We photograph a lot of Brisbane couples getting married on the Sunshine Coast.  Chloe & Jonathan did the opposite.  They are a Sunshine Coast couple who chose to have their wedding in beautiful Brisbane.    Chloe got dressed with a quintessential view of Brisbane from the Stamford Plaza before leaving for their ceremony at St Andrews Uniting Church.  They finished the night with another beautiful river view from Moda Events Portside.  Chloe wore a Henry Roth dress and carried flowers by A Sculpted Leaf.   The Brow Bar helped to make her even more beautiful than she already was.

The best thing about this wedding though was that it was a real family affair.  Chloe’s Mum is an event planner and what better event to plan than your own daughter’s wedding?   By planning it together, you know that everything had a personal touch.  The ceremony too was special. Jonathan’s Dad is a pastor and had the unique opportunity to be the person that declared them husband and wife.  How cool would that be?  Getting to marry off your son – literally!

Adam caught all of it in the these fantastic images.

Chloe & Jonathan, thanks for letting Studio Impressions be part of your day.  We hope these images always remind you of the love and bond your family obviously shares.

The day our twins were born at the Royal Brisbane & Women’s Hospital I became a “Royal Mum”, one of the thousands of women in the history of Queensland to give birth at “The Royal”.  The RBWH Foundation has created a book about Royal Mums documenting the stories of women since the 1930′s that have had babies at their hospital.   Volume 2 was launched on Friday with a fabulous morning tea.

We are proud to say that Studio Impressions has been a collaborator on this book.  We donated the photography for Volume 1 in 2010, and now we have photographed, Volume 2.  This has been an exciting and uplifting project for our little team.  We have gotten to meet women of all ages, from all over Queensland and who all have stories that are funny and sad and uplifting and heartwarming.    This book is both a story of the experience of women, the creation of generations of Queenslanders, and the story of the history of Brisbane as it describes historic events in our beautiful city through the eyes of new mothers.

Royal Mums: A Collection of Memories Volume 2 is for sale through the RBWH Foundation.  All the money goes toward creating a Mother’s Milk Bank which will provide life saving nutrition to newborns when their own mother cannot produce enough.

Here are some behind the scenes from Volume 2.   If you like what you see – buy the book - you’ll love what you read and you will help make a difference to the start of someone’s life.

Left Image:  Makeup artist extraordinare Kari Chaney who donated all the makeup for our Royal Mums, at work on Royal Mum Kaley.  Kaley’s boy, Vincent, was born a premmie.

Right: Marcus at work on the portrait of Royal Mum Angela.  Angela was presented with the first release of Volume 2 in honour of her beautiful baby boy Noah who was born on January 23rd 2011 and passed away a few days later.  Read more of Angela’s story here and how Noah’s life is making a difference for other little babies.

Below are the Royal Mums portraits appearing in the Book.  From top to bottom, left to right:  Anna Porfryio, Charmaine Giarratano and baby Brooklyn, Christine Bennett, Muriel Porter, Laura Perkins and Betty Biggers, Angela Perry, Marjorie Bowers, Barbara Underwood and Kaley Butten.  Ladies, it was a pleasure to take your portraits.  Thank you for being a part of this very special project.

The launch morning tea:

The launch was MC’d by ABC Presenter Jenny Woodward.  We also heard from 94 year old Betty Biggers who told the crowd what it was like to have a baby in the early days of the RBWH – when Dads were not allowed in the room, and long before the days of disposable nappies.  A neonatal intensive care nurse told us of the daily experience and hundreds of babies every year that will benefit from a milk bank, then CEO of the RBWH Foundation Peter Treseder spoke presented the book to Royal Mum Angela Perry.

If you are looking for a unique Mother’s Day gift guaranteed to make your mum laugh, smile, cry and retell her own story of your start to life – this is a book you HAVE TO GET.  PLUS it is only $35!    Should I say it again?   Do something good today -  Buy it now!

Here are some of the flowers that our brides chose this last year.  Perhaps the flowers in these bouquets had meaning for them when they chose them.  They will forever have meaning for them now.

