I first met Jo back in 2008 on my second ever solo wedding as Mirror Imaging Photography. She did the bride’s makeup beautifully as I remember, we connected on Facebook afterwards and liked each other’s photos as the years went by. And then last year she got in touch to say she’d met the love of her life and she would like me to photograph her wedding. It always has extra meaning when I know the bride and, as she described her ideas for the day, it sounded perfect. Jo and Mark’s wedding was a small, intimate black-tie affair with their nearest and dearest, held at Amalfi White Bar & Restaurant in the pretty town of Melbourne. Jo’s friend Jackie at 14B Florists provided the flowers featuring peonies and roses in shades of blush, peach and cream. The drinks reception and speeches were held in the garden as they were blessed with a fine day and blue skies, with accompanying acoustic guitar by Matt James. 

Susan and I were only there for a few short hours but managed to capture a whole lot of photographs in that time. One of my favourite images is of Joanna and her son William, who walked her down the aisle, as they enter the ceremony room. Something about the sparkle of the epic chandeliers, the awaiting faces of their guests, the swish of Jo’s dress and the proud look sideways that William gave his mum that gives the photo such emotion and warmth.

Another favourite is the image at the end of this blog post. When team Mirror Imaging went to scout out the venue ahead of the wedding, it was the dark bar area with feature mirrors and hanging lights that reminded me of the style of my favourite artist Jack Vettriano (and indeed a little further along the bar they had a print of his on the wall). I wanted to create something art-deco-fabulous, reminiscent of a Vettriano painting – and Joanna’s stunning, ornate beaded Sottero & Midgley dress certainly lived up to this vision.