Surfhouse Merewether Wedding

2020 wedding photography wise was one of the craziest years of my career because of the impact of Covid-19.

I photographed 15 weddings and then in April, right in the middle of a busy wedding season, the pandemic hit and everything just stopped overnight. We lost all our work and income in an instant. We paused our home loan, our car repayments, started homeschooling our kids. We had no business for over 2 months. It was a crazy time.

Then elopements started. Couples still wanted to get married and therefore had to change the way they went about it. For the rest of the year, I photographed another 50 elopements and just a handful of weddings.

My heart goes out to all of the couples who planned or a planning a wedding during these times. So many couples got married without their parents, grandparents, siblings and friends with them. Most were stuck overseas or across state borders. I’ve seen many couples change their wedding date numerous times and we had a lot of couples just cancel their wedding altogether. It must be such a stressful time for everyone planning a wedding.

To all the couples who I did photograph in 2020… I hope your elopement/wedding was still an amazing experience for you, and I hope my photos have given you some joy.

To start off with… here are some images that you would only see during a world-wide pandemic, and images I never thought I would take.

Here are a few of my favourite images from 2020 :)

The Ben Ean wedding in the Hunter valley of Cathy & Zisheng was simply stunning with a couple of the nicest people you could ever meet.

I met these guys at least a year before their wedding at one of their friend’s weddings. They had already booked me, so I was totally shocked and happy to see them. They both booked me without telling the other, so it’s nice to know that they both had the same taste in wedding photography.

Their wedding day started at two separate private houses around the Hunter Valley region

Ben Ean was the location for the ceremony and reception and is an absolutely stunning Hunter Valley wedding venue. It is 200 acres of rolling hills and vineyards and it is definitely one of the most picturesque wedding venues in Pokolbin.

Ben Ean used to be known as Lindeman’s Estate and I have photographed many weddings under the former name.

The Petersons and McGuigan families have joined forces and taken over Lindemans and have done quite a lot of renovations, particularly around the wedding and events side. Everything looks much more modern yet it still keeps its rustic country feel.

Ben Ean wedding ceremony

There are three potential locations you can have for your wedding ceremony at Ben Ean. The Fig Tree, the Garden Terrace Lawn and the Heritage Courtyard.

The Bride & Groom here chose the beautiful and rustic setting of the Heritage Courtyard. It is located right outside the actual reception venue and is undercover and totally protected from the elements. The Courtyard has a real barn-like feel to it and the transparent roof lets plenty of natural daylight into the area.

The wedding ceremony was personal and heartfelt. They both opened themselves up and let their emotions show. And it was beautiful. There were tears on both sides.

They also incorporated a tradition that I have never seen before. Salting a jar full of kumquats.

At the end of the ceremony, they walked back down the aisle to a sea of bubbles. Which was really awesome! Let me tell you now, that 99% of the time bubbles just don’t work and photograph very well at wedding ceremonies. The two reasons why it worked so well this time was:

• The darker background of the wood walls and roof made the bubble really show up nicely. At most outdoor ceremonies, the bubbles tend to blend into the sky and other lighter backgrounds.
• There was no wind. It just takes a tiny breeze and the bubbles blow away or just pop. There was absolutely no wind in the courtyard, so the bubbles really hung around beautifully.

Ben Ean Wedding Photos

After the wedding ceremony, we went up to Ben Ean’s most picturesque location. Up to The Fig Tree. This location is seriously one of the most beautiful locations in all of the Hunter Valley. The only way to have photos here is to have a wedding at Ben Ean. And I think it is worth having your wedding at Ben Ean just to get photos here. It is simply stunning!

The Fig Tree is located at the top of a hill and it overlooks rows and rows of vineyards. Ben Ean is basically, pretty epic for wedding photo and photography.

Wedding Reception at Ben Ean

The wedding reception can be held in three different locations at Ben Ean. The Laraghy Room, which is the main reception room. The Garden Terrace, an outdoor area, perfect for summer weddings. And the Heritage Listed Courtyard, which can fit around four hundred people!

These guys had their reception in the Laraghy Room, with is timber roof and wooden pillars.

Once again, there was some high emotion with some really beautiful speeches from family and friends that had the room in tears. They did a highly choreographed ‘first dance’ which was beyond impressive. And then they partied the night away in the dancefloor.

The Hunter Valley is full of awesome wedding venues, but a Ben Ean wedding definitely rates as one of the best around. From a wedding photographers point of view it has such beautiful locations and scenery.

And from my point of view, if you have your wedding at Ben Ean, and you take your photographers advice on when and where to get photos, you will get awesome wedding photos.

It was such a pleasure to photograph Cathy & Zisheng’s Ben Ean wedding in the Hunter Valley. What an amazing experience. They are amazing people and they had such a beautiful wedding.