Shooting this family of four is always a challenge and I'm always up for a challenge!  They were at the studio recently for my world-famous-in-Christchurch minishoot sessions!


The boys are sooo handsome!














I love this crazy lot. x

Yes, these guys are delicious and mum Sheyna and dad Cam make the most ADORABLE babies!












 

You may recognise Lucy, well you may have seen her work on my page.  She's Lucy Harvey Makeup Artist! We get to work together a lot but this is the first time I've 'shot' her family!  Her and hubby Regan celebrated their wedding anniversary a few days' before so what better way to mark the date than with a lovely photo shoot at sunny Sumner Beach!  Except it wasn't so sunny!  It didn't stop the girls (Molly & Hazel) twirling and flying about though!


Love their tongues out!!!

 

I had these gorgeous people in the studio just before Christmas!  Such a lovely family and the kids are just tooooo cute!  I just LOVE how Molly and Archie interract with each other.  x

The holiday period is a great time to have family photos taken and I'm normally busy between Christmas and New Year with family portraits. It's a fantastic opportunity to get everyone together and make some memories! Because you never know when you'll see each other next.  Alana's in laws were staying with them over Christmas so she asked me to take a few snaps while they were all together.  :)

I met Alana a few years ago when our boys went to preschool together - but we only really knew each other to say hi.  We've recently re-connected through mutual friends and she is one lovely lady! She owns the fabulous Soho hair salon on Lincoln Road and is uber-talented (and just down right cool).  I really enjoyed our shoot, especially getting this lovely couple shot of her and hubby Marcus.  :)

First up, I thought we'd get the group photo out the way so everyone could relax and mill around... making fun of each other while the individual groups got their photos taken.  It was a scorching hot day and everyone was very patient while I grouped and then regrouped... and then grouped again.  Gotta get it right, right? I don't want a hovering head with no body. Even though "certain people" were trying to hide...


Marcus, his siblings and mum.  :)\


Alana & Marcus' boys are DELICIOUS! This is Lucas.


And this is Benji. Aren't they handsome!???


Awww love this one, guys!


Hehe.



 

Before Christmas, I'd been commissioned by Catherine to replicate her mum and dad's engagement photo, as they had just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.  How cool is this shot?  It was really fun trying to 'copy' it too!  (Obviously I didn't take the original image and I don't know the photographer to credit the photo).

Una & Neil at the engagement shoot (see, pre-wedding shoots were in fashion 50 years ago too!).


How cute are they? :)


This is Catherine and her daughter Olive, who has the most beautiful eyes!


This three-generation photo will be blown up onto a canvas. Can't wait to see it!

 

Bassam & Sarah are two souls that love fun.  Fun was the theme of their wedding (along with Love Actually and various Disney/Pixar tunes).  Naturally I had to shoot their wedding, because, after our first meeting, we could not stop talking about How to Train Your Dragon 2, and how Stoic's beard was awesome (more awesome than the first one)..... and how amazing the graphics were.  Oh yeah and speaking of amazing, their wedding day was amazing, awesome and FUN!!!



I started off the day with Sarah, her mum Sue and her nan at Peppers, Clearwater.  My friend Lucy Harvey was on hair and Selina Nunn on makeup. These two make a great team!


Sarah wore two dresses on her wedding day, on the left a traditional white gown but on the right - the party dress in lemon!  (Would you believe she made this dress? Such a clever girl.  She does admit she had some help but she's still very clever).


Squidgey!!!! (Not her real name).

First Sarah gets into the lemon dress for some photos....

And now for the wedding dress...


What a beauty!


I love these shots of Sarah, just collecting her thoughts before she sees Bassam.


Bassam was getting ready with the help of his brother, Gus and the wonderful Tegan Johnson (Tegan Johnson Photography) was shooting the boys.  Looked nice and relaxed over there!


Yes, you have to have your tongue out when doing this. 

I LOVE this shot of Bassam - nice one, Tegan!  Looking sharp, Mr Maghzal!


Then it was off to the ceremony where guests were waiting and chatting.  They chose to get married at the Cockayne Memorial Gardens (in the Botanic Gardens) and it was such an intimate little setting and the day was beautifully overcast.


Sarah and her mum and nan had to walk a little way from the carpark - so why wear your heels when you can wear perfectly good jandals?


So while the guests were making their way to Langdale Vineyard Restaurant, the newyweds and I made the most of our beautiful surroundings.


As I mentioned above, these two love to have fun.  And fun they did have!