I wish I could give you the details of which florists were responsible for these beautiful bouquets, but sadly we don’t have all that info, so if you recognise your fabulous work here, please let us know.  If you are looking for a great florist, some of the fantastic ”floral artists” we have worked with over the years include:

Divine Flowers, Always Fabulous Flowers, Julie Vine Flowers, Mondo Florists, Phoebe Stephen’s Flowers, Bouquet Boutique, Green and Bloom, Baggaleys, Mater Florist

Check out our other wedding inspiration posts

Steve is Irish.  He moved to Australia some time ago.   Linda is German.  She was travelling through Australia.  Steve saw Linda on a tram.  They instantly hit it off.  Two people from completely different parts of the world in the same country at the very same moment, find each other.  Funny how one moment in one day can change your life.

The american poet, Andrew Downing wrote a poem that I swear is about Steve & Linda’s wedding “Destiny”:

A wise old mother is Nature

She guideth her children’s feet

In many a flowery pathway;

And her strong life currents beat,

Sometimes in intricate channels

As a mountain stream may run

But ever her purpose triumphs,

And ever the goal is won.

Her eyes are the eyes of Argus,

And she utters her decree:

The brook shall come to the river,

And the river shall reach the sea…….

………..But whatsoever we name it

Be it Destiny, or Fate

It leads the prince to his kingdom,

The king to his palace gate;

The lover shall taste the kisses

That grow on the maiden’s lips;

And safe, in the land-locked harbour,

Shall be moored the wand’ring ships;

And the soul shall gain its heaven

Where the white-robed angels be

And the brook shall blend with the river

And the river shall wed the sea.

To veil or not to veil?  That is the question.  Personally, I think it doesn’t matter – it can ALL look fabulous as our gorgeous brides have shown here.

Fresh flowers, a 6 metre train, a fascinator, a little bling……. it isn’t every day you get the chance to wear something extravagant on your head, so go on, make a statement!

Check out our other wedding inspiration posts

From Adam:

“I have a love for capturing people’s love, emotions and relationships.  It is this passion that drew me to photograph weddings in the first place, and it remains a steadfast constant through my work.  When Leisha & Khylie asked me to be part of their plans, I was immediately excited because here were two people who regardless of the laws and conventions of the time, wanted to gather their close friends and family together and celebrate their love and commitment for each other.  That is really what it is all about - love – that connection between two people and the love of all those that support them.”

Khylie & Leisha both looked fantastic in dresses that were by Elizabeth de Varga and Bridal 93, and the venue, well it speaks for itself doesn’t it!   This just looked like a fantastic day in every way.  No wonder you couldn’t wipe the smiles off everyone’s faces!   Good job again Mr Finch.

Khylie and Leisha, thank you so much for choosing Studio Impressions to capture this special day for you.   I know that Adam loved every minute of it!

You know, Marcus says that he doesn’t get my obsession with shoes.  Looking at these images, I think he does.  Just a little bit.  Some of these are Adam’s images too of course, but he loves shoes just as much as me I think!

Aaaahhhhh…….shoes.   I may get married again just to slip on some divine footwear like this.

I can’t tell where you can get exactly the shoes we have shown here (sorry), but I can tell you that these places are very popular with a lot of our brides looking for fabulous footwear……..

www.maryons.com.au

www.rodo.it

www.net-a-porter.com/shop/shoes

www.manoloblahnik.com

www.shopstyle.com

www.styletread.com.au

www.jeanbrown.com.au

Check out our other wedding inspiration posts

Kaitlin & Scott’s wedding was something like a fairytale.  I watched the flowergirls at this wedding just looking at Kaitlin in awe.  I just know they thought she looked like a princess and that they had walked straight into one of their own fairytale dreams.   You’ll see it on their faces.

Kaitlin & Scott have Danielle of White + White Weddings and Amini Concepts to thank for helping create this magical day.  Together they created something truly amazing, glamorous and a simply perfect fit for this wedding and this couple.    From the moment Kaitlin emerged looking so stunning in her DARB dress to the spectacular ceremony at the Hyatt Sanctuary Cove to the sparkly detail at the reception at Hyatt Sanctuary Cove The Grange, all of it combined to tell a once upon a time story of two people in love.    The beautiful flowers were by Bouquet Boutique and that stunning cake, Cake Star.

