Jackie and Andrew’s elopement was never actually supposed to happen in Australia. When they first got in touch with me from Canada, the plan was to elope in New Zealand. Unfortunately, I couldn’t make their dates work, so I gave them two options: I could recommend someone else in New Zealand, or we could completely change the plan and I could help them put together an elopement somewhere incredible in Australia.
Thankfully, they chose option two. They were already planning to visit Australia on their honeymoon, and I figured if you’re travelling halfway around the world from Canada, why not do something completely different? Canada already has snow, mountains and dramatic landscapes. New Zealand would give them another version of that. Australia could give them beaches, cliffs, warm weather and an entirely different adventure.
So I suggested the Great Ocean Road.
A wedding, not a performance
We planned their ceremony around Loch Ard Gorge, with the coastline and Twelve Apostles becoming the backdrop for the rest of their adventure. And they weren't travelling alone. Their daughter Chloe, who was still tiny at the time, was coming too.
As a dad myself, this was one thing I really wanted Jackie and Andrew to know before the day. We weren't going to build an elopement around expecting a baby to follow a wedding timeline. If Chloe needed something, we'd stop. If she made noise, she made noise. We'd just go with it.
Which turned out to be rather appropriate. From memory, Chloe was pretty content throughout the ceremony. Then her parents started saying their vows and she decided that was her moment. She cried and babbled her way through them. You can even hear her in their wedding film. And Jackie and Andrew just laughed.
Years later, when I asked what made their elopement feel like them, Jackie answered, “Holding Chloe while we both said our vows!" That tells you pretty much everything.
Old Film and photos not taken by me
Earlier in the day, we'd wandered across to the beach while Jackie and Andrew were getting ready. I'd brought an old 35mm film camera with me loaded with Portra 400, but instead of photographing them with it, I handed it over. I wanted them to photograph each other.
They took photos of one another, photos of Chloe and created this little collection of imperfect, personal photographs from their own wedding day. Those images ended up becoming their own section of the finished gallery. I also brought some Super 8 film along and shot parts of their elopement on that, which we later incorporated into their wedding film. It gave the whole story this wonderfully nostalgic little layer that suited the day perfectly.
Random witnesses and vb
Because Jackie and Andrew had travelled without guests, we needed witnesses. So naturally, we recruited a random couple from the beach. Witness roulette. Problem solved. Andrew also wanted to embrace Australian culture properly, so he'd gone into a local bottle shop and asked the guy working there to recommend a really good Australian beer.
He was sold VB. When I arrived, Andrew proudly offered me what he'd been told was a premium Australian beer. I had to break the news to him that he'd perhaps been oversold on the word premium. His response was basically, “It does taste pretty crap, doesn't it?”
It did.
We drank one together anyway, sitting there overlooking the water on the Great Ocean Road.
go with the flow
The rest of the day was much the same. They played with Chloe. They danced on the beach. We chased beautiful light along the coast and somehow found ourselves taking photographs around the Twelve Apostles with virtually nobody else around. Afterwards, because we were all staying nearby in a tiny seaside town, Andrew and I went looking for something to eat. We eventually returned with about the least glamorous destination-wedding dinner imaginable: two-minute noodles and packets of chips.
And it was perfect.
When I recently asked Jackie what she'd tell someone planning an elopement like theirs now, her answer was simple, “Just go with the flow, and make sure the day is how you would like it, and not do it for others.” I couldn't come up with a better description of their elopement if I tried. There was no performance. No attempt to make everything perfect for somebody else. Their baby talked through their vows. Strangers became their witnesses. They photographed each other on an old film camera. We drank questionable Australian beer, danced on beaches and ate two-minute noodles afterwards.
And in the review Jackie left after they returned home, she wrote that I had started as their photographer and wedding planner but had “naturally become a friend.” She meant it, too. When they were later in Sydney, I caught up with them again and our daughters got to meet and have a play together. Three years later, when Jackie messaged me about their wedding again, she finished with, “We miss you and hope you are well!!!”
I think that might be my favourite review of all.
