Sam and Michael are a lovely couple who created a gorgeous, shabby chic inspired wedding providing plenty of material for their professional photographs. Married in the Secret Garden in the Cottesloe Civic Centre and a Reception at the Ocean Beach Hotel, also in Cottesloe, Sam and Michael had a wonderful bright and fun filled day. There is so much that we have from this wedding, that I am actually going to cut up their day into different posts, covering different aspects of their day.
Sam, a former beautician, ended up doing all the make-up! Truly a unique situation but the results were amazing. Not only that but among her bridesmaids could also be found her hairdresser, Paige, who created some gorgeous romantic do’s. Casual and laid back the bridesmaids’ managed to keep the atmosphere calm and fun before the ceremony, providing plenty of bubbly and nosh. Even with having a gorgeous toddler, Alexi, to worry about, Sam was chilled and took the day in her stride. Wearing a gorgeous gown with the bridesmaid in nude coloured dresses, it was a stunning bridal party to say the least. A last minute addition of blue nail polish ensured the bride had something blue on, and Sam wore a necklace and earrings set that had been her mother’s on her wedding day, thus covering the something borrowed.
We knew from the moment we met her that Sam would be a gorgeous fun bride, stay stunned for following posts on the rest of her and her groom’s day!
Gorgeous Sam while her hair is being expertly teased
Alexi sleeping…shhhh
And some more
Pre-wedding photography sessions are always fun affairs. Usually we manage to schedule them right at the time when people are over the worst of the planning, so now there is just a kind of bubbly excitement for the impending wedding day. Such was the case with Melissa and Vincent. We have known this lovely couple for years and felt really privileged that they chose us to be their wedding photographers on their most special of days.
Keeping things casual we went to Whiteman park to do shoot the pre-wedding photographs and, after weeks of weather that seemed to forget it was meant to be getting warmer not colder, we finally managed to get a lovely (mostly) sunny day. Melissa and Vincent were so cute together and you can clearly see that they are very much in love with each other. After some initial concerns over what may be living in the dense undergrowth, we left the couple to do what comes naturally exploring the various regions and structures of Whiteman park. Vincent, ever the gentleman, ensured that his fiancé was kept safe from any real (or imagined) threats.
Playful and adorable, Filip and I had an absolute blast taking their photos and it was clear that their wedding day was going to be filled with beautiful and fun shots.
Torryn is another of our lovely brides whose wedding is featured in the Real Wedding section of Perth Bride. Torryn and Mark were married in the Rose and Crown Hotel, in the Swan Valley, Guildford WA. It was a fun and casual affair, but with a bridal couple as stunning as Torryn and Mark the photographs couldn’t help but turn out glamorous (their bridal party was pretty gorgeous too).
The professional bridal photographs are featured in Torryn’s magazine spread.
Perth Bride’s digital edition is free (!) on all platforms so why not check it out here. Not only is it free you can do the following as well:
- Search, bookmark and share pages via Email, Twitter, Facebook &, Google+
- Make and store notes on your advert with the desktop version
- Details of vendors (Like us 🙂 ) on mobile devices along with links to their website & email.
Click the pic to go directly to Cari and David’s Real Wedding in Perth Bride.
Details for Torryn and Mark’s Wedding:
Dress:Tuscany Bridal
Shoes: Georgie’s Bridal Shoes
Hair: Casey Walker
Jewellery: The Glitter Co
Bridesmaids’ Dresses: Villains
Suits: Ferrari Formal Wear
Venue: Rose and Crown Hotel
Stationery: Toro Creative
Flowers: Blossoms in Bloom
In my time as a wedding photographer I have come to the conclusion that makeup is king! I cannot emphasis how much difference great makeup makes to the photos. Wedding makeup is very different to the type of makeup you would do on a daily basis, because not only is it more glamourous (often involving false lashes, maybe a darker eye and other such fun extravagances) it also has to last and look good for a very long time. Considering most makeup is done in the morning, it can easily have to last 14 hours before the bride and groom retire for the night (or morning as the case may be!). That’s a tall ask, but a good make-up artist can definitely make it happen.
