Even though the week had been a bit rainy here on the Gold Coast, The sun came out for Kevin and Rebecca’s beautiful wedding day. Kevin and Rebecca celebrated their wedding at the most magical location on top of Mt Tamborine overlooking the Gold Coast and Pacific Ocean.

Not only was the location stunning but the months of planning and DIY-ing payed off, as this wedding had some of the most amazing details we have ever seen! Kevin and Rebecca’s wedding was filled with hues of purple and pink, the most amazing flowers, beautiful table centre pieces, hay bale’s covered in vintage fabrics and an awesome cookie buffet table!

We are also very proud to announce that we were part of this beautiful couple’s first look. It is the first time we have done a first look. For those of you who don’t know what a first look is, it is when the bride and groom takes a moment before the ceremony to “first look” at each other in a private location where they can share those emotional and happy moments together.

The gorgeous couple said their vows by the beautiful big tree overlooking the coastline and we had such a great time after their ceremony taking photographs of them and their bridal party and guests. Because it is such a beautiful location and everyone looked so stunning it really wasn’t hard to get plenty of photos! Hope you enjoy all the images from the stunning wedding!

The first look, really emotional and beautiful.

Wedding Photography Gold Coast by Photographer, Corne Lategan

Kiara and Dan are a fantastic (newly married) couple from the UK who came to the Gold Coast (where Kiara is from and where her family are) for their wedding. We first met Kiara and Dan over Skype and had their engagement session at Emerald Lakes a few days before their big day. They are just the loveliest, friendliest couple and we loved hanging out with them as their wedding photographers. Kiara and Dan were married at Southport Yacht Club on a beautiful sunny day overlooking the Marina and we couldn’t ask for better weather.

As always, weddings are very emotion for us and we really love being part of so many. Kiara and Dan’s were no exception. They are such an easy going couple and we loved every minute of their wedding.

Wedding Photography Gold Coast by Photographer, Corne Lategan

We first met Kiara and Dan over skype and I think, well I hope they will also agree, that we hit it off from the very start. Kiara is originally from the Gold Coast but moved to London a few years ago where the two now live as a couple. They decided to get married on the Gold Coast and we are so thankful to be their wedding photographers this coming Saturday.

Their personalities are awesome and they are very easy going. They said they felt a little awkward the first few minutes of the session but believe me, they did not look it at all. One thing we love as wedding photographers are natural, free flowing and easy going sessions. Kiara and Dan’s engagement session was everything I just described and we loved it!

We first met for a coffee and afterwards went to our first location where the grass was totally drenched from all the rain we have had on the Gold Coast lately. Did that stop us? No, but the wind did shortly afterwards. We then decided to go onto another location and it was just perfect, dry and no wind that is. I believe we got some amazing photographs and it is because of the nature of the session. The “natural, free flowing and easy going” part.

We love to improvise a lot of the time, may it be with locations or anything else. I believe we always end up getting some really spontaneous photographs that really shows off the couples’ personality that we would not have been able to capture in the first place. Our couples personalities always steer us into the right direction. And that is another reason why I love doing what I am doing.

Wedding Photography Gold Coast by Photographer, Corne Lategan

Don’t you love it when things just work out? That’s what happened when when we were organising an engagement session for Kerryn and Daniel. Kerryn and Daniel are a fantastic couple from Canberra, Australia who are relocating to Seattle in the U.S. for work. Kerryn and I have been communicating via email and when she mentioned that she will be with Daniel in Seattle end of February, we knew what we had to do. As soon as I received the email I smiled and quickly replied to say that Lara and I would love to come do their engagement session in Seattle. Kerryn and Daniel loved the idea so 2 weeks later Lara and I found ourselves in Seattle. Seattle is a little different from our home town on the Gold Coast. We were both shocked at how beautiful Seattle was and we loved it so much from the very beginning.

Daniel and Kerry is busy moving to the States and will be having their wedding later this year on the Gold Coast in Australia with their family. They are both very natural and chatting to them can easily

Wedding Photography Gold Coast by Photographer, Corne Lategan

Album Design

Wedding Photography Gold Coast by Photographer, Corne Lategan

Perfect wedding day timeline tips for your wedding photographs

The flow of your wedding day

I will start of by saying that every couple is different and so is every wedding. These wedding timeline tips are timeline tips for wedding photographs not so much what is right or wrong.

