Yep, it’s album time again!  Now that wedding season has come to a hiatus, I am hard at work putting together albums for my lovely clients.  It’s always such a pleasure to see an album come together and an even better feeling when my brides get to see them for the first time.

Ronnie and Graeme chose a 14×10″ matted album a black leather cover with their names embossed on the cover.   Their package also included two replica 5×7″ albums for their parents (I have shown one here so you can see the size difference).

The photo above shows the translucent title page that begins all of our matted albums showing the names of the bride and groom, and date of their wedding.

Ronnie and Graeme got married at the beautiful Delamore Lodge, one of the top venues on Waiheke Island.

This last page (below) shows the difference in style between the 14×10 inch album, which is a “Matted Album” style and the 5×7″ replica album which gets printed as a “Storybook” style.  (A Matted Style is where the photograph is nestled within an overlay mat, and a Storybook Style is where the whole page is printed as one photograph which is then adhered to the thick album leaf).

Cat and Toby’s wedding was our last one for the 2012/2013 wedding season (and I must say a hearty thank you C+T for your patience in waiting for this blog post!).  Their wedding day had an elegant simplicity to it, set in the beautiful and thoroughly New Zealand environment of Chardy Ridge.

I loved the style and laid back feel of their day, everything from Cat’s stunning A La Mode dress and the pre ceremony G&Ts, right down to the relaxed laughter during their ceremony and the understated bunches of gypsophila on the reception tables.  Yep, I reckon if I got married again, I would do it pretty much like this (except for the early morning swim Toby… I mean, really, what kind of man would throw his visiting English mates into NZ waters in April.  It’s just not cricket, is it?)

Oneroa Beach, here we come…

At Chardy Ridge, the bridesmaids and their exceptionally helpful partners and friends were madly at work decorating the reception and ceremony site

Beautiful flowers from Virginia at Waiheke Flower Gallery.  Cat’s make up was from Waiheke fave Charlotte from Island Beauty, and her hair was from Heather at Phoenix Hair Design

Love love love Cat’s look… sophisticated, elegant, and effortless

We headed off to a couple of island hotspots for our photoshoot, the ever popular Little Oneroa Beach being our first stop.

Large bridal parties are always a good laugh!

Back at Chardy Ridge the reception was ready and waiting in rustic chic style.  Cat and Toby’s guests gathered in the Chardy Ridge glade, awaiting the ceremony to be led by the wonderful Irene Armstrong (officially Waiheke’s most popular celebrant, as declared by the Births, Deaths and Marriages office).

Following the ceremony, Toby’s talented sister Sian and their friend Mark sang and played a couple of songs in their honour…. it was really gorgeous and special.

While friends and family mingled on the lawn following the ceremony, we snuck away to capture a few more images around the stunning Chardy Ridge environment.

gorgeous bridesmaids dresses from Coast in the UK

Thanks so much Cat and Toby, what a pleasure it was to capture your perfect wedding day.  I hope you enjoy your long awaited sneak peek! xx

It’s perfect timing that in the month that NZ legalised gay marriage, I get to share on my blog the lovely civil union of Caroline and Sarah, who were married at Mudbrick Vineyard on Easter weekend.

Caroline and her family got ready for the day at Claire’s Luxury Hideaway in Onetangi, a premium property which is always an absolute pleasure to shoot in.

Caroline’s bridesmaid was her stunning niece Anna, who tried her best to remember her ‘school tie days’ while helping Caroline try on the stylish retro tie Sarah had given her a part of her wedding gift.

Caroline’s navy pinstripe suit was from boutique suit makers Anton‘s in Australia

Sarah and her family had booked a place just around the corner which overlooked Onetangi Beach, one of Waiheke’s most popular beaches.

Sarah’s stunning gown was from Astra Bridal, with her hair and make up from the ever-awesome Sharon Kenny and flowers from Virginia at Waiheke Flower Gallery

Sarah was accompanied by her sister Emma and niece Aisha

love this

Sarah and Caroline wanted to do their photos before the ceremony so that they could spend more time with their guests following the service so they had a ‘first look’ moment before the shoot in one of my favourite locations…

It was such an emotional meeting when they first caught sight of each other…

Lance’s photo above – love it!

And then it was time for the ceremony to begin at Mudbrick, under the expert eye of Auckland celebrant Chris Mullane

We had a wee bit of time up our sleeves after the family portraits so we spent some time in the Mudbrick vines, taking advantage of the lovely light as the sun went down.

What an amazing wedding… Sarah and Caroline, your love is divine.  Thanks for trusting us to capture it xx

Duncan’s mum has a great home here on Waiheke with a private track down to Shelley Beach and it was here that we begun our photographic coverage with Duncan and his groomsmen.  The boys were all relaxed and ready with a joke,  so we had a few laughs down by the water before they started getting into their wedding threads…

Blue steeling it like pros…

Lances’ shot above – totally cool

Jess and Duncan got married at one of Waiheke’s most primo wedding venues, the gorgeous Delamore Lodge.

Jess’ gorgeous up-do was done by Jennifer from Bridal Beauty

Stunning dress by Jane Yeh, and flowers from Virginia at Waiheke Flower Gallery

As the ceremony approached, Jess was worried about shedding tears as she came up the aisle so she asked for her mum to come up so they could both have a wee cry and get it out of the way before the ceremony…

As you can see, the ‘getting the crying out of the system’ didn’t quite work.

Following the ceremony we spent some time around Delamore Lodge before Jess and Duncan headed off in a helicopter to go and visit her grandfather who was too ill to make it to the wedding.  He had always promised that he would see her married so Jess wanted to make sure he was part of her special day.

Lance went in the helicopter with Jess and Duncan while I stayed behind at Delamore and captured the guests and reception details,

The chopper landed at a school ground which backed onto Jess’ grandfather’s house and a little posse of inquisitive younguns came out to see which famous person had arrived by chopper, so Lance organised a group “yeehah” before they headed back to Delamore Lodge.  Cute.

The styling of the reception was done by Jess’s step mum Julie who did an amazing job, with loads of lovely details everywhere you looked around Delamore Lodge.  Amazing cupcake tower created by Rebecca Lloyd from The Cake Parlour

Thanks Jess and Duncan – it was a pleasure to capture your day.  All the best for a blessed and happy life together…