verandah bar wedding

chloe and stephen

Drag queens, dragonfruit, dogs, disco balls and debauchery.

This was about as good as it gets. Raucously fun. Stupidly beautiful. Not afraid to play with convention. Pre-ceremony rooftop wines to settle the nerves and bask in all the glory. Literally most of my favourite vendors. A crowd that was emotionally engaged but also roaring for a party.

All of that would mean nothing if it didn’t have a buttload of heart. But it really, really did.

These two were basically kids when they met. Early twenties / late teens, a night out that ended up back at her hotel room, talking til 4 AM, and him putting a fresh coat of paint on her nails. This is not a euphemism. That was all that happened.

They were just mates for a while before she finally admitted how she felt, barely a couple of months before she was due to leave for London. He wanted to follow but Chloe put the brakes on, claiming she wanted to experience London solo, and it was all too soon and too young. It took another few months for her to realise she missed him so she called him. He was a bit drunk. He didn’t think twice and immediately bought a one way ticket.

And that was that. No more overthinking. No more stalling. Still mates, but also more.

This to me is actually what they seem like. Best mates that happen to love one another. The morning of, while getting ready in adjoining rooms, Stephen sent her a text outlining how much he loved her and how excited he was etc, she laughingly texted back f**k you for making me cry so much. An hour or so later, her nerves hitting full flight, she happened to hear him laugh from the balcony and it calmed her all the way down. And then it was on.

The talented list of legends that helped pull it all together

Planning - Your Day By Chloe

Celebrant - Married By Allegra
Cinematography - More Life Films
Co-ordination - Jordan Weaver Events
Venue - Verandah Bar
Florist and Styling - The Wilds
Drag Queens - Sydney Drag Royalty
Video Interviews - Wedding Chats
Hair - Deelush Hair
Make Up - Veronika Moire Hair and Make Up
Pet Minding - Wedding Paws
Dress - Leto Bridal
Suit - Belance World
Signage and design - Blossie

Enjoy

Dane

 

INSTAGRAM @THESALTYSHUTTER

View fullsize Don’t be afraid to break the rules, but don’t feel compelled to either. How moving and beautiful a wedding is has little to do with the exact when and where, the style that it presents or the vibe it tries to capture and everything to d
View fullsize Love isn’t always a straight line. Sometimes it curves and bends and flexes and doubles back on itself. Sometimes it’s thick and unwavering and easy to nurture. It might, for a season, become faint and thin and hard to believe in even wh
View fullsize The first time they went on a date, Josh bought an overnight bag. Such was his confidence (and the level of his crush). My favourite part of this day was when, fooling around walking around the city after a quick little cocktail stop just for the t
View fullsize Your wedding is (…or should be) a direct representation of your values. What do you want this day to say about who you are as a couple? About the things you think are important? Do you bond over and find joy in fine food or are you happiest b
View fullsize It may sound trite, but the biggest joy of this job is the people. This intimate access you get to peoples lives for a day seems to shortcut intimacy in a way. You see people at their best, and witness these intimate moments and exchanges and sides
View fullsize I’m approaching my 300th wedding. This job has changed me.  I stumbled into this career by accident - an old work colleague had seen my photos of the beach and travels (…scroll down far enough on my IG and you can see the incredibl
View fullsize This is what it feels like. A tiny little wedding on a rooftop close to home.
View fullsize Baz Lurhmann eat your heart out. The brief was Romeo + Juliet with a bit of frivolity thrown into the mix. Capria & Dylan. A bit of cinema. A lot of heart.
View fullsize I want nothing less than to capture your very soul. I want people who have never met you to be able to look through a set of images and feel like they 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 you. Like they can see what makes you and your relationship tick. What your family is lik
View fullsize This first image, to me, represents everything I loved about this day. Community. Tradition. The mixture of love and overwhelm and romance and friendship and familiarity and strangeness and connection and kindness and energy and quietness and chaos t
View fullsize Last Saturday I attended a funeral in the morning and shot a wedding in the afternoon. Two of the last remaining rituals we have in our increasingly secular world. In some ways at polar opposite ends of the spectrum. But both also, in some ways, abou
View fullsize Friends. Change is coming. 2022 was wild. It was the year of the grind. It was the year of leaps and bounds and regressions and dizzying highs and colossal lows, both personal and professional. It was, more than anything, a big fat lesson. I shot
View fullsize Vulnerability is powerful. Ally & Joey dated briefly in their youth but, well, youth got in the way - as it often does. Lifetimes passed (..well, 7 or 8 years). Entire careers started and ended. Love was chased and hinted at but ultimately never
View fullsize This was about as aggressively joyful as they come. From the moment Ant and his mates sauntered in a flying v might ducks style down the aisle to the soaring refrains of Gang of Youth’s The Heart is a Muscle - a foot stomping, fist pumping ode
View fullsize Some tales are almost too good to be true. Boy spies girl across the way while they are both on placement in a faraway country - half a world from each of their homelands - and thinks she’s a bit of alright. One day she plonks herself down nex
View fullsize Nostalgia, super. A collection of (largely) intentionally imperfect frames from Jo and Doug’s raucous affair last week, cause I think sometimes nostalgia hits harder when things are a bit blurry - just like the memories swirling around in you
Cart (0)