Wedding Photography Gold Coast by Photographer, Corne Lategan

Bridal Preparation Tips

I get a lot of questions and from my experience I want to give you some of the major tips that will make your bridal preparation even more magical than what it will be. Everyone is different and all photographers may have a different way of doing things but this is what I have noted over the years.

1. Choose a room with the most windows and the biggest windows. Make sure you open all the curtains.
2. Put off all the lights. Lights are ugly and we do prefer the light that comes into the windows even if you think it is too dark to take photographs we still prefer it over lights.

Wedding Photography Gold Coast by Photographer, Corne Lategan

Most of our clients come to us after they have booked their wedding day ceremony and reception venues and ask us our opinion on locations for the romantic photography session so in this post I will introduce wedding photography gold coast locations for your romantic session.

For those of you who do not know what the Romantic Photography Session is:

The Romantic Photography Sessions is about 30 minutes after your ceremony. After all the congratulations from loved ones, all the smiles and tears. We go to a location away from all your guests so that there are no distractions.

We named it the Romantic Photography Session because it is a very special part of your wedding day. The photography side of it isn’t the end all be all when it comes to the Romantic Session, it is the time when you can really take a breath and realize that you are now married. We then capture those moments. Those moments are so important to our couples and it is truly beautiful to capture and relive forever.

As gold coast wedding photographers we love to go to a location that has meaning to the couple or even a location that just looks really good so that we can put this beautiful couple, just married, in a beautiful context and capture the moments they share as newly married husband and wife.

The locations:

Because we have done so many weddings on the Gold Cost and in Brisbane, we have seen a lot of venues and are always happy to recommend venues if you haven’t finalised that yet. Feel free to email us and tell us what you are looking for.

Most couples ask us what we think when it comes to the photography of the bride, groom and bridal party after the ceremony and family photos until the reception and the best answer we can give them is to think about a location that is special, sentimental or just beautiful to them. A location they are comfortable with.

Same wedding venue:

A lot of times the venue the couple has chosen provides plenty of opportunities but sometimes couples have other ideas for locations that require travel between the ceremony and reception.

If you are having your ceremony and reception all at the one venue (like Coolibah Downs or Tamborine Gardens or  the beautiful Woodland Lakeside Function Centre) you will most probably love their locations and it won’t be necessary to drive to another location for your Romantic Photography Session.

Some of our clients have a different ceremony and reception venue. This usually requires the choice of a different location for photos. It all depends on what kind of style/types of photographs you want. Some of our couples want to go to the beach to take photographs, others prefer Currumbin Valley or Mt Tamborine.

We know lots of great locations so our clients generally ask us our opinion, a lot of beautiful wedding photos have been taken at locations our clients would have never thought would be great locations, so feel free to discuss this with us at any time

This post is to introduce what is coming very shortly, Wedding Photography Gold Coast location reviews. With these reviews we will be posting a few photographs of some of our favorite locations, some “secret spots” that might not be so secret but they photograph really well and a few other tips.

I would also like to invite you to recommend a location that you love and we will check it out. You can do so by either sending us an email or comment in the box below this post.

Wedding Photography Gold Coast by Photographer, Corne Lategan

Being a Gold Coast Wedding Photographer I get this question a lot. Why should we have to do an engagement session before my Gold Coast wedding? We also get an excuse a lot of the time for not having to do one. The excuse is that “we have been engaged for too long now anyway”. In this post I will explain and justify why it is never too late to do an engagement session.

What an engagement session is not

Before I get on into it I will some up what I believe an engagement session is not:
• It is nothing to do with the proposal, however we can do a Proposal Session that leads into an Engagement Session. This is where the guy organizes with us prior to the proposal to hide and photograph as the proposal happens. We will have another post about that in the very near future. It is very exciting by the way!
• An engagement session has nothing to do with your engagement party.

What is an engagement session?

So here is the big question. As my years as a Gold Coast Wedding Photographer I believe that a lot of people have their different ways of explaining what an engagement session is. I will quickly list a few of those.
• An engagement photography session is a couple’s photo shoot done anytime before the couple’s big day (Obviously).
• Because most people don’t love being in front of the camera, an engagement session is great for getting used to being photographed for your big day (True).
• This can be especially good for getting the future groom more comfortable with ‘lovey photographs’.
• The Gold Coast Wedding Photographer loves engagement sessions because it gives them the opportunity to get to know a couple better.
• It’s great to have that relationship and understanding when it comes to the big day, between the couple and photographers
• Engagement Sessions are a lot of fun.
• Engagement session are an easy going, relaxed shoot where you can concentrate on being yourselves, in love, and excited for what’s to come!

