I was absolutely delighted when I received an email from Australian couple Scott and Lindsay in May 2013, filling me in on their romantic plans to sail to New Zealand on a luxury cruise, stopping in at the world's beautiful Art Deco capital, Napier, to tie the knot.

I first met Nicci when I was shooting her brother-in-law's wedding just over at year ago at The Old Church near Napier. I remember thinking at the time, 'now THAT is going to be one hot little bride'. When I arrived in the middle of Suzanne Hardy's hair-and-makeup love-fest (at the aptly named cottage 'The Love Shack', just outside Havelock North), I was already fizzing with excitement.

I have known Ceilidh since she was knee-high-to-a-grasshopper, so it was especially cool when she showed up at my studio about a year ago with a dashing young Brit on her arms, and a beautiful sparkling ring on her finger.I started my day with the boys at their wedding venue, Millar Road, which sits atop a vineyard, high on the Tukituki hills looking back to the distant sweep of Hawkes Bay coastline.

My driving goal for any wedding is to create images that will remind my couples in years to come not just how they looked on their wedding day, but how they felt. Laughter, tears and all the emotions in between are the moments my camera and I hunt for. Sometimes that can be a challenge, but with Kim and Steve Marples it was a bit of an understatement to say capturing emotion was easy

A year ago, an excited bride-to-be contacted me about a Central Hawke's Bay wedding. There would be a farm that had been in the family for generations...an ancient swing bridge spanning a gully filled with native trees and a woodland dell where lilies grew head high and light motes played in the shade like Tinkerbell.

It's not often a sneaky little tear escapes me at a wedding. After being part of more than 500 of them, love seems like a fairly common currency (what a great world I live in!). But sometimes, something just gets ya. At Israel and Sharon's wedding, just about everything got me.

The first of the winter weddings is always a treat for me. The bright colours of summer have been stripped back to reveal the delicious warm hues of the empty vines, which beautifully mirrored the tones inside the Old Church Villa, where Sarah and her bridesmaids got ready.