Melissa and Alan had a really unique story with how they met and even how Alan proposed. They met at a mutual friends 21st, Mel says that Alan was following her around, whereas Alan insists that he wasn’t. Whatever the case some time after being together Alan thought it was time to propose. He arranged for Mel and himself to go and see some Alaskan Malamute puppies at a nearby breeder.
It was very much a surprise for Mel, going to see the puppies and when she cuddled up to one particular puppie – she noticed that on it’s collar it said “will you marry me”. She immediately turned around and saw Alan down on one knee.
For Mel and Alan, family and heritage was an important part of what they wanted to include in their wedding day. From the celtic tradition of “tying the knot”, to pinning rosemary to guests before the reception.
The ceremony, had a great vibe with equal parts sentiment and laughs, that was beautifully officiated by Jessica Edwards.
The beautiful venue of “Stillwater at Critenden” served as a magnificent backdrop to a very fun and happy event that was blessed with fantastic weather for the day and made for some really great light for wedding video and photography. as you can see in the photo’s.
During the reception, we had some really original and funny speeches which had the room in stitches and later when it came time for the first dance. Mel and Alan chose to do something really unique whereby members of their family, fathers and mothers followed by the bridal party slowly one by one came to join them on the dance floor.
Mel and Alan really had a unique vision for their wedding, everything from Mel’s bridal style and flowers to Alan’s homage of wearing a kilt. It really was a great day.
Rhys and Suzie opted to have a small wedding with just close friends and family. They thought what better way to get married than to have an intimate ceremony right on the beach. After looking around most of the beaches around the Mornington Peninsula, they found and fell in love with Mills Beach in Mornington. After some inquiries they found that they could have a ceremony right on the beach and a celebrant to officiate the proceedings in Jessica Edwards – celebrant
Jessica did an absolute fantastic job of performing an intimate ceremony on the beach whereby friends and family found themselves front and centre of the proceedings which was full of fun, laughter and heartfelt gestures.
When Rhys and Suzie first came to us – Jiva Workshop, they wanted some really great photography of their day. They knew they had picked a picturesque setting and wanted their wedding photo’s to not only capture the scenic location but also the love they felt for each other.
Not having shot at the beach before we, went down to Mills Beach in Mornington to scout the location and see what would be the best way to shoot the couple on the beach and surrounds.
We knew we would get some absolutely fantastic shots of the couple with the beach, the beach boxes and the sea, butwe wanted to try something different and get a different angle that most haven’t seen before. That is why we decided to use a drone for photography only. As you can see by using the drone we were able to get shots that no one else would be able to get otherwise.
We were really ecstatic as were Rhys and Suzie at how they turned out and will be using the drone again to get shots that are truly unique.
Daniel and Rochelle contacted us after attending a wedding that we had the pleasure of capturing. After seeing our work and what we had done, they were both impressed enough to hire Jiva Workshop to capture their special day.
Daniel and Rochelle already had two children and it was important to them to be able to include them both in the wedding ceremony. They had already booked the venue at Portsea Hotel for the fantastic venue with sweeping views of Port Phillip Bay. This made for a picturesque setting for their special little family to come together and for both Daniel and Rochelle to say their vows to each other.
Their celebrant Karen Wilmot did a magnificent job of presiding over the ceremony with beautiful stories of how Daniel proposed and courted Rochelle, not to mention growing into a beautiful family of four. Daniel and Rochelle chose to do a hand fasting ritual during the ceremony. Hand Fasting is an old Celtic tradition where the hands of the bride and groom are bound together to represent the bond they will have together as man and wife.
After the ceremony we headed down to the Portsea Pier to get some loved up images of the bridal party. Timing it perfectly for Golden hour, we got some fantastic candid images of everyone on the pier with the water in the background.
We finished by heading back to The Portsea Hotel where Daniel and Rochelle had a cocktail / meal reception – The entree’s were a mixture of cocktail platters whilst the main meal was served as a sit down meal. Something that i had not seen before, yet seemed to work quite well for everyone present.
We loved working with Daniel and Rochelle, they brought humour and fun to our day and they had the cutest most adorable children you could have witnessed. Congratulations Daniel and Rochelle we wish you all the best for your future.
I am a cameraman and photographer and have been for the past 17 years.
and this is why i think Same sex marriage is a great idea.
I have shot everything from films, TV Shows and commercials, yet it has been over the last 6 years that i have been mostly involved with shooting weddings.
