Ben and Nat merged their Scottish and Kiwi heritage and ditched the traditions that didn’t suit for this relaxed Hawke’s Bay wedding at Hygge Clifton Bay. Photography by Hawke’s Bay wedding photographer based in Napier, Eva Bradley.

The pressure of planning what we’re all told will be the best day of our lives can all seem a bit much right at the start of the process, so I thought the way Mirize and Alistair elected three aspects that mattered most to them and focused their ideas and energy around them was a brilliant way to create a wedding with wow that was unique to them. The top billing thing for them was location. They wanted a place that was central for guests coming from across New Zealand and Australia and somewhere that was an awesome destination in its own right, not just for a wedding.

A styled shoot inspired by the golden age of the 'Belle Époch', an exciting era in history when women were breaking out of the man-made moulds that had bound them for so long to embrace a new freedom that was of their own making. We have seen this same theme in wedding stying in recent years and wanted to celebrate a modern bride's freedom to do as she pleases, her way...for her day.

Every wedding is special for me to shoot but when I already have a personal connection to the bride, the buzz and energy is just that little bit higher for me.

Sometimes the stars align and I find myself working with a couple who think and feel about weddings so much like I do that the buzz, for me, almost has echoes of being a bride all over again. I felt that way when I first met Christel and Dan and they told me that not only were they to be ‘Mr. & Mrs. Eva’, but that they were getting hitched at the same location as me and loved the style and feel from my own ceremony so much that they’d used a photo from it for their invitations.

Weddings are all about turning long-held dreams into reality, but for Neil and Jenny, their wedding turned to a nightmare before it even began. Having paid their venue in full, it went into receivership, taking with them thousands of dollars worth of hard-earned savings. It seemed like a saddest end to what should have been a fairytale story for this couple, until the Napier wedding industry pulled together to help give them the dream they had saved so hard for…

The first thing I ask a couple when they are considering working with us on their wedding day is ‘what elements are most important for you?’ This helps me understand who they are as a couple and how Andrew and I can work with them to create bespoke photography that reflects all their priorities. Every couple is different but the ones we enjoy working with the most talk about a sense of celebration and a focus on friends and family ahead of styling and colour schemes.

These days thanks to the beautiful but relatively new tradition of getting hitched in the great outdoors, we don’t get to document many church weddings. That made Natalia and Andy’s day a real treat for us, as there is a sense of ceremony, history and spiritual significance that comes from exchanging vows in a church. With a cathedral-length veil, morning suits and a long row of little attendants to lead the way, the ceremony almost had the feel of a royal wedding…and who doesn’t like a bit of that?!