Kaitlin and Scott deserved nothing less that a perfect day.  They are smart, funny, hardworking, intelligent, wonderful people.   It is so right that they found each other.   Kaitlin and Scott, thank you for letting me be the one to record this day for you.   May you live happily every after…….

Years ago I used to grill Marcus every weekend on the details of the wedding and he would tell me heartfelt stories about the people he photographed & their families.  Lovely, but what I really wanted to know was what colour were the bridesmaids dresses;  who was her designer;  what were the flowers like….. you know, all the really important stuff!   I don’t ask anymore, now I just check out the wedding images myself.

There are 4 girls at Studio Impressions and Mondays are usually spent oohing & aahing over the most recent brides’ shoes, or dress or the way she has done her hair.  Then we dream about what we would have if we were getting married, or in my case, married again… (to Marcus of course!)

It dawned on me last month what a wealth of info on wedding fashion we have in our files here.   What a perfect place for others to look for inspiration!  So, here is the first of a series of posts compiled by me & the girls of Studio Impressions, on wedding fashions from the past year.  We will post on yummy wedding things like dresses, flowers, hair , shoes, cakes, table decorations, and whatever else we see & think you’ll like.  All of them will be from a 2011 Studio Impressions wedding.  As much as I wanted to, we couldn’t include something from every wedding (you’d be scrolling down for days) instead we’ve given you a little of this & a little of that because variety is the spice of life, and of weddings.   Glamour and beauty comes in all different shapes and sizes and colours and budgets.  So if you are planning a wedding or you simply like to look at pretty things, this is for you, and for me……thanks Marcus!

Starting our series with ……………drum roll……………….WEDDING DRESSES!…………

Designer:  http://www.phillipalepley.com/                                                                             www.johannajohnson.com.au

Designers:  Top:  www.henryroth.com.au  Bottom Left:  www.pallascouture.com.au    Bottom right:  www.darbbridalcouture.com.au

Designers:  top: www.pronovias.com.au  and the rest above are www.verawang.com.au

Unfortunately we don’t have the details of the designers for the dresses below.  They were just so darn to-die-for that I just couldn’t leave them out.

Check out our other wedding inspiration posts

I’m pretty happy with how my prints went this year, but what I am most proud of is not my work, but Aurelie’s.  Aurelie really put herself out there this year and she not only just went okay, she became Runner Up Queensland AIPP Illustrative Photographer of the Year.   The smile on her face was better than any award I’ve won.  Aurelie joined our team a little over 2 years ago and has quickly become an incredible shooter, fast booking weddings of her own.   You can check out her portfolio of images in the photo gallery here.

This was just one of the many moments already this year that have reminded me how lucky I am that Studio Impressions is more than just me.  Studio Impressions was started by me, but it is really a collective of passionate talented people who love photography and how it can make us laugh or cry or argue or smile.  Each one of them is talented in their own right.  I’ve told you about Aurelie and you often see Adam’s work on this blog, but also sharing our little workspace are Karen & Tania who create cuter baby images than I can, and Gabe who is my right hand man at weddings and has recently produced some of the most beautiful albums the Studio has ever done.   And then of course, there is my wife Penny who has been there behind the scenes from the very start, by my side, building this dream of ours.  It really is a team I am super proud of.

I’ve decided it is time that you started to hear a lot more from them too.  Along with Adam’s weddings you can look forward to some future posts of weddings by Aurelie and newborns by Karen, and I have asked Penny to write a few posts of her own too.   I think it will be nice to hear a female voice now and again, starting tomorrow when I let the girls loose on the blog to share their favourite wedding fashions.

In the meantime, a BIG CONGRATULATIONS to all the very deserved Award Winners at this year’s Queensland AIPP awards.  Here are just a couple of Aurelie’s gorgeous images that scored solid silver with distinctions from the Illustrative and Wedding categories.