Back at Langdales, Tegan was making some amazing ring shots! I couldn't decide which one to use, so I'm putting these all in the blog!


Sarah & Bassam MADE this cake!  And believe me, it was YUMMY!


Hieeeeeee!!!


Time for a quick tractor ride before dinner...



Bit of a Titanic moment....


The food (Lebanese) was ah-MAZING!


And then we popped outside for a quick backlit shot (we were denied a beautiful sunset so opted for this instead which I LOVE).


The speeches were short and sweet with plenty of laughs and LOTS of love.


Thanks so much for the opportunity to get to know you two over the past few months.  It was such a beautifully magical day and we had a blast, actually. xxx



VENDORS:
Celebrant: Andrew Deyell
Reception Venue and food: Lauren Carmichael and Gaby at Langdale Vineyard Restaurant.
Transport: Corporate Cabs
Ceremony venue: Botanic gardens (CCC).
Bride's dress x2: The Bride and Jeanette Sinclair at House of Chantilly
Mother of the groom dress: Jeanette Sinclair at House of Chantilly
Wedding rings: Julian Harding
Music: live saxophonists Claire Elliot and Perry
Photographs: Angela Penn supported by Tegan Johnson
Cake: Made by the groom
Dance lessons: Marcela Diacono.
Bride's hair: Lucy Harvey
Bride's make up and spray tan: Selina Nunn
Brides nails: e-nails
Brides hair piece: Lorraine at Grace & Lace
Flower girl hair piece: Bride
Ring pillow: Bride
Table runners: interior Flair
Wedding party accommodation: Peppers Clearwater
Flowers (bride and flower girl bouquet, button holes and corsages): Aromaunga Baxters Flowers - Bridle Path Road
Groom and best man tuxes: Ballantynes (Joe Black).
Bride shoes: Etsy
 

The beautiful Eastmure family let me hang out with them last Friday as they got festive! I'm loving their Christmas PJs - too cute!  Big sisters Natasha and Lilly simply ADORE their wee baby brother - this family has so much love, it's just so cute to see it in the kids who clearly love each other to bits.  Alena is not only a great hostess, she is the master of set design too and the tree and surrounding Christmas things were amazing! Down to the wee jars complete with fairly lights - gotta get me some of them!



The girls and I were discussing how cool it would be to have REAL LIVE fairies in these jars and what we would name them.  Lilly says she would call one Bendon.  "Brendon?" I ask?  "No, Bendon".


Dear lovely, lovely Eastmure family - I hope you have a wonderful Christmas. You guys are an absolute delight - thank you so much for letting me into your home and into your lives.  xxx

 

I met Claire & Willy at their friend's wedding earlier this year and I instantly like them.  Bring wee Fred into the mix and they make the perfect wee family! I LOVED shooting these guys. x

Look at this wee face!!!

It was the most gorgeous day on Saturday - I had a portrait shoot at home in the morning, the sun was shining, I got my washing out and I was really looking forward to meeting Jo & Mark that afternoon as we'd already had to put off their engagement shoot because of bad weather.  So when I turned up at the gardens, I saw the clouds, heard the thunder and went back to my car for the umbrella.  A little bit of rain was NOT going to put us off!

Meeting them both was fantastic but they I spied an extra pair of cute wee legs (sorry Mark, not yours) and they belonged to the beautiful Isabella, Jo and Mark's gorgeous wee girl.  What a bright spark - this kid has an awesome vocabulary and could probably (in the right situation, where the scary photographer lady wanted to 'borrow' your Dora backpack) talk the hind legs off anyone!  With a dad as lovely as Mark and a mum as beautiful as Jo, this kid is bound for great things.

So off for a trek around the gardens, trying to find some shelter - these raindrops were getting BIG!


So we set off for our walk...


And it wouldn't be a walk in the park (haha) without "one... two... THREE!".  I even think I see Mark getting in on the action!


I LOVE the way Isabella stares adoringly into her daddy's eyes.


With spring comes new life. Guess what they found by the pond?


"There she is!".  Says Isabella.


Look at meeee!


Gorgeous girl. x


Then it was time for some engagement photos of mum and dad.... not enough time though - it started pouring down so we called it a day.


What a gorgeous family.


Jo, Mark (Chris - haha) and Isabella - I'm so looking forward to your wedding and we don't have to wait too long - November is just around the corner!  xx

To check out Jo & Mark's beautiful wedding, click here!