I love shooting and editing weddings, they are often quite harder than shooting other formats but the reward is so much greater.
From the moment that i arrive when the groom is feeling nervous and constantly reminding the best man not to forget the rings to the bride getting her hair and makeup done preparing in her head when the groom firsts see’s her walking down the aisle and they say their vowels.
Same Sex Marriage
It is a day of joy, a day of emotion and a day of love, everyone is there to celebrate the couple coming together and you can feel the excitement in the air until the celebrant, by law has to say this one line. `”A marriage is voluntarily entered-into union of a man and a woman to exclusion of all others.”
And immediately you can see and feel the levels drop quite a few decibels in that brief moment until the celebrant moves on to the next line.
However, that line was not always there – it wasn’t until John Howard took it upon himself to change the marriage act to redefine marriage as between a man and a woman.
No Doubt, there are some that agree with that statement and i respect your opinion, but i have heard all the arguments and i simply don’t agree.
First and foremost, allowing same sex marriage will dramatically have an impact on my business. As a wedding cinematographer and photographer. It has been estimated that 650 million dollars will be injected into the economy each year just from same sex marriages alone. That’s allot of dollars that I would be silly to ignore.
The term traditional marriage is problematic – marriage has been around as long as civilisation and traditionally marriage was not entered into entirely voluntarily. Traditionally marriage was used for political and business purposes. or to keep the wealth within a family structure, you even had brothers and sisters marrying so the wealth of the family stayed within the family.
Luckily over time, the idea of traditional marriage has changed and people marry voluntarily for Love and not reasons of wealth or geopolitical reasons.
And love is the reason why i love what i do. I don’t care if they are heterosexual or not. Capturing two people coming together in love gives me joy in what i do that i have not found in other mediums.
Essentially, same sex marriage is a civil rights issue, why should i or anyone prevent two people coming together and expressing their love for each other. It is only a small proportion of people who are expressly excluded from this and in no way shape or form does it affect anyone else.
I won’t go into the “NO” arguments except to say pretty much all of them that i have seen and heard have absolutely nothing to do with same sex marriage.
The only thing that will change is that one line that is repeated throughout the country whenever two people come together to express their love for each other.
And if Jesus was around I think he would rather include people in the party than exclude them.
Matt and Kate really wanted an intimate wedding with a few special family and friends. They wanted the backdrop of the rolling hills that Red Hill had to offer and so opted for a small wedding at Lindenderry at Red Hill. When Matt and Kate came to us they especially wanted us to capture the very special ceremony that they had planned and after seeing what took place it’s easy to understand why.
The Ceremony
With Matt waiting nervously down the aisle Kate made her entrance walking between the massive elm trees that stand to attention along the aisle.
when it came time to say their special vows, Matt had tears of happiness in his eyes but managed to get them out without seeming to unmanly. Kate then said her own vows which again took on special meaning and made the crowd say a collective Awwww.
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After the ceremony and group shot, we whisked the bridal party away for some location shots around the magnificent grounds of Lindinderry at Red Hill. Although it seemed like it might rain during the day, the weather held up and we were able to get some great light for our shots around the ground.
After the location shots, Matt & Kate made their grand entrance into the reception. They didn’t want to waste much time on formalities and so jumped pretty much straight into speeches.
The speeches really were a highlight of the night as what seemed like what would be a short and sweet affair turned into many heart felt messages and hilarity at stories of Matt’s past exploits as an Ebay reseller.
A great night was had by all and i wish both Matt and Kate all the best for the future.
Sweethearts Brendan and Natalie when deciding where to get married really wanted a beach wedding overlooking the sea. So when Brendan finally popped the question they settled on a destination wedding down at sorrento at all smiles. All smiles is the one venue that overlooks the Sorrento back beach and makes for a magnificent venue and atmosphere.
Being very laid back they opted for a cocktail party that could host their many family and friends as well as have the outlook and atmosphere that the background scenery could offer.
Brendan and Natalie both came to us again by looking at some of our work that was featured on our facebook page and knew they wanted Jiva Workshop to capture their special day. They opted to get us to do both photography and video and together we looked at many different idea’s of how to get the best Photography and Video of their day.
All smiles ceremony
The ceremony took place at the back of the venue which is more or less a cliff top that has the magnificent backdrop of Sorrento Back Beach. It was a beautiful ceremony whereby even Brendan had tears in his eyes when he saw the beautiful Natalie for the first time coming down the aisle.
