Estee and Paul
Estee and Paul eloped to Cow Bay for an intimate wedding
It’s very hard to take photographs while you are teary. During their vows, there wasn’t a dry eye in the tiny party of five at the elopement ceremony of Estee and Paul. So intimate, so pure and simple. Simply beautiful.
This is a quick sneak peek. There will be some more to come, as soon as I get a chance.
Philip and Catrin’s Wedding, Oak Beach, Port Douglas.
Catrin and Philip were married on a crazy windy afternoon in October, in front of an intimate crowd of their best friends and family members. It was so very special. Exquisitely choreographed, beautifully executed, full of thoughtfully subtle details and with a heavy focus on the people most important to the couple – most of whom had flown in from far flung locations including Paris, Canada, New York, Sydney and central NSW…. – it was a joy to photograph all that joy! Everyone was elated to be there, and the love and affection they had for the couple showed in the joyful tears, hugs and laughter that went on all afternoon and evening. Happily the wind dropped with the sun and the still, warm evening was simply perfect.
Philip and Catrin are big fans of reportage-style wedding photojournalism and they asked me to be as subtle and unintrusive as possible – which suited me just fine – I enjoyed cruising around being as invisible as possible yet being in the thick of it all.
Here’s the feedback (unashamed self-promo plug lovely testimonial!):
“These are completely fabulous – we are absolutely delighted with the moments and the mood you have captured. We had the loveliest time looking through them last night thank you so much. (…) Thank you again for being so wonderful on the day. You were everywhere and nowhere and just fitted in so perfectly to our wedding.”
Excitingly, Cosmopolitan Bride has expressed an interest in featuring the wedding in an upcoming issue.
Catrin asked me to make up 24 Blurb photo books of the wedding for them to give to their guests for Christmas gifts. Such a lovely idea!
The catering was done by Port Douglas catering, in their usual splendid style. The wedding celebrant was the very lovely Sarah Woods, we met up again 3 days later at a beautiful, simple marriage elopement I photographed and she officiated up on Cow Bay Beach. Photos from that one will be up soon.
I know, I know! This is a very photo heavy post, but hey – I wanted to share so many of these gorgeous pics. Sit back and enjoy the rest of my oversized collection!
Wedding Photo Books
Mihoko and Tyler's Wedding Day. Nagasaki, Japan. 2008.
Phew, it’s been busy around here! Nice to get a chance to sit down and catch up with the blog. There is a swag of photo’s I want to share, but first….
I’ve been wanting to do a post about the increasingly popular production of Custom Made Wedding Photo Books as opposed to the traditional album. Self-publishing is becoming a really popular form of promotion and publication for photographers around the world – and the growing demand means that Wedding Photo Books are becoming more and more sophisticated and affordable. Having your own custom made magazine or coffee table style book telling the story of your special day to share with friends and family for years to come is such a special treat.
I’ve gathered a list of great Australian Wedding Book companies for you to check out if you are researching wedding photo books:
Internationally, Blurb is great. I co-published a book of my own that way.
Justin and Emily
Kiss Kiss Kiss
My supremely talented colleague and friend Lizzy Sawdon had been booked by Justin and Emily to photograph their wedding at St Mary’s by the Sea, and she asked me to come along and assist – she knows I really need to get my wedding portfolio filled up with tropical looking weddings which are so completely different to Tokyo weddings in style and atmosphere. My role when I’m assisting Lizzy is to focus mostly on the groom and his fella’s in their preparations and waiting at the church and then photograph the bridesmaid’s and groomsmen while the couple are being photographed. It’s a lot of fun, and in this instance Justin and his best men were lovely, shy bundles of nerves and smiles and were such fun to photograph. The bridal party in general were willing to try anything and it was great to let them blow off their nerves after the wedding with some silliness like jumping, throwing the bouquet and giving each other piggybacks.
Muckin' about with the lads
Ceremony
Click on any of these photo’s to be taken to a click-forward gallery. Forgive the low resolution image files.
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- Kiss Kiss Kiss
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- Ceremony
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- Muckin’ about with the lads
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- Justin with his best men
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- Justin and Emma just after the ceremony
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- JUMP!
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- Flying bouquet…
Kirsty and Marco
Conga line
My supremely talented colleagues and friends Lizzy Sawdon and Ali George were booked to photograph and video Marco and Kirsty’s wedding, and Lizzy asked me if I’d come along and assist them at The Sea Temple Resort in Port Douglas a few weeks back. What a special wedding it was, so full of big Italian style love and joy. It was such a pleasure to work at this wedding that as each of us left we all individually went up to the couple and their mums to tell them how delighted we were at having been given the chance to photograph such a lively and joyful celebration. Thanks to Marco and Kirsty and their lovely families!
Infinite possibilities
Kirsty and Marco
Click on any of the images in the gallery below to be taken to a click-forward slideshow. These are just a few of the 600 pictures I took that day….
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- Marco with his mum and aunt just before the wedding
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- Kirsty and Marco
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- We took Marco and Kirsty down to the southern end of Four Mile Beach for their portraits. They couldn’t wipe the smiles from their faces! They were so very happy.
