Peonies on the invitation
Our day started at a family home, with Leah’s invitation tucked into a bouquet of coral peonies and garden roses, and her earrings and perfume laid out on a white sheet. Her lace gown hung in the window while her bridesmaid, still in a floral robe, held her phone up to the glass for a selfie. Window light did most of our work: we turned Leah side-on to the panes so the lace and her soft updo caught the glow. A loved one in a floral dress stood beside her for a portrait, then Leah and her bridesmaid lined up with their matching peony bouquets.
A first look on old flagstones
Then we drove to Montsalvat in Eltham for the first look. Daniel waited on the flagstone courtyard below the Great Hall’s tall leadlight windows, and Leah walked up to meet him, lifting her skirt off the stones. That arched window is a ready-made frame, so we stepped back and shot wide to keep the sandstone all around them. A few minutes later Daniel swept Leah up in his arms for a kiss while the bridesmaid and groomsman stood either side, four small figures against a great wall of stone and old glass.
Skylights, arches and pines
Every building at Montsalvat has its own mood, which is why we love it for portraits. Up in a dark attic room, one long skylight cut across the rafters, so we let the rest of the frame fall to black and kept Leah and Daniel in the slice of light. Inside the Great Hall, old oil portraits and leadlight glass sat behind the four of them. Outside, a round stone archway wrapped in roses framed the group again, a cobbled path under an old vine led us on, and in a grove of tall pines Leah’s veil lifted on the breeze.
Bubbles before the vows
Before the ceremony everyone regrouped at a family home for a breather. A loved one popped a bottle beside Leah in a sunny glass-walled room and the glasses went round. Leah’s dad, in a navy suit and purple floral tie, stood with her on the verandah, and then posed with the bridesmaid by the window. Daniel shared a laugh with a loved one in a grey suit too. We always suggest building a stop like this into the timeline: twenty unhurried minutes with family gives us some of the most relaxed faces of the whole day, and nobody arrives at the ceremony flustered.
A lawn above the valley
Out at Kangaroo Ground the ceremony was set on the lawn: rows of bentwood chairs, a wine barrel and a flower-topped timber arbour, with gum trees and the valley falling away behind. The flower girls waited in pink tulle with a petal basket. Leah’s dad walked her down a brick garden path and onto the grass, shook Daniel’s hand and handed her over, and the phones went up all along the rows. Kids sat cross-legged on the lawn at the front. We worked from low on the grass so the hills stayed in the frame behind the arbour.
Rings, a barrel and petals
Leah and Daniel swapped rings under the arbour, both grinning, while an older guest with a white rose corsage watched from the front row. The register went onto the wine barrel, with the bridesmaid signing as a witness, and then the petals came down as they walked back through their guests. Out on the grass the hugs and handshakes began. A loved one straightened Daniel’s buttonhole, and the two of them crouched beside the older guest’s chair for a photo of their own. Fondata 1872 wedding photos don’t need a lot of walking: everything happened within a few steps.
Cheers and golden light
We gathered everyone on the lawn for one big group, and the whole crowd threw their arms in the air. Family groups followed in front of the timber and glass wing of the restaurant, then a few with Leah’s dad. In summer the sun sits high until well into the evening, so we waited for it to drop behind the trees before the couple portraits. That paid off: soft warm light on the grass, Daniel kissing Leah beside the building, and the two of them walking hand in hand across the lawn with her bouquet swinging.
Long tables and red brick
Inside, a wooden wishes box glowed under fairy lights and printed menus waited on white linen. Dinner was served at long tables beneath shelves of wine and old red brick walls, and the room was loud with laughter from the first course. Speeches came from the window end of the room: a guest with a microphone first, then the best man on his feet beside the bridal table while Leah and her bridesmaid cracked up. Brick and candlelight make a warm room to photograph, so we kept the flash soft and let the walls glow.
Cake, dusk and the dance floor
The cake, white with peonies on top, sat on its own wine barrel against the brick, and Leah and Daniel cut it together. At dusk the flower girls raced each other across the lawn, guests drifted out to the picket fence to watch the light go over the hills, and someone danced down the gravel path beside the building. Back inside, a whitewashed brick room became the dance floor. Daniel dipped Leah, everyone piled in, and our last frame of the night was the two of them laughing together mid-dance.
