Just the two of you, or twenty people who actually matter. Smaller days are not lesser days, and they are some of the best photographs I take.
A big wedding has a timetable and the timetable wins. An elopement has none of that. Nobody is waiting on the speeches, nobody needs the formals done by 4, and if the light is extraordinary we simply stay in it. That freedom shows up in the pictures, every time.
Over 100 weddings in, the smallest ones are consistently the most relaxed to photograph and the most emotional to look at afterwards. When there are two of you on a beach there is nowhere to hide and nothing to perform, so what I get is just you.
People use these words differently, so here is what I mean by them.
Just the two of you and a celebrant, maybe two witnesses. Usually a beach, a clifftop or somewhere in the bush. Two to three hours is plenty, and we spend most of it walking and talking rather than posing.
Up to about twenty guests. Often a restaurant, a backyard or a small venue, with a ceremony that runs fifteen minutes and a lunch that runs four hours. These are my favourite to shoot because everybody there knows everybody else, so the candid frames are unusually good.
Thirty to fifty people, a real wedding in structure but without the scale. Three hours covers the ceremony and the start of the celebration comfortably.
Where Auckland elopements work best. The west coast black sand beaches are the obvious answer and they earn it, particularly Bethells and Muriwai where you can be genuinely alone. For a wet day, the bush through the Waitakere ranges holds up far better than any beach, and a canopy in rain photographs beautifully. I keep a wet weather alternative for every elopement I book.
The Intimate package is built for exactly this: $2,950 for three hours covering the ceremony and portraits, with a full edit and an online gallery, with your custom magazine cover artwork included. If you want a longer day, extra hours can be added. Full detail on the packages page.
You secure your date with 25% and pay the balance however suits you, with no interest and no fees, settled a month before the day.
With a coffee, not a contract. I would genuinely rather meet you than trade emails, and if your ring is ready I will usually photograph it there and then so you have an image for your invitations. On me.
If your day is bigger than this, the main page has the full picture, and if you are on the west coast have a look at West Auckland weddings.
Tell me the date and roughly what you are picturing. I will tell you honestly whether it works and what I would suggest.
Check my date is available