Kayla & Angus, Adams Peak Wedding, Hunter Valley

I knew pretty early on that Kayla and Angus were going to be good fun to photograph. About a year before their wedding, they decided that because they were getting married in the Hunter Valley, they wanted their engagement session to look completely different. So they booked a weekend in the Blue Mountains, staying at the Chalets at Blackheath.

We trekked up Hat Hill, then down into some valley (I wasn't sure where it would lead, but I had an idea, and they trusted me), then we went off to the Walls Lookout, for what was a great idea on the hike down to the lookout, but quickly became a terrible idea on the hike back up after sunset.

The three of us spent most of that climb whinging, laughing and questioning our life choices. But it told me quite a lot about them. In fact the entire session gave me heaps of useful information. They trusted me when I suggested doing something slightly stupid for a photograph, and even when things weren't going perfectly, they were generally pretty happy to laugh about it. As it turns out, that was excellent preparation for their wedding.

A very wet Adams Peak Wedding

Kayla and Angus got married at Adams Peak Country Estate in the Hunter Valley, and the weather was pretty rough. They'd planned to marry outside, overlooking the mountains, but this wasn't a case of a little drizzle that might disappear before the ceremony. There was proper rain when I arrived, and the radar suggested it had no intentions of going anywhere anytime soon. And with By Jasmine Floristry creating one of the biggest floral installations I've ever seen at a wedding (more about that later), a decision had to be made early enough to move everything into the wet-weather ceremony space.

Kayla called it. Move it inside. No meltdown. No wedding-is-ruined moment. The ceremony would be under cover and that was that.

Angus, meanwhile, spent most of the morning looking like a kid waiting for Christmas. He was joking around while getting ready, drinking some very nice Scotch with the guys, and generally grinning from ear to ear. Honestly, it was refreshing, a Groom so genuinely excited to marry the girl of his dreams.

Kayla had a much quieter moment with her dad before leaving, including a first look and one of my favourite photographs of the morning, with him just squeezing her as tightly as he could (as a Dad myself I feel those moments so intensely...yes I teared up too). By the time Kayla walked down the aisle, Angus's attempts at keeping himself together were completely useless. He cried, tried to stop himself crying, seemed mildly annoyed that he was crying, and then cried some more. What an absolute legend. I say this as both a photographer, and now a friend, but this man wear this heart on his sleeve, and it is a big heart.

Their celebrant, Monty King, did a brilliant job of keeping the ceremony funny while still giving the actual commitment the weight it deserved. I contributed by attempting to quietly move behind their floral arbour during the vows and absolutely smashing my head into it. It made an enormous noise. Thankfully, instead of murdering their photographer for interrupting their vows, Kayla and Angus cracked up. So did everyone else. Actually, so did I, after the ringing in my ears faded out.

That was pretty much their wedding in a nutshell.

Mud, canopes & flowers

After the ceremony, the rain eased enough to get everyone outside before Kayla and Angus got to see their reception for the first time. And this thing was ridiculous. By Jasmine Floristry had covered the ceiling at Adams Peak in hanging greenery and florals. It remains one of the biggest floral installations I've photographed. Before anybody else entered the room, Kayla and Angus got to walk in together and see the finished space for the first time. They later told me that reveal was one of the moments they remembered most from the wedding.

For their portraits, they deliberately left the bridal party behind and went out together. I know, the norm is to race off and do wedding party photos, but that was never the plan. After spending the morning getting ready separately, it gave them a chance to walk through the muddy fields, break down what they actually just did, and grab a bite, courtesy of Karyn delivering food and drinks to the Secret Tree (just FYI, in terms of venue coordinators/owners, Karyn is about as good as it gets).

We wandered around Adams Peak, got the dress wet and muddy, headed down towards the dam, patted some Highland cows and kept going until the rain eventually decided we'd had enough. Kayla and Angus described that time afterwards as the “perfect reset” before rejoining the wedding.

Party in the rain

Their reception was exactly what I'd expected by that point. Funny and heartfelt speeches, Kayla and Angus sitting together at their own table, a properly choreographed first dance ending with Angus picking her up and spinning her around, and eventually a very full dancefloor. But there was one more photograph I wanted to try.

It was raining again outside, so I took them out to my car, turned the headlights on and asked them to dance in front of it. The idea was that the headlights would catch the rain behind them while Kayla and Angus became silhouettes in front of it. Basically, a sky full of diamonds.

Of course they said yes. And after an entire day of adapting to the weather, some of their favourite photographs ended up being the two of them dancing in the rain, illuminated by a pair of car headlights. Kayla and Angus later said the weather was the one thing they couldn't control and their advice to other couples would simply be not to worry about it.

I think their wedding is a pretty good argument for that. You can plan the wedding. You can choose an incredible venue, spend a fortune covering the ceiling in flowers and organise every detail months in advance. But sometimes it's going to rain. You may as well dance in it.