The Elopement wedding that started with a missing finger. By Hawke's Bay wedding photographer, Eva Bradley

Telling stories has always been my ‘thing.’ It started at the beginning of my career when I was a TV and print journalist and naturally transitioned into telling stories with a camera. I think since I started being a Hawke’s Bay photographer in 2004, I’ve shot around 700-800 weddings, and heard SO MANY epic stories about how people met, fell in love and ended up getting hitched. But none were quite as good as Lisa and Phil’s, which started unromantically once upon a time when Phil chopped off his finger….

Apart from celebrant, Dennis Hall and his wife Victoria, I was the only other person to witness (literally and legally!) Phil and Lisa’s elopement in the Eskdale hills, just north of Napier. After being together for 14 years, the time wasn’t just right to get married, it was right NOW. And so with a week’s notice, I joined them to document a moment which had taken most of their lives to eventuate.

Phil was Lisa’s very first ‘boyfriend’ at the grand old age of 10. An accident that left him without a finger saw Phil given a trip to Disneyland, where he spent all his money buying little Lisa a golden locket at the gift shop. Despite going their seperate ways and having families and marriages as you do when you grow up, the couple rediscovered each other decades later. Lisa still had the locket.

Although I always feel a strong connection to a couple once I’ve photographed their wedding, an elopement has a special little x-factor for me. The responsibility to document the love story and show the joy of it when I am one of the only ones to witness it stays with me. There’s also so much chemistry and excitement between a couple when they are focused wholly on each other and not a large event with dozens of guests. I hardly needed to direct Lisa and Phil at all, they were digging each other so much.

As if getting to be their witness and wedding photographer wasn’t treat enough, Lisa and Phil generously allowed me to share their private day in this public way. A huge thanks to these lovebirds. What an inspiration! If a big wedding isn’t quite your thing and the idea of eloping in gorgeous Hawke’s Bay ticks the romantic boxes for you, get in touch and we can throw around some ides.