When selecting a makeup look most brides fit into three categories (although admittedly most of the categories overlap and intertwine)
- natural (kind of like Taylor Swift in the ‘Lovestory‘ video) and the brides below:
- vintage – clean, cat eye, not smokey just well defined, subtle cheeks and a red vampy lip or subtle nude/pink, Like the brides below:
- smokey and sultry – smokey eye with a natural lip and medium subtle cheeks.
Undoubtedly there are more, but these are the main types of makeup I see on brides, and of course, there are variations on each.
My advice is just choose a style that still makes you look like you and that you feel comfortable in. Remember there is a guy waiting to meet you at the ceremony, and while you should look stunning (and you will!), you should still look like the woman he fell in love with!
Its also good to remember that colours tend to wash out in photos (our eyes can see way more colours then the sensor in a camera), so your wedding photo makeup might be a little more intense then your usual (but, you shouldn’t look like a clown, just more done up). I always tell people that when your doing your makeup test, take a photo in decent light (maybe stand by a window to get some natural light, don’t do it in the bathroom where light is un-natural) to get an idea of what the makeup will actually look like in photos, you might be surprised. Some brides even manage to be such schedule mavens they organize their pre-wedding engagement shoot after their make-up test so they get a really good idea of what their wedding makeup will look like in photos.
Whatever look you go with, I have yet to meet a bride who didn’t look amazing, so take heart that the glow of the day will show in your face anyway, but some awesome makeup will just punctuate how truly beautiful you are!
Bye for now,
Karina
Tips and Links
- Red lips – If you go for red lip. the Mehru lip dye is amazing – it dyes your lip such an intense red! I have had (greasy) meals that would cause other long lasting lipstick to disappear yet the Mehru is still kicking along, completely kiss and grease proof. It also lacks that cakey feeling you get with long lasting lipsticks, because is a dye (so you might want to put some balm or gloss over it). Just stick with their reds, most other pinks come out purple in real life.
- Check out pinterest wedding makeup
- If your looking for some amazing perth makeup artists check out living dolls. Our lovely bride Alicia see below and in their gallery got the vintage look down.
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Sam and Michael had to travel all the way from Kalgoorie for their pre-wedding photography session which we did in Kings Park, Perth. Spring had finally arrived in Perth (it took a while to get here) and the day was bright and beautiful. Bringing their gorgeous daughter Alexis (Lexi) along, it was a fabulous opportunity for a fun and casual family shoot among the green bush. There was no problem getting great photographs of this couple, although I think anyone would find it hard to compete with the gorgeous Lexi, who took hold of the camera at one point taking some of her own shots! (We might have to watch out for her in the future 🙂
It was great pre-wedding photography session that could only indicating we would all have a great time on their wedding day.
Sam and Michael, Our lovely couple
Show stealing Lexi being adorable
Kissing!
The whole family cuddle!
Check out our lovely bride Cari and her wedding in the Real Wedding section of Perth Bride. Cari was married in the gorgeous Laurance Wines in Margaret River. It was a magical and fun occasion and we thoroughly enjoyed our time with her and her lovely beau, David. Our professional bridal photographs are featured in her magazine spread, and you can see our original blog post here for even more.
Perth Bride’s digital edition is free (!) on all platforms so why not check it out here. Not only is it free you can do the following as well:
- Search, bookmark and share pages via Email, Twitter, Facebook &, Google+
- Make and store notes on your advert with the desktop version
- Details of vendors (Like us 🙂 ) on mobile devices along with links to their website & email.
Click the pic to go directly to Cari and David’s Real Wedding in Perth Bride.