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- Kirsty and Marco making their vows in front of the celebrant Natasha Kollosche at Sea Temple Resort, Port Douglas.
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- Marco’s father ties a knot around Marco and Kirsty’s hands during their wedding ceremony
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- Kirsty and Marco moments after signing their marriage certificate
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- Heading to the beach just after the ceremony
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- Kirsty and Marco with son
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- Infinite possibilities
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- Conga line
Port Douglas Wedding Photography Packages
Martine Cotton Photography - Wedding Photography
July and August are the two busiest months of the year for weddings in Port Douglas. The weather is just perfect and the place is jumping. I’ve been having a fabulous time getting out amongst it with my lovely colleagues, photographer Lizzy Sawdon and videographer/photographer Ali George, doing a bunch of weddings, and my tropical feel portfolio is coming together nicely, slowly replacing the urban style I found myself using when based in Tokyo.
I have just finished working on my new Port Douglas Wedding Photography Packages PDF, it covers elopement packages (a surprisingly thriving little niche!) as well as regular digital and print wedding photography packages so if you are considering keeping it super simple and eloping (or doing the opposite), then drop me a line at martinecottonphotography@gmail.com.
Oh, and I’m always up for a Trash the Dress session!
Carmen and David’s Port Douglas Wedding
In an effort to get some more “tropical” looking weddings into my portfolio, I’ve started assisting the very lovely and super-talented wedding local photojournalist Lizzy Sawdon at a bunch of weddings this season. Actually, we are also planning to do a portrait exhibition together, with other great local photographers, Ms Ali George and Nanna Soderstrom sometime in the not-too-distant future. But I have digressed, as I am often wont to do….
Lizzy & I had a lovely day with the happy couple, Carmen and David, who brought their family up from Adelaide for their special day. For the first half of the day I hung out with the fella’s and photographed their preparation, and then David waiting for his lovely bride to arrive. They were so easy going and it was a real pleasure to work with them.
Must say, Japanese weddings are just so different to relaxed beach weddings in Australia - I definitely prefer the tropical approach to weddings. Colourful, individual and intimate. Delighted to be getting into the tropical wedding scene, and huge thanks to Lizzy for her support!
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Tracey and Ashley's Engagement shots
Ashley recently popped the question to Tracey and she, of course, said hell yes! These are some of their engagement photo’s. It was a delight to shoot, they are such great people and I wish them all sorts of joy and passion in their married life.
Jane & Daisuke's Japan Wedding
Jane and Daisuke got married the first time around in Melbourne a year or more ago. When they moved back to Tokyo to be closer to his widowed mother, the Japanese family suggested that a Japanese-style wedding here in Tokyo for them to attend would be a wonderful thing since they weren’t able to make it to the first wedding, and in Japan it’s not so uncommon to have a couple of weddings…
There is the Town Hall wedding, often completed as a mundane task with no celebrations at all – it’s just paperwork. Then there is the family style wedding, sometimes at a shrine, but mostly at a wedding hotel, followed by a sit down lunch/dinner that usually requires a couple of changes of clothes for the couple and is full of pomp and ceremony and structure and silliness and boooooooze. Then, the couple usually head on to a second wedding party, this one just for friends, many of whom can’t afford to attend the main wedding (you pay to go to weddings here, instead of buying gifts). These nijikai’s (second party) are always a hoot, and are often where the couples friends get a chance to pick up a new date/marriage prospect….
Jane and Daisuke’s Japanese wedding involved 2 hours-worth of being dressed up in formal kimono’s and hakuma’s, and going to a shrine for a ceremony with 2 buddhist priests and a shrine maiden. Jane even got her own personal hand-maiden for the day (and genuinely needed the support as she struggled in and out of taxi’s and low chairs). The process was fascinating and I was so happy to be there for them as they made their way through the day with a fairly healthy level of nerves. Jane looked absolutely GORGEOUS, as did Daisuke, and I was delighted when they told me over and over how relaxed they felt with me as their photographer.
Having these kinds of photographic chances are not so common, and I was really excited to get the chance to photograph a really traditional Japanese wedding ceremony. They are SO very different to western-style weddings and receptions.
Thanks so much to Jane and D. for trusting me to be your wedding photographer and extra special thanks for that nijikai and the ensuing almighty nihonshu hangover.
You can see more images from the wedding at my Wedding Gallery album.
Lisa & Tomo's wedding
Lisa and Tomo asked me to shoot their engagement and wedding photos. I did their engagement shots on a lovely sunny day out at Showa Kinen Koen back in May, and then shot their wedding and Ni-Ji-Kai last Satarday. I was pretty nervous as the only weddings I’ve shot before were for friends, and they were all pretty casual affairs.
While Lisa and Tomo are old colleagues of mine, and I know them pretty well, this wedding was always going to be very formal and structured in the way Japanese weddings are. Happily, everything went without a hitch and Lisa and Tomo looked every part the beautiful, happy, modern young Japanese couple. It was a great day and I’m really happy with the way the photos. Now I’ve just got to get through editing all 1000 of them. Wah!