Kristina & Josh: 25 November 2011, Hawaii

Our favourite destination wedding of 2011, our beautiful friends Kristina and Josh were married on the island of Oahu in Hawaii. Turtle Bay Resort was the perfect setting for their nuptials.

Truly a fairytale story, Josh and Kristina met by chance on St Patricks Day while Kristina was backpacking around Australia, and Josh was on business in Sydney. A story that you would only believe hearing it first hand from the couple themselves, it was complete fate that brought those two together. A leap of faith by Kristina in moving to Australia, here they are now, married 4 years later. (See Kristina & Josh’s story at the end of this post)

Planning a destination wedding can’t have been easy, but Kristina pulled it off without a hitch! I thought that I would ask Kristina to share a few pieces of wisdom around destination wedding planning.

Great idea for your wedding guestbook

Whilst researching warehouse venues tonight, I stumbled upon this gorgeous idea from Couture Events blog. Photography courtesy of Bryan N. Miller Photography, who is now on my ‘to watch’ list!

What a gorgeous idea, to have a special momento from your guests on your wedding night! Much more interesting than a guest book, and a perfect piece of artwork for your home as a constant reminder of your special day and loved ones! Polaroids are always such a hit at weddings, they’re instant, they’re fun and as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words!

What do you think of this idea for a guestbook? Would you do it at your wedding?

Top 10 wedding photos for your big day

Pinterest has opened up a whole realm of inspirational photographs to help brides plan their wedding, and I thought I’d share my top 10! Particularly focussing on the bride and groom, these are some key shots that I would love to brief my photographer on. I love the more natural, less posed photographs, and particularly ones where there isn’t much eye contact with the camera.

So here’s my current top 10!

The Bride & Groom:

Perfect lighting and composition. Photographed by Justin James.

Props of the balloons add so much to this beautiful photograph by Amanda Wilcher.

Sneak Peek: Kristina and Josh

Long overdue, but coming soon – the feature of Josh and Kristina’s beautiful destination wedding in Hawaii! Completely planned by the bride from Australia, the wedding was such fun and a forever memorable experience. Look out for the full feature this Sunday but for now, here’s some of the gorgeous couple shot on the beach at Turtle Bay Resort after the ceremony.

Inspire Me Wednesday: Kelly O’Schmidt

Since I haven’t seen any inspirational photography this week, and I haven’t featured one of my best friend’s weddings yet…Today’s Wednesday post goes to the lovely Kelly O’Connell, and her hubby Steven Schmidt. Affectionately known as “The O’Schmidt’s”.

Unfortunately, this gal didn’t get to attend their wedding, one trip too many back to the USA for the year of 2011 sadly!

Kelly moved out to Australia from the USA, with her fiance Steven. That’s a pretty big move for a girl at the height of her career! I’m damn happy she moved here! Kelly has become one of my best friends, and we have had some amazing times. She is one of the toughest, positive, awe-inspiring people I know, and I love her to bits. So, here’s a showcase of her wedding photos by the super talented Wheelhouse Weddings. Not to mention their incredibly fun, and very them, wedding dance!

Congratulations Mez & Cam!

I’m a week late on writing this post, but I had to do a shout out to my gorgeous friend Meredith and her new fiance Campbell! The moment I got a text from Mez at 2am last Monday morning, I knew what the news was without even reading the message.

Weddings on New Years Eve

Love them or hate them?

On one hand, you don’t need to organise something fun to do to ring in the new year. On the other hand, your new years plans are set! Personally, I’m neither for or against them, but seeings as it’s New Years Day, I felt it an appropriate topic.

The most recently famous one (at least in Australia) was Chris & Rebecca Judd’s wedding to see in 2011. I don’t know of any high profile 2012 celeb weddings, so I thought it was worth looking back to the Judd wedding extravaganza! Who would’ve believed that Rebecca was 12 weeks pregnant in this stunning wedding gown! Her intricately handmade strapless dress was custom made for her by J’Aton, a close personal friend of Rebecca’s and has done many of her Brownlow dresses.

The wedding featured many Australia celebs and football superstars, and hosted 220 of their friends and family at Carousel in Albert Park.