Off to Blenheim

Well we are off to Blenheim at the top of the South Island tonight for a wedding on Saturday.
It's a 6 hour drive to Wellington & then on the ferry for 3 hours & about 1/2 hour to Blenheim from Picton.
Soooo exciting I've never been on the ferry before.
We are going to take pictures of the trip there & back so I can put them on the website & the blog.
We just hope the weather holds up ... they've had really bad flooding down there with road closures & all.
Still all the way down there it's just like a desitination wedding really... actually most of weddings are we get to go to all sorts of fabulous places :-)
So next post will be Tuesday probably ... I'll be downloading photos flat out on Monday.
Cheers,
Faith.

AFPNZ at Work

Some more pictures of us in action at a couple of different weddings.
In the first one Adrian is waiting for the Bride & the girls to arrive ..... & waiting & waiting.
When you shoot weddings you have to learn a lot of patience!!
In the second he is fitting the Groom with a wireless lapel mic to pick up the vows for the video. The lapel mic will catch the Bride & Groom & also the celebrant, without too much interference from the ambient noise of the guests.

After that we move on to Hamish with his Steadicam, the first picture he is catching the make-up artist working her magic on one of the Bridesmaids ... the pre-wedding pictures & video are always so cool as we see everyone being transformed.
The coolest thing is when the Groom sees the Bride for the first time ... as they are so un-prepared for the transformation that has taken place... Every one we have done a wedding for has been at their most beautiful & radiant on their wedding day.
In the second picture Hamish is getting shots of the guests greeting the B & G after the service.
This is always a great time to get candid pictures of the family & friends interacting. This is such an awesome job we get to meet the coolest people a lot of whom become family friends.
Cheers for Now,
Faith.

Action At Windy Wedding

Something a bit different today...
This is Adrian helping the Bride out of the car at the wedding we did a month ago in the worst storm for decades.
You can't see it all that well, but in the first 2 pics she has her veil ... in the last one it's gone!
It went so fast no-one noticed until she was in the church & then it was panic all round ... the only time that day that I thought she was going to lose it.
So Adrian went & chased the veil over 3 gardens to retreive it.
Her Mum got it back into place & every thing was fine again... crisis averted :-)
They were such a great couple considering the crap weather they were just so happy to be getting married that they didn't care about the rain on their parade.
You can see more of the photo shoot & a movie trailer of their day at
www.AFPNZ.com

Update

Hi All,

No pictures today... just an update on our busy schedule :-)

Went & checked out the NZIPP tradeshow, it was good to meet the man who makes our fabulous albums & see what the new Epson printers can do... we will have to make aome space for one of those babies ... the one we want is huge!

Next weekend we are off to Blenheim for a wedding ... so hoping that it is going to be fine.

With their high average sunshine days I'm optimistic about that... also we have had more rain than you can shake an umbrella at so the odds should be on our side :-0

We have weddings every weekend from now until the end of April so there will be plenty of pictures coming soon.

We have some awesome brides booked in so this season looks like it's going to be a lot of fun.

Also again this year we are going to places we have never heard of so there will be a broad cross section of NZ being represented right here.

As an aside if ACDC announces a world tour & comes to NZ .... PLEASE ,PLEASE do not book for that date unless you want to get married at the concert which would be cool:-)... as at least 2 of us want to go :-)

Cheers for now,

Faith.

NZ Winter

Further to our series of winter weddings....
We have had so much rain here in New Zealand this winter that the hydro dam that is about 3kms from our town opened it's sluice gates.
Now, this may not seem like a big deal but in the 37 years I lived in this area it has never happened before. Also the dam is the last one in a series on the river & they had all filled to overflowing.
It made the national news & when they were first opened there was talk of evacuating some homes that are in lowlying areas.
So.... I dragged Adrian out there in the cold & wet, then made him drive to 4 different locations (one a no-entry access road for the dam workers), then I frogmarched him down a hill through the mud where he lost a shoe ... until I was happy that I had photos no-one else would be prepared to get.
I was stoked ... he was happy but cold & wet & possibly questioning my sanity :-)
I think he's now wondering why he ever brought me a camera in the first place!!
Still a fun morning was had by all ... well some ... well maybe just me :-)
Cheers for now,
Faith

Winter Wedding 2

On a very we August Saturday we went to Auckland for this beautiful wedding.

We were very lucky to have a wonderfully outgoing & photogenic Bride... she was great & the Groom was the perfect foil.

Although the weather was dismal & we had to start the portrait shoot inside it cleared long enough to get out into Cornwall park & get some great pictures.

The photo to the left was taken with the thought that we may not get outdoors & I could photoshop it into a park setting... however we got outside & when I looked at this photo as I was editing it was such a great shot as it was.

They also had the cutest little flowergirls & pageboys who were very well behaved during the church service, but didn't go the distance at the reception.... it was a big day for 4 year olds!

All in all it was a great wedding & everyone had a good time ... the Bride told me the day after that as predicted she was the last one standing at the end of the night!

Winter Wedding 1

Well............ on the day of the worst storm in a decade for New Zealand these guys got married & even worse they had come out from England to do so!!

They had the service at a really cute old historic church near Te Aroha & the reception at Paeroa, both towns were the worst hit by the hurricane.

So all the Bridal photos were done in the church, before we braved the weather to drive to Paeroa.

On the way we had to avoid a big tree that was right across the road, the B & G who were behind us couldn't get past it & had to detour.

Once we finished at the reception we drove home to Cambridge...

A 40 min trip took us 2 hours as we had to wait for the fire service to clear powerlines across the main road ... at that point the wind was so fierce that we thought our van was going to blow over!! Even the fire truck that we were parked by was wobbling badly in the wind.

Then at Te Aroha more lines were broken & were sparking off the old steel bridge that we had to cross.

Despite all this we had a great day & got some great photos & footage which you can see at www.AFPNZ.com & best of all the happy couple were just so stoked to be getting married that they didn't even care about the atrocious weather. Except maybe when the Bride's veil blew away when she was struggling from her car to the church & Adrian had to chase it across 3 gardens to retrieve it.