A week before Christmas I had the pleasure of photographing Jane and Joe’s wedding down on the shores of Lake Macquarie. They met while Jane was travelling over in the UK, and somehow Joe was pretty keen to follow her back to Australia.

Here’s a little preview of some photos that jumped out at me.

• Ceremony and reception: Awaba House, Lake Macquarie
• Celebrant: the amazing Kez from Wed By Kez (check out the brand-new website)

ps. Rachael, one of the bridesmaids, is the world karate champion. I took extra care to make sure Jane was happy… can’t imagine why.

After a few photos on the shore we headed up to party on, where there was more beer and bubbly. Anna & Andrew, you sure know how to party!

Can you tell these guys might like a spot or two of fishing? (Check out that cake!)

Kylie and Dean got married this last Saturday at St Peter’s at East Maitland. Such a gorgeous church (in fact Giuls and I considered it for our wedding), and Kylie only made Dean a little bit nervous in her ‘fashionably’ lateness. She rocked it in the stunning dress you’ll see below, and there was just a comparison or two to some well-known movie stars.

We had some photos inside the church out of the wind, and then headed over to the old train station at East Maitland, and then into Newcastle. Once we arrived into town and headed for the baths, it was just a little surprising to see enormous waves crashing right over the top and overflowing, but it made for quite enjoyable watching (and worrying about a few photographers set up out in the middle of it).

Then it was just over the road to Noah’s, where there was plenty of time for the girls to warm their feet up again before party time! I’m not quite sure I understood the panda, but there you have it.

Hope you enjoy the photos, and we wish you, Kylie and Dean, a great honeymoon.

The ceremony was held at the cute little Lovedale Chapel and after going for a little drive in the countryside for some photos, we ended up at the Sebel Kirkton Park in time for an exquisite sunset before heading in for the reception.

Hope you enjoy the photos.

I feel I’m allowed to describe day as epic, with a road-trip all the way across Sydney (yes, I’m from Newcastle, so I can call travelling the width of Sydney a road trip , starting with the guys and girls getting ready in the Blue Mountains, then to the lovely Hillsong Chapel in Baulkham Hills and then across to the stunning Manly Golf Club for the reception.

Sarah and Richard have a long love story together, and even though Richard’s advances were rejected in primary school (and then chocolate was required to get through the speeches) they did end up together! Congratulations guys, it was a fantastic day and I hope your married life together is amazing.

It was such a pleasure to be able to photograph a couple who were absolutely smitten with each other – it was the longest I’ve seen any couple take for their first dance, I think they didn’t pull apart until after FOUR songs.

Hope you enjoy these few teaser photos… there’ll be more to come later…

Sunset at the Hunter Valley Sebel

Alone in the vines

A quiet moment…

The day was held at a property that used to belong to Lisa’s grandparents. Not that far from Newcastle, but another world away, and surrounded by the bush on all sides. Such was the serenity, we almost didn’t notice the leeches. A bit of jumping up and down, and sending groomsmen running for the Aeroguard, and all was well.

And tell me, how many couples spend their wedding night in a tent? …

Back to Newcastle for the second wedding of the year, and what a fantastic day for it.

I’ve really been enjoying spending just a little bit more time with the guys and girls while they’re getting prepared for the big day. Tegan and Luke were super ready for this, and I really enjoy getting to share a little bit in the emotion of the day.

Both their places were out at Maitland, but from there we headed into the Star of the Sea at The Hill for the ceremony. Then onto King Edward Park for some family and location photos, and finishing up at Newcastle Baths. Everything was nice and close, and we just had to duck across the road to Jonah’s on the Beach for the reception.

I couldn’t keep this preview down to a small number of photos, so click on through to see a ton of photos that highlight their day.

At Living Light Photography, we’re really proud of our wedding albums, and our favourite by far is what we call our ‘Matted Art Album’. Our supplier for these is Queensberry in New Zealand, who without a doubt make some of the best albums in the world (this one is a Queensberry Duo), and we thought it was time to share one with you. So here’s some photos of Maree and Adam’s album, which they received today and are enjoying looking through.