Details for Cari and David’s Wedding:
Dress: Dion for Brides
Decorations: Wez Enterprises
Venue: Laurance Wines
Flowers: Sweet Pea Designs
Cake: Kingdom Cupcakes
Limo: Twilight Limousines
Makeup: Temily Herring
Hair: Vonnie Fava
Shoes: Suna Shoes
A few months ago a lost wedding ring was found on the Great Barrier Reef. The story goes that a couple from Britain were honeymooning in Queensland and decided to take a scuba diving trip to Nemo’s home turf. Unfortunately the groom managed to lose his wedding ring and despite valiant efforts by others scuba divers to locate the lost treasure, the ring was nowhere to be found.
The couple returned home thinking it lost forever to the deep, probably to be mistaken by a fish as food ( shiny things look like food to fish, which is why many a fishing lure is made of grandma’s jewellery… Nah, just kidding, but many lures do look like they would make a rocking half of a pair of earrings).
Months later the groom received an email from the company he had dived with that said someone on one of their tours had located the ring and it was being mailed back to him!
Full story here
This story awoke not only the “awwww!” in me but reminded me that my own ring almost became lost just before i got married.
My mother told me that just as she was carrying the ring pillow to the church she noticed that only one ring was on the pillow and all that was left of the other ring was an untied ribbon. She tried calling me to see if it was at home but i had already left for the church ( no mobile phone on me either – I mean do you remember what mobile phones looked like in 2000, they were practically chiseled from limestone rock, no way was it going in my little drawstring clutch). Mum then went back to the car and, after some frantic searching, located the little gold band nestled in the crack between the passenger side chair and car body.
Moral of the story, double tie those little suckers or learn to tie better first knots!
During our time as wedding and bridal photographers, We take lots of professional photographs of various details and, of course, rings feature heavily, so here is a small selection of the shots we take.
The barrier reef story also made me curious to find out about other lost rings that made their way back to their owners. So here is a selection of stories of rings lost and found from around the interwebs.
- 7 stories of lost and found rings
- 7 stories of lost wedding rings with happy endings
- Wedding Ring Lost in Chicago, Found in Arkansas
In the spirit of helping yet another ring makes its way home here are is a link to a lost and found on gumtree, perhaps someone out there knows where this one is!
Bye for now!
Karina
Recently a couple whose wedding we covered last year, Hadassa and Jeremy, welcomed their first child into the world, an adorable little girl named Odelya. We were privileged to be asked to take some photographs of this beautiful young family and here are the results!
We went to the family home which provided a comfortable setting and the photos really shows just how casual and comfortable everyone was. Odelya was a brilliant little model (although with parents like Hadassa and Jeremy, how could she not be), and managed the entire shoot without crying. Even Patience the cat got in on the action, although, I get the feeling she felt this whole process was a bit below her, and she soon retreated to other areas of the house.
Patience modelling Odelya’s bow – i am not sure she thinks it suits her…
Odelya, by this stage, had decided she disapproved of Dad’s shirt and…ammm…ensured its removal.
Hadassa looks so gorgeous with her little bub!.
I dare you to find a cuter family. Hadassa and Jeremy clearly only have eyes for little Odelya.
We love shooting families in a natural setting of their choosing since they look most in their element there, with older families you can take them to the park, beach etc but with newborns that’s not usually an option, so shooting in the home seems like the natural choice -we even brought our own lights to deal with the difficult lighting conditions, and not blind everyone in the process. We stayed for over an hour with this family and it was time well spent, resulting in natural, beautiful photographs that can be treasured for many years to come.
Thank you so much Hadassa, Jermey, Odelya and Patience for letting us capture this precious time.
P.S. If you would like to hire Filip Welna Photography for some family portraits of your own, just contact us for our packages.
What our Couples say….
Thank you very much for being our wedding photographer. You and your beautiful wife have done an amazing job. From the onset of our first meeting we were very confident in that choosing you as our photographer that we had made the right decision. We applaud your work, from the way you conduct your business, the countless hours and effort you put in, right down to the fine detailed spectacular finished product. Please know that as well as monetary gain, you also have our copious appreciation.
We will recommend you to everyone we know, and probably even people we don’t.
Mark & Sarah