Beach wedding, brides, wedding dresses, love is love, same sex wedding, Nelson photographer, wedding photographer Nelson

A beautiful Waipatiki Beach wedding


Ahhhh, to be able to go back to this wonderful day... Oh, hold on, that's the awesome thing about photographs!


Jewels and Rach contacted me early in the planning of their Valentine's Day wedding, to be held at Waipatiki Beach, in Hawkes Bay. It was a Sunday and with a wedding the prior day at Akitio, down the coast, I thought, oh my gosh, yes, what a fun weekend! While I am now primarily a Nelson wedding photographer, I do travel to get to my wonderful clients (who are probably cat lovers, just sayin'.)


Right from their first email, I could tell that Jewels and Rach were an amazing couple and that I would adore them and boy, when I met them, I felt immediately like I'd known them forever. My trusty sidekick, Hayley from Lightbook Photo, fell just as much in love with them as I did and we set about documenting their soulful and heartfelt wedding day. 

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These two fab souls wanted images that captured the joy and emotion of their magical day, quirky images, fun images. To be honest, catching these two having fun and being joyful was a breeze because THIS love means that they both glow when they look at each other,

o m g, it was just gorgeous.

You could never accuse these two of being boring, and their timeline was so very well tailored to them, with a first look, an adventurous pre-ceremony beach + forest + family photo session followed by their stunning ceremony and on to an epic reception/party/celebration at Waipatiki Beach Holiday Park in an incredibly beautiful marquee.


I just have to say at this point, that Jewels and Rach found the most amazing jungle spot for their ceremony, I felt like I'd walked into another world. It was a moment in which two families with awesome and funny kids, Jakob and Shani, merged, and gosh, it was breathtaking and YOU ALREADY KNOW THAT I CRIED SO HARD.


Jewels and Rach's wedding day was so gorgeous, so stunning. These two forever have a space in my heart... And do you know what? I messaged them to check in on them recently and they sent me kitten and puppy pics and that just melts my heart because they clearly really know me 🥰

Theeese epic vendors...


Hair & Makeup by Lee-Ann

Caterers- Mitzi & Twinn https://mitziandtwinn.co.nz/

Define Event Hire defineeventhire.co.nz

Waipatiki Beach Holiday Park https://www.waipatikibeach.co.nz/

Celebrant - Cushla Whalen cushla.whalen@hotmail.com

MC - Joy Whiteman

Florist - Ann-Charlotte Strong

Photographers - Lula from Velvet Moon Photography www.velvetmoon.co.nz and my trusty second shooter, Hayley from www.lightbookphoto.com


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Same sex weddings, LGBTQIA+ weddings and inclusivity


Oh, how I have tossed and turned over how to phrase this or whether to even explicitly state this on my website. I am proud to support all my beautiful couples and believe that love is love and I will be there cheering you both on with love in my heart. 'Same sex weddings' are known to me personally as 'weddings', but hey, I know this world is a little more complicated than that. I'm a LGBTQIA+ friendly photographer and trans friendly photographer and would be so honoured to document your precious wedding day.


Why am I saying this? Because I don't want my LGBTQIA+ couples to have to ask, I want you to just know. Why do you need to know? Because I understand not everyone is quite so... I want to say normal and happy for you, and damn, I know you want a team that is genuinely stoked about your love and your marriage. ❤️🌈


Click through here to see my full Inclusion + Treasuring Diversity page x