i was giddily excited to meet roxy & diego, my first australian wedding clients, this past thursday night in the sydney harbour. the session we had been planning halfway across the world for months had finally arrived. roxy was born in south africa; diego in columbia–but are both proud to now call australia home. roxy’s family immigrated when she was a teenager & diego came to sydney for school… and then never left! [i feel like this is a recurring theme... sydney grabs a hold of cool people.] these two met a few years ago in a group of friends and fell in love.

roxy & diego are an adorable couple, leanne and i had a total blast hanging out with them. roxy is a travel agent by day but currently studying interior design; diego is a sound engineer & musician. designer/musician couples? just my thing. we took a ferry across the harbour, photographing on the way despite the crazy wind. that made for fun times balancing and sad attempts at controlling our hair. ;) next up was a ride on the ferris wheel at luna park — which, unless i’m losing my mind, was my first ride on a ferris wheel. what better place to do it than sydney? i loved all the colours everywhere in the amusement park. finally, roxy’s parents met up with us to deliver their adorable spoodle named lola for the last few photos. ah! so fun.

ps. shortly after publishing this, we’re off to capture roxy & diego become husband & wife in the gorgeous southern highlands area of new south wales. mmm it’s going to be a great day.

i spent my teenage years as part of an incredible youth group at southgate church. although there weren’t more than about fifty of us, we had some incredible times together. i met my friend scott & his family through church and we were often around the same circles. after high school graduation, scott moved to montreal to attend mcgill university on a partial scholarship. four years later, i found myself in montreal photographing his engagement session to an incredible girl named mari. ahh, i love God’s plans & it’s always beautiful to look back on the years leading up to the relationships He brings together.

my favourite thing about this past week in Montreal was hanging out with these two — i felt very-much at home in their city. two nights they cooked dinner together for me & one night they treated me to indian food and we browsed the contemporary art museum. i loved hearing little bits and pieces of their friendship-turned-relationship story over the three evenings we hung out together.

even though my fingers froze to death, i loved every moment. really, truly, this is why i love what i do. i love hearing people’s stories and i love watching couples love God with their whole hearts and trust Him with their futures. the relationship [and true friendship] these two share is beautiful: i love hearing them share their passions with one another — hearts for the homeless, for the underprivileged, for social justice — truly living out the gospel of Christ. scott and mari are getting married in alberta this july!

it was at rosalynde’s house that their story began. she was having a party, friends were invited, friends of friends were welcome to come. enter dave. dave was there with a mutual friend of rosalynde’s — but their official introduction didn’t come until they were standing in rosalynde’s laundry room — waiting for dave’s shoes to dry. yep, that’s right. not long into the party, dave stumbled into a small pool of water in rosalynde’s backyard. he needed a place to dry off and turns out the daughter of the homeowners was pretty cute. ;)

that was two and a half years ago and rosalynde and dave can’t wait to get married. they were engaged only a few weeks ago and although rosalynde got on the planning right away, i was already booked for their wedding date of september 15, 2012. we are both so heartbroken! rosalynde is the sweetest fan and supporter of my work, so although i won’t be at their wedding i did get to photograph their engagement session yesterday evening in fort langley. loved watching these two together–so so so happy. ;) enjoy!