The box for this album alone feels like a work of art, and then it opens up to reveal the album inside a velvet drawstring bag. Our favourite cover is a leather that is just so soft you want to wrap yourself up in it, and you can see it in the ‘onyx’ colour below… although as a guy, I normally just call it black. Then it opens up to the names on a vellum parchment page, before jumping right in to the story of the wedding.

This particular album style blends the timeless matted wedding album with a few modern twists; such as the photos being set in slightly from the edge of the matt to give an elegant framed look, and the ability to have photos run right to the edge of the page. This coupled with Giuliana’s elegant designs, means that this is an album that isn’t just for you, but rather also for your children and your grandchildren down through the years.

Right down in the last few photos, you can see a 7 inch mini album. This is an exact copy in digital pages (no matts) of the whole album, and is just perfect for parent albums. There’s also the option for a slightly smaller 5 inch mini album, which is the perfect size for a handbag.

We hope the photos below show you just how gorgeous this albums is. If you’d like to see the whole design, pop on over to our Facebook page where we’ve uploaded all the layouts in this album: Facebook – Maree and Adam’s Wedding Album.

UPDATE (Fri, 3 Dec 2010):

Queensberry got in touch with us and said they thought this album was hot enough to feature on their I own a Queensberry page on Facebook. Tremendous compliment. (But to be honest, we knew they were going to and we asked them to hold off until Adam and Maree got their album.)

Given that I have a ton of weddings to blog, I hereby dub today ‘Wedding Wednesday’, and we’ll see how many weeks I can keep it up for.

Now that we’ve just tipped over into summer (although you wouldn’t know it at the moment), here’s Julia and Joel’s wedding from the very end of winter.

We kicked off the day at The Art House in Newcastle East, where Julia and her family were getting ready. The ceremony was held at St Columba’s Church at Adamstown. From there, we had photos in at good old Newcastle Baths, but this time there was a bit of difference; it was the one week of the year that they empty them out to clean them. So the lads and I hopped down into the sand and we got a little different perspective.

From there, it was up the hill to Fort Scratchley, where we had a little walking tour of the grounds for our photos. It’s a spectacular spot with so much variety. Then the reception was just across the bridge back in the hall. We did duck out briefly during the reception to try something new; a long exposure night shot with Jules and Joel in it. I was really happy with them, but they have to be seen BIG to see all the stars and the moon.

Since they’ve had their photos for quite a long time now and we don’t yet have up a section on the website for this, I have this testimonial from them to share with you:

Josh and Giuls, you are an amazing team. Your fantastic website was what attracted us in the first place, proved to be just the tip of the iceberg. From our first meeting at your lovely home, to our engagement session, wedding day and beyond we have been so impressed with every aspect of ‘living light photography’. The passion and professionalism you two have for your work is inspiring, and really helped us to just relax and enjoy our day. We couldn’t be happier with the photos of both our e session and wedding. So many compliments from friends and family. The best bit is that you really captured the feel of the day. We look back at the photos and the excitement and joy of our ceremony and reception comes flooding back in an instant! We recommend you unreservedly to anyone who wants beautiful photos to commemorate beautiful times. Thanks again, Joel and Jules

And that, dear readers, is why I love this job. Thanks Jules and Joel, you’ve been an absolute pleasure to work with.

Hope you enjoy the photos…



Belinda and Daniel, (or rather, Be and Macca) got ready at the cottages at Oakvale Wines after what I heard was a great party the night before.

After a lovely little ceremony at St Patrick’s at Nulkaba we raced for the limo (from Arrive First Class, and thanks Lloyd for your help) as the thunder boomed overhead. The rain didn’t last long, and we found a nice dry spot to wait it out, inbetween ducking out with umbrellas to get mystical photos in the rain. And then, of course, what would be a wine country wedding without some photos in the vineyards?

From there it was over to The Sebel at Kirkton Park, which offered some great little spots to hide away and relax before heading into the wedding reception and a fun night.

Hope you enjoy the photos.