A Christchurch Harbour Hotel & Spa Wedding

Alex & Phil had seen our work online and loved our style, but from our first meeting we knew they were right for us too. They had a vision for their wedding and even though it was in its early stages of planning I could see in my minds eye what it would look like and how we would shoot it.

Well fast forward to August and their wedding day was upon us. It was a bright and sunny morning when we knocked on the hotel door to see Alex’s beautiful happy face and from that moment we were on a whirlwind of photographic delight!

We have always loved shooting at the Christchurch Harbour Hotel, each time creating new work that shows its true potential. It is not an easy venue to shoot but like most things there are hidden delights that are breathtaking with the right composition.

Now add to this Alex & Phil’s flare for styling and fun and you have something very special indeed. Like us, these guys are not that interested in towing the line wedding wise, they had managed to get the hotel to allow them to have their wedding on the top deck outside. Circumvented the traditional legal Registrars and in doing so they had started a journey into new wedding territory having a hand tying ceremony by a celebrant who we love working with.

After a beautiful ceremony with personal promises made and shared, it was time to enjoy the love, the band, the bubbles and the canapés! We used this time to capture not only everyone having fun but also a whole raft of supporting images we need to create our work & to tell the story.

After a hand full of family group pictures we had a few mins free to shoot these two beautiful people before they sat down for their wedding breakfast.

These guys are adventurous and believe me we don’t need any encouragement to shoot something new, so we decided to ditch the traditional jetty and balanced our way along the waterline wall to shoot some simply breathtaking images and all in about 5 mins before the wedding breakfast.

Alex and Phil had insisted we sat at a table with all their guests which meant we stayed warm and ate on time and also made a whole set of new friends which was lovely. After speeches we whisked them off to the beach for some unforgettable images.

Their Story Book is going to be amazing, I can’t wait to see the first proof that Liz produces. But I know it will not compare to the joy Alex and Phil will get from it over the years.

Oh lord I have just babbled on for ages. Sorry!

Ok here are a small selection of the pictures from the day…