Muddy Gumboots, Mo’s and Safari Suits.
2022 will definitely go down as the year it Rained. And Rained. And rained some more. It will also be remembered as the year S and I married…In the rain 🙂 and when Anna shot a wedding 6 weeks post c-section!
Raindrops were falling on our heads as we nervously made our way down the street to S and I’s cute post war home nestled on the edge of Annerley and Tarragindi. The schedule for the day was a little different with a cheeky photo shoot with the groomsmen kicking things off before the Bride and Bridesmaids joined us for a first look and then onto location photos all before tying the knot.
Rain doesn’t bother us for the most part. If we’re not bailing water out from under our Queenslander home you’ll usually find Anna and I out for a stroll during a big deluge. Rain can also offer a lot of unique and different photo opportunities, transforming tried and true locations into new and exciting areas to explore and photograph. However, when it comes to planning and executing a big event such as a wedding, last minute changes and “transformations” are not what anyone needs. “New” and “Different” opportunities can look a lot like mud. So as we squelched down the street, our clothes already soaked, we felt for S and I and their backyard wedding plans.
Big Smiles / Bigger Moustaches
Arriving, our nerves instantly vanished. Standing under the carport, a curtain of rain around them, the groomsmen stood laughing and joking with one another, beers in hand wearing big smiles under bigger moustaches. Each donned in a different, authentic 70’s safari suit the lads couldn’t have looked more relaxed or more Aussie. Umbrella’s were handed out and soon we were headed off down the street to Arnwood St Park, Tarragindi. Little Green Bag couldn’t have made the scene any more reminiscent of “Reservoir Dogs” as this rag tag group made their way down Ekibin Road. I don’t know if it was the suits, the amount of beer consumed or the amount of water on the ground but these boys had swagger and they had it in spades.
50ml of rain later the Bridesmaids were arriving and it was time for I to see S for the first time in her wedding dress. Waiting in the rain for S to cross Arnwood Place Bridge we felt like the only people in the world. Flanked by green, wrought iron railings, under a rain streaked umbrella, S in her white, vintage wedding dress began to walk across the bridge. It was cinematic, it looked like a fairytale, it was picture perfect. But none of those things capture how it felt. In the freezing, pouring rain, it felt warm. It felt beautiful. It felt like the rain had washed away all of the pomp, all of the vanity and self aggrandising that can surround a wedding and what we were left with was something so pure, so natural and so wonderful there wasn’t a dry eye on that bridge that day. Even our socks were soaked.
S and I returned home not long after and exchanged their vows in their garden under an old Poinciana tree. Gumboots were a fashion item to be envied and the rain embraced.
With all the lockdowns and rain we’ve been having I feel like I’ve written a lot about attitude and outlook this year and yet here on possibly our wettest wedding ever it doesn’t seem applicable. To say S and I “put on a brave face” or had “the right attitude” would be an insult to how happy and grateful they were to be able to marry one another that day.
What an amazingly beautiful pair humans. We love you guys!
Tim
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