Damien and Nicola got married in the Hawkesbury Valley, in the middle of the pandemic, after a venue change that landed on them with about six weeks' notice. I've shot a lot of weddings by now, and this one's still one I bring up when people ask for an example of a day that didn't go entirely to plan and turned out better for it. I sat down with them afterwards to get the actual story, not just the version that ends up in an album.

The gym, and the glasses situation

They met at the gym. Damien was the assistant manager there, Nicola trained most days, and at some point he waved at her from across the room like an idiot, apparently. She didn't have her glasses on, saw a strange man waving at her, and gave him a look that by his account was somewhere between confused and mildly offended. He kept talking to her anyway. It became a running joke for the rest of the story, actually, because the glasses thing comes up again at the proposal.

That happened up in the Blue Mountains, on one of the hottest days of the year, at a picnic Damien had arranged without telling Nicola he'd also arranged a photographer. Me. So while he was down on one knee working through what he wanted to say, I was crouched off to the side in the bushes with a long lens, trying very hard to look like part of the scenery. The heat and the wind were bad enough that the picnic styling company had to relocate the whole setup three times before they found somewhere safe. And Nicola, glasses-less as ever, walked straight past us on her way in without registering that two grown adults were hiding in a hedge.

Six weeks' notice

The plan had been the Gazebo at Crowne Plaza Hawkesbury Valley. Then, about six weeks out, the pandemic had other ideas, and Damien and Nicola had to find somewhere new fast. They landed on the Glasshouse at The Fiddler, and if anything it suited them better, plenty of greenery, string lights through the whole space, enough room that the reception felt more like an open garden party than a sit-down affair with assigned seats and a running order.

The ceremony

Nicola's family is Filipino, and they had a Filipino Catholic wedding, with three specific traditions built into the ceremony: a candle-lighting for the joining of both families, a coin blessing for their future together and the tying of the nuptial cord to represent their bond. I'd photographed elements of this before but never quite in this combination, and it's the kind of detail I'd rather get right than gloss over.

Who else was involved

I did the photography, obviously, and I'd known Damien for a few years before this booking came in, so it felt less like a job and more like being handed something I actually cared about getting right.

Nicola found her florist, Claremont Cottage Events, on Facebook, a small family operation working in handmade silk rather than fresh flowers. Partly a budget decision, mostly because silk holds up in Hawkesbury heat in a way real flowers just don't. More than one guest assumed they were real and said as much.

Hair and makeup was Alissa, from Alissasbakery. Nicola had actually met her years earlier, at her sister's wedding, and always planned on booking her for her own when the time came.

What went wrong, in a good way

Damien's mate Mitch tried some kind of dance floor move that ended with him sliding across the floor and taking a decent chunk of skin off his face in the process. The MC, understandably nervous, called Damien by his surname at one point instead of his first name. Neither of these things ruined anything. If anything, they're the parts of the night that still get brought up.

What they'd tell other couples

Stay true to what you actually want rather than what you think a wedding's supposed to look like. Marriage doesn't run on a clean 50/50 split; it's messier than that, more give and take on different days. Being upfront with each other counts for more than getting every detail right.

Damien says it's Nicola's steadiness he values most, that she shows up for him without being asked to. Nicola points to Damien's consistency, that what he says lines up with what he actually does, which apparently isn't as common as it should be.

The one photo

Out of an entire gallery, the photo they keep coming back to is a simple one. Damien, holding Nicola's face, just after their first kiss at the altar. There's nothing clever about the composition. It's just the two of them.

If you're planning a wedding of your own and want it documented like this one, without performing for the camera, get in touch and we'll have a chat.