After the ceremony was said and done we ventured off with the bridal party to get some location shots down on the beach and some special ones at a secret pier location in Sorrento.
After the location shots were done and dusted. The couple came back to the venue with one thing on their minds and that was to party. With so many of their friends and family that have gathered they danced into the night and even at one stage held Natalie above their heads crowd surfing. It was a great night for both of them.
Well some TV fanatics might recognise the bride in this wedding. Lauren was the chef from “Wings & Fins” restaurant that featured in the channel 9 reality series “The Hotplate”, where competing restaurants battle it out against each other to take out best restaurant.
It was just before the series started filming that Dave and Lauren first met and started a relationship whereby Lauren had to say goodbye suddenly and start shooting the tv show. They survived the ups and downs of the show and after everything had settled, they had a loving relationship and baby on the way.
Dave and Lauren first came to us wanting to capture their special day after seeing some of our previous work. They both had some very special moments that they wanted captured. One in particular was having a butterfly release during the group shot after the ceremony at Baxter Barn. We had concerns over how to capture a few hundred butterflies flying up all at once, however it was an obvious choice to shoot the video in slow motion at 200 frames per second.
The Ceremony
The ceremony was placed at the back of the barn facing the grand wisteria encompassing the back porch. It was a intimate ceremony that was personal to both Dave and Lauren with stories about how they met and what they mean to each other. When it came time for the group shot, coordinating the release of hundreds of butterflies is no easy task, however it was managed very well and what it resulted in was truly a unique piece of vision for their wedding video.
The location shots
After all the formal ceremony proceedings were done and dusted, we managed to get the bridal party away for a few location shots in and around the rustic scenery that is Baxter Barn.
We were able to get some memorable shots of the couple, and with the sun setting in the background made for a really fun and candid shoot.
Dave and Lauren’s wedding was most memorable and intimate. Being somewhat recognisable it was important to both Dave and Lauren that they had a small but memorable and intimate wedding, which really was achieved with great food and wine and mingling in the back decks of Baxter Barn.
We were contacted by Kelly who had this wonderful idea of doing a pre-reception video inspired by some of the video’s she had seen on Youtube.
Although i hadn’t done anything like this before for a wedding a couple and i had concerns over some of their idea’s. I had done similar things in film school which led me to believe that this is something that i could do and it would be fun.
After hearing her and Ash’s idea’s I decided to get behind it and produce a short film that would be played at the reception for laughs as their guests waited for them to make their grand entrance.
So, I got to work writing the script and after a few changes we finally had something to work with. Shot over 3 weekends and edited as quickly as i could, this is the final product.
Zoe and Mark first contacted Jiva Workshop to capture the young sweet hearts nuptials so they can remember their day when they were young
and in love and had the world at their feet.
After some consideration they opted to go with the Gold package to capture more of the important elements of the day without eating to far into their budget.
The ceremony was beautiful and took place down overlooking the beach at Mt Eliza and the elements of the day worked so well against the backdrop of a sunset on the beach.
Upon viewing the finished DVD, Mark and Zoe were amazed at the video and were so thankful that i was able to capture more than what they were hoping for.
“I wasn’t sure about this whole video thing, however after seeing it and remembering back on the day you’ve given us so much more than just a DVD. You’ve given us a memory that can be passed on to generations to come” – Mark.
I’m so glad i was able to help you and Zoe and i’m glad it will be an everlasting memoir of one of the happiest days of your life
Aaron and Belinda approached Jiva Workshop to capture their special day from a recommendation from a friend
Their wedding plans were a while in the making as they had hired Mauro from Dezine to capture the photography of their day
and wanted a dvd that could capture the special moments that they had spent months planning.
Aaron and Belinda looked amazing on the day, with a full Catholic service at a beautiful Catholic church in the city of Melbourne
With the ceremony done and dusted we ventured into many locations including a rustic italian setting outside a cafe, Port Melbourne beach pier as well as a quick stop on the way to the reception at a winery.
The reception was extravagant as the the rest of the day had been with platters of seafood and tapas
Aaron and Belinda were wonderful to work for and loved displaying their obvious affection for each other.
Upon delivery of the dvd the couple were surprised by the results
Aaron
“I can’t believe how good the dvd turned out, you’ve done an amazing job and you’ve give us something that is worth more than the cost”
As always it’s always great to hear such praises of your work.
