jess + justin

cheeky grins and tears

the grounds wedding, alexandria

I must say I had been looking forward to this one for a while.

It goes without saying that the Grounds is unbelievably beautiful (which makes me happy as a photographer), but more importantly this one was charged with all the emotion and feeling one could hope for on a wedding day (which makes me happy as a human). On the way to the aisle, just catching a glimpse of one of Justin's uncles was enough to bring all the emotion's Jess had been reigning in all day bursting forth with tears. 

Seeing big families who are obviously so close is alway buoying, and Jess and her dad in particular have a beautiful relationship. You could see the depth of feeling in his eyes, in the way he looked at her as she was getting ready when he thought no one was watching, in the way he sprung to her side with a cheeky grin and a hug the moment she was overwhelmed on her way to the ceremony. 

Jess and Justin have three rescue dogs, a house with a backyard and the beginnings of a life together. For both of them, the day was full of laughter and love and mischievous grins and drunken dancing, and with a few quiet, tender moments of reflection when they found themselves alone. As always, but particularly so this day, I find myself so lucky to be trusted with these intimate, vulnerable moments that few get to witness and fewer still experience. 

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)