I love when minor mishaps happen on wedding days that just add to the fun and laughter, and stories to tell the grandchildren! Diane and Matt's day was totally beautiful - they looked incredible, the venue was totally gorgeous, the weather was perfect, and everyone there was fun and loveable!! There is nothing like some major flooding and road closures, and being announced as the wrong couple, to make your wedding memorable though... more on that later!
This time of year is so much fun - there are beautiful summer weddings galore, which means for us there are weddings every weekend! January is full of two-wedding-weekends too, which just puts me in an awesome wedding spin - my whole life, and mind, and energy, and time is consumed with lovely weddings... and it is AWESOME!!
Matt and Diane's Invercargill wedding on the 11th of January was very relaxed... wonderfully planned and so much fun...
This time of year is so much fun - there are beautiful summer weddings galore, which means for us there are weddings every weekend! January is full of two-wedding-weekends too, which just puts me in an awesome wedding spin - my whole life, and mind, and energy, and time is consumed with lovely weddings... and it is AWESOME!!
Matt and Diane's Invercargill wedding on the 11th of January was very relaxed... wonderfully planned and so much fun...
Diane and Matt's nieces and nephews made the CUTEST bunch of flowergirls and pageboys I have seen in a long time... everywhere you looked seemed to be a gorgeous little child dressed up to the nines!
The beautiful bride, putting on the finishing touches before getting into her dress!
Love the happiness and excitement!
Beautiful, beautiful bride.
The girls filled in time playing with lego, still keeping clean and happy!
And then all adoring eyes were on stunning Diane...
That's when the day got a bit interesting! I was heading out to Argyle Cottage for the ceremony (which is about 15minutes out of Invercargill), and came across a complete road closure. Southland had had crazy amounts of rain in the days prior, and a lot of the countryside was completely flooded.... there was definitely no way through! The road workers were working their way down a line of cars, making people turn around and head back. Keeping cool and calm, I explained to the man that I was heading to a wedding down this road... and it was kinda important that I got there!! He turned around to a wee line of cars waiting on the other side of the road (who were obviously other wedding guests), and yelled out... "it's ok, she's the photographer... just follow her!!!!". After some VERY vague instructions from the man, I followed my GPS closely and we took a big detour down lots of gravel roads... and thankfully came out just on the other side of the closure! We still had some pretty deep water to drive through, but it just added to the excitement... :)
We still all made it in pleeeenty of time... because of course all the guests were late too, and the bride and her girls were even later! I was relieved to have led the people following me to the right place... they just thought it was funny... "If we are going to be really late to a wedding... we may as well be late with the photographer!!"
Argyle Cottage Garden has to be one of the most stunning and different ceremony locations I have ever been to. Nestled amongst a huge property with a pond and gorgeous gardens, is an open air chapel, complete with wooden pews and perfect decorations.
Matt checking the state of his nerves before his bride enters...
...and getting last minute pep talks from his boys.... Matt is ready to get married!
Do I need to apologise that these wee kids may take over the blog?!?!
Throwing the petals was a little bit of a novelty I think!
Until she exclaimed loudly "Oh NO!!! My flowers!!", and proceeded to pick them up!
Love and laughter filled the air as Diane and Matt gave their lives to one another.
I love every aspect of this image.
Sealed with a kiss, and then the lovely celebrant enthusiastically pronounced them as "Mr aaaaand Mrs COX!!!!!!!". Brief moment of awkward silence, and then the crowd burst into laughter... ahem... that would be 'Mr & Mrs Byars' actually... don't think there were any Cox's there!
High fives all round!
And surrounded by excited little kids...
Because my website isn't coping with these big wedding blogs full of photos at the moment, follow me over to Part II of Diane and Matt... I promise there are a lot of gorgeous and lovey-dovey photos of them!