We are pretty amped about shooting Sasha and Jared's wedding on the 17th December! We've only taken on a handful of weddings this season so that we can focus on our little family and also do more portrait work... SO the weddings we are doing are super special! These two are honestly so chilled out about the whole wedding thing. It's going to be an amazing day, fueled by a whole lotta love and the support of their friends and family from all over the world! Can't wait to see this gorgeous couple become husband and wife! xx

Lots of good things come from eating cake... and the birth of Through Your Eyes workshops was one of them! Justine (from Justine Weatherall Photography) and I were yarning over cake and hot chocs at an NZIPP catch up earlier this year and almost spluttered our drinks over each other we realised we had both begun separately planning a workshop specifically for Mums. The more we chatted, the more we knew that if we joined forces, we could create something pretty epic! By joining our different strengths and our different styles with our same passion and desire to share from our hearts with other mothers, we were able to design a workshop based around capturing the absolute chaos, joy, craziness and beauty of family life! We really wanted to open people's eyes to see more moments that are worth capturing in their day to day lives, and to equip mothers with some basic key photography skills to make a big difference to their family photos.

Aside from covering my childhood bedroom walls in snapshots of my friends and family (and posters of Hanson and the Backstreet Boys... cringe...), my love for photography started out pretty typically as it does for most keen beans... with countless landscapes and macro shots of just about every flower under the sun. But when I began to learn how to photograph people in ways that were actually purposeful, photography took on a whooole new meaning!

Just as a little bit of fun we let Eli loose on a wee 1st birthday cake especially for him (you know... the dairy-free, egg-free, and therefore probably taste-free kind that you are too scared to serve up to guests as the ACTUAL birthday cake). This was a surprisingly flippin' DELICIOUS cake though (thank you Chelsea Winter)... Liam and I maaay have totally polished off what was left.

'Twas a bit of a giggle... he spent the first 5 minutes just walking around the cake playing with the balloons. It definitely wasn't the 'smoosh your face in it and eat your heart out just 'cos you can' kinda party... I don't think he knew that the sticky blue thing was actually food and proceeded pretty cautiously with each tiny bite! But we had fun watching him play with the textures and get his first wee taste of the joy of sugar ;)

Visiting your friends to meet their brand new baby is such a surreal and amazing feeling! Liam, Eli and I first went to meet beeeautiful little baby Frank when he was about 3 weeks old, and I was lucky enough to be able to take photos of this gorgeous trio.

I'm pretty excited about this for lots of reasons... a new little bundle of joy has arrived into our big extended-family-of-friends (Eli has an automatic new friend too = win!), and Becca and Joe are nailing this parenting thing! Even in those first few crazy weeks, their house was so calm and relaxed. Frankie is seriously one of the most beautiful little newborns I've met, and they have done suuuuch a fantastic job of setting up the most gorgeous little nursery for him... it was super fun to photograph in. You might even recognise Becca and Joe from their wedding photos... it's so exciting and such a privilege to capture the journey as they transition to life as 3.

Handsome little Ambrose came to visit me in the studio when he was 8 days new! It's such a privilege that through one of the craziest times of their lives, new parents bring their tiny little poppets to me to photograph. I adore babies, and I also adore capturing this time for new families as they get to know one another. The depth of love that I see in every new parent continues to blow my mind, and the pride that explodes out of them for in their newest creation is so beautiful. 

Ainslie and Clayton, you have such an adorable little boy and he is so fortunate to have you both as parents! xoxo

In February, at the very last minute (like the night entries closed!), I threw a bunch of images into an international photo competition by Shoot & Share... purely for fun! This is a MASSIVE competition... there were 225,000+ entries over 25 categories... from photographers from 149 different countries around the globe!!! 225,000! That's a lot of photos! I had ZERO expectations... it's just more entertaining to be a bit invested in something like this rather than to just watch from afar.
So then 10 rounds of voting happened... with tens of thousands of photos eliminated after each round. And each time, I was beyond surprised to see some of my photos survive the elimination and pop up in the new round! I feel a bit weird sharing successes sometimes... but these are also successes for our awesome clients, so I'm excited to let you know that FIVE of my photos were finalists in their categories!! And one even made it to 8th place!! Crazy? Yes. Totally unexpected? Yes.

So give a massive high-5 to our awesome bride, Nicky, and her hilarious Grandad, for this shot that got 8th PLACE in the 'Just the Guests' category!!
Photographing the guests at the end of the ceremony is one of my favourite moments on a wedding day... people are throwing happiness around like confetti and emotions are bubbling over, and we get to sneakily capture it!

Hooooow do I even begin putting this wedding into words?! Hayley and Andy make one gorgeous couple to look at... but the best bit is, they are just as beautiful on the inside. Glamorous, hilarious, down-to-earth, full of life... these two have hearts of gold and their wedding was just an extension of the fun, love and laughter that they are full of!

Their ceremony was held at 'The Poplars'.... the STUNNING private property where Hayley's beloved Nana was raised. Woodside Manor is an absolutely beautiful home built in 1866, nestled under the Maungatuas on the Taieri Plains. This place... wow. I seriously nearly cried when I first went to see it... I felt like I had been transported back in time to some far away place. It was SO special for Hayley to have a part of her Nana's heritage playing such a big role on her wedding day... and such an amazing venue for their guests to explore. 

These two and their hilarious bridal party made the day so much fun... this was the perfect ending to our wedding season! So many laughs and SO much beauty.