Rachel and Ken’s Kaikoura Wedding

You know those days when you wake up and just know its going to be an awesome day? Well, for me,Friday was one of those days.  I was off to Kaikoura to meet up with Rachel and Ken for their seaside wedding and couldn’t wait to see what the day would bring.

Rachel and Ken live in Vancouver and are two very adventurous people. With a love of travel, camping, fishing and diving it made sense to return to the place where so many of their memories lay.

The girls got ready at the beautiful ‘Clifftop’ holiday home overlooking the bay and the Seaward Kaikoura ranges.  With incredible gardens that are featured in garden coffee-table books – we were spoilt for choice for our photos.

Rachel found this exquisite lace dress in Canada – sigh. Swoon.

We loved this amazing swing overlooking the ocean…..

…almost as much as I loved Rachel’s vibrant blue shoes!

Over at the venue Ken was trying to relax, but I think he was just a little bit nervous all the same as he waited for his beautiful girl to arrive.

And arrive she did.  Stealing gasps and sighs as she made her way down the isle towards Ken.

All afternoon the celebrant Marg and I were willing the cloud-gods to lift the skies just enough to see the mountains – and eventually they obliged just in time for family and group photos.  Then we were off for the location photos. Oh Kaikoura, so many places to choose from.

There’s something really gorgeous about the way a groom looks at his new wife.

Now – these guys are not the usual bridal party.  Give them something to climb, scale, sidle or balance on and before you know it you have them all over the show and half way up walls or hanging off buildings.  Love it.

See what I mean?  I indicated some cool rocks I’d found last week and while I meant to merely use them as a back drop – this adventurous group told me “no worries – we’ll climb out to them” and led by our bride in her lace dress, they did just that. Note – the water  directly below them was several meters deep and I admit that I had terrible visions of a soaking wet bride should  anything  go awry. I shouldn’t have worried of course, this party saw this as no more challenging than a footpath – even in dresses!

Well worth the effort I’d say.

Round at South Bay Rachel produced a parasol.  A parasol!  Ohhhh I LOVE parasols!

Now if you’ve ever hung around a photographer before you may have on occasion heard them sing happily about “The Light”.  This my friends is what we are on about.  South Bay kindly treated us to low tides, a flat sea, and a stunning nor-west sky.

Ken and Rachel bought this Ford Falcon for the Undie Five Hundred – an annual student car rally from Christchurch to Dunedin, a journey which is punctuated by many pub stops on the way, and each car must be bought for less than five hundred dollars.  Ten years on and the car has been lovingly restored to its former glory and was a proud addition to the bridal party.

And yet another chance to play with the light……this time with some crazy poses from the team – I must say that the girls were quite a bit better at the ballerina poses…….

Rachel and Ken – what a fabulous day. Thank you so much for sharing it with us, it was a real pleasure to be a part of your day.

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