
Mortlock library reception
Mortlock Library wedding reception
Guests dancing
Conga line
Dancers from above
wedding cake
Guests dancing
Parents of the bride speech
Bride hugging dad
Guests dancing
First dance
Bride dancing
Guests dancing
Bride and groom cutting cake
End of night archway
Table setting
Best man
First dance

I;d like to thank Vivian and Rohan for having me be their wedding photographer on their most beautiful of days. I was incredibly excited to be a part of your wedding, and I hope you like your photos as much as I enjoyed creating them!