Getting married at a wedding venue isn’t for everyone, and Briarne and Hamish got to do something pretty special instead. They had their wedding right at a family property here in the Waikato.

There is something I really love about backyard weddings. You’re getting married somewhere that already means something to you, there’s a little more freedom to make the day your own, and you don’t necessarily have to disappear somewhere else for hours to get your photos done.

A first look before the ceremony

Briarne and Hamish chose to do a first look before their ceremony, and we somehow managed to get beautiful sunshine for it before the Waikato weather changed its mind later in the day.

Doing a first look also meant they could get some of their photos done earlier and spend more of the afternoon actually hanging out with everyone they’d invited.

I’m always a fan of anything that means you get to be at your own wedding rather than spending half of it away taking photos.

A wedding at home

One of the best parts about having a backyard wedding is that the property itself becomes part of the story.

Rather than trying to make everything look like a traditional wedding venue, we could use the home, surrounding land and whatever the weather decided to throw at us as part of their photos.

And yes, eventually it threw some rain at us. 😂

We still headed out for portraits and embraced it, giving Briarne and Hamish a completely different look from the sunny photos we’d created earlier in the day.

I photographed and filmed this wedding at the time, documenting everything from their sunny first look through to the celebrations later in the day.

Mostly though, Briarne and Hamish had created a wedding where they could spend the bulk of their afternoon with their favourite people. No huge production. No spending hours travelling between locations. Just getting married somewhere meaningful and actually having time to enjoy it.

Hannah Vassallo Makeup & Hair
Karrin Coates Celebrant