Kat + Seb // A Clarke Island Wedding

Why hello 2014, you seem to have come along a heck of a lot faster than I was prepared for. But I do have something rather beautiful to start off the year with – Kat & Seb’s intimate Clarke Island wedding.

A lot of times I can tell that I’m going to click with someone right off the bat, and I could tell I’d click with Kat & Seb from the very first email. Kat’s email just exuded such warmth and care, that really extended to their wedding day planning. And then I met them in person and I think I kinda fell in love with them a little bit. Kat rocked up wearing rollers in her hair with a scarf over them, 1950s movie star style, and they were clearly smitten with each other.

We went over all the plans for their day and really, it seemed like the perfect reflection of the two of them. Kat has a sort of old-school beauty that was perfectly complimented by her gorgeous powder blue gown by Sarah Alice Andrews, even the hotel, the QT in Sydney was the perfect choice for a bit of old-school charm (as an aside, the QT hotel is absolutely amazing down to their elevators, which play different songs depending on how many people are in them! That’s the sort of quirky detail I absolutely adore).

And I just realised that this blog post is getting probably a little long, but suffice it to say that everything about Kat & Seb’s day was planned so that it reflected the couple that they are and to make sure that their intimate gathering of family & friends knew that the day was more than just about Kat & Seb, but about all of them coming together.

Venue: ceremony on Clarke Island in Sydney and reception at Tastevin Bistro & Wine Bar
Florist: Floreat – Jane Lampe
Wedding dress + hairpiece: Sarah Alice Andrews
Kat’s Shoes: Betts
Bridesmaid dress: Forever New
Hair: Vicky McFarlane
Makeup: Michael Halder
Seb’s suit: MJ Bale
Paper goods: Ruby’s Tuesday
Ceremony catering: Luxury Tastings
Music: Merpire, Rhiannon Atkinson-Howatt
Celebrant: Chris North
Ferry transport: Rosman Ferry’s

the post about getting older

I have a lot to write, but I don’t know where to start.

That’s always the problem, figuring out what to say and how to say it. What’s too much/not enough/too personal/not personal enough/too funny/not funny enough. I haven’t blogged for a little while because the last few months have been filled with just such overwhelming  journeys, change, joy and maybe some hijinks thrown in for good measure… But the start always eludes me.

I guess I’ll start with today and work my way back a little bit. Today I turned 30 and the experience has been quite different from what movies & TV have led me to believe. The characters always seem so neurotic about getting older, but the last couple of months have done nothing but prepare me for the awesomeness of it. There have been travels to the worlds of yonder (the US & Canada for the wonderful Canada Photo Convention and finally meeting a lot of photographer friends who I’ve only known online), winning of awards (both of my albums submitted won Accolades of Excellence at WPPI), the getting to meet so many amazing couples.

I have to say though, there’s been a lot of happy tears shed at meeting so many friends at Canada Photo Convention and there are many, MANY phone photos of me hugging people whilst crying. It really just is an overwhelmingly awesome feeling to finally get to meet people you’ve been talking to for years. I really can’t express how much that experience and that trip meant to me. Although, I am hoping that the crying photos don’t start mysteriously appearing online. I am not one of those fortunate people who is a pretty crier, I cry and it’s that puffy eyes/snot coming out of nose kind of cry. Pretty criers of the world, I envy you.

With WPPI, I MAY have forgotten when the awards deadline was actually happening and MAY have frantically been sitting there yelling at my computer to “UPLOAD FASTER.” To have both albums that I entered win awards really was the icing on the cake of a wonderful year that was. I’ve always felt like nothing is as important as the story of the day and the way that you tell it, so to have that sort of love reaffirmed by a community of photographers is such a wonderful experience (there may have been tears involved here too, and also a lot of happy dancing).

I feel like there’s so much more to write, but not enough words to describe everything, so with that I bid you farewell as I go and celebrate an ending and a beginning. A new decade and hopefully a lot more happy snotty tears.

One Fine Day

There’s been a lot going on behind the scenes here at I Love Wednesdays and One Fine Day was a lovely little preview of some of the awesomeness that is to come! We used it as a little pre-launch of the new look. I was thinking about waiting for everything to be done before properly launching it, but I cannot describe the excitement I’ve felt and I just had to share it with everyone. This blog post was really supposed to wait as well, but again, EXCITEMENT. I’m like a ball of nervously excited energy and really, I had to share, both about the new look and also the wonderfulness that was One Fine Day.

I’m still not quite sure how to describe the craziness that it was and the booth. For a start, I didn’t realise how many other people loved dinosaurs, and how many people played with them too! Also, the new chalkboard pendant drew a lot of awesome comments and a lot of disbelief that I chalked that bad boy myself, and I have proof!

I absolutely adore colour and warmth so the rest of the booth is designed really around everything that I love. This year, even more than last year, I wanted people to get a sense of what I Love Wednesdays is, how I work, and also a little bit of what I love with my love of cameras, typewriters and dinosaurs. I won’t lie, I was a bit worried about how whether everyone would like the dinosaurs, but who knew that so many people loved dinosaurs?! It was absolutely insanely wonderful pulling everything together with a huge thank you to everyone who helped, especially Justine Rose for putting together my lovely flowers at the last minute and helping out.

Thank you so much to everyone who stopped by, said hello and had a bit of fun. I don’t think I’d ever spoken quite so much in my life and it was wonderful to meet so many gorgeous couples. What I absolutely adored was hearing about so many wedding days and seeing how people were working towards making their day so personalised and meaningful. There’s nothing that I love more than seeing how people’s style, family & history all come together to make their wedding day such a reflection of themselves.

All I have left to say is thank you and enjoy.