The biggest reason why I believe you should have an engagement session.

It is very important to understand that we do not take photographs of two people at a given location. We are all part of this engagement session to capture the ‘young and passionate’ love of two people that love each other so much. We capture this moment in time in your lives when you do not want to be apart from each other, even for a few minutes.

We capture the things you do together. Let’s say for example you love to fly kites and we incorporate kites into the session. We are not capturing two people and a few kites, we capture two beautiful people that are wonderfully in love doing what they love to do together. That is why you see so many picnic engagement sessions around, not only because it is cute to have a basket and a blanket for photographs but because it is something people love to do together. As a Gold Coast Wedding Photographer that is why we will ask you what you love to do together. When we ask you that, we want you to really think hard about it and not just come up with something quickly. Go back; think about the first few months you were together, in the early stages of your wonderful relationship. And think of the times that made you smile inside and what you were doing at the time. How and where did the first ‘I love you’ happen? When and where was the first kiss? It is all part of your story, a very important story.

I think that most people won’t understand the true meaning of these photographs until they look back at the photographs 20 years from now. These engagement photographs might not even be for yourselves but they might be part of the story that you will tell your children one day. As a Gold Coast Wedding Photographer I can give so many good reasons why you should do an engagement session but it always come back to that one reason, that you will understand when you tell the story to the next generation.

What to wear to your engagement session

It’s important to always feel comfortable when dressing for your engagement session. When you feel uncomfortable in your clothes it can sometimes show in your actions and expression, which is the last look you want for romantic photos with your fiancé. We like to encourage our couples to put a little thought into what they are going to wear, however matching clothes is definitely not necessary (unless that’s the look you want). The shoot is about you as a couple, your love, and your personalities, so what your wear is your own creative expression. Feel free to bring at least two outfits so that we can have a variety of photographs. (We will be doing an in depth post about what to wear very soon.)

FAQ’s I get a lot as a Gold Coast Wedding Photographer about engagement sessions

So now that I have tried to explain to you what I believe an engagement session is all about let’s get into the finer details with some FAQ’s.

Q. When should we do the engagement session?
A. As soon as possible if you want to use the photographs for your wedding or even 2 weeks before your Gold Coast wedding. We have done engagement sessions a few days prior to the wedding.

Q. Where should we do the engagement session?
A. Refer back to what I said earlier in the post. To sum it up, a place you love to be together, where you hang out and nothing else matters.

Q. How can we use the photographs for our wedding?
A. Again we will do an in depth post about this. The biggest and most amazing think you can do is to get a Guest Book with your photographs in it. You’re guests can sign all their happy wishes in it. We include it in some of our packages.

Q. How long will the session take?
A. Normally anywhere from one and half hours to 2 and a half. We do not limit it and we love to do a few locations.

Q. What is the best time for the session?
A. For the outdoors on the Gold Coast we normally meet up 2 hours before sunset. Sometimes we have a coffee somewhere to have a chat and get in the spirit of the session. We even have dinner together afterwards sometimes!

Q. What if we are not comfortable in front of the camera?
A. The nerves always kick in when a camera is looking at you but I can promise you it won’t take long until you are enjoying it. It is seriously so much fun, even the guys that are frozen at the start love it by the end. Ask all out couples.

Q. Posing?
A. We don’t do too much posing, what we do is ask you to do something for us and we go from there. It is very easy. We do however guide you sometimes so that you look your absolute best.

Engagement Session Theme

The last think I want to leave you with is to think about incorporating a theme into your engagement session. As Gold Coast Wedding Photographers we have noticed that it is very popular at the moment to shoot engagements with a theme. Although this will require a bit more planning from you, the outcome is totally worth it. Having a theme makes it fun for you and also makes the photos look like they belong out of a magazine. Great theme ideas could include a picnic, complete with plaid red blanket, and a basket full of delicious goodies. A romantic movie can also be the inspiration for a great engagement session, think the notebook; 50′s, row boats and romance. Or the animated movie “Up”, with colourful balloons and suitcases. Use your imagination and have a bit of fun! Having a theme is totally up to you and your personalities. If it is not something you are interested in, regular photos are equally stunning.

Wedding Photography Gold Coast by Photographer, Corne Lategan