Today, in Telluride, Colorado that dream came true. In a pretty awesome way.

Possibly the best day ever.

A huge thanks to Jami Davis and Dana Ohlsen for capturing this special day, and for making it happen in the first place. Thanks to Jami’s husband Ryan too!

I’d stepped outside to get a long exposure shot of the old community hall in which Katie and Josh’s reception was being held. During that moment I was transported back in time. It was a feeling I’d been trying to put my finger on all night. Elusive. Like trying to remember the name of that actor doing a cameo in your favourite TV show.

Gotcha! That’s it! Tonight felt like the annual community dance.

Not just one from 20 years ago in the small country town I grew up in. But 40 or 50 years ago. Back when our parents were teenagers. Everyone in town coming together to celebrate and let loose. For one night, all the troubles of the world totally forgotten.

That’s what Katie and Josh’s wedding day felt like. And it was magical.

Katie’s dress was custom made by Melanie at Silver Sixpence. The broach on Katie’s dress was worn by her mum on her wedding day. Personalised buttons were made for all the guests. And the old Biddestone Hall outside Toowoomba was transformed. Despite all the obvious hard work that had been done, everything about the day felt effortless. It just all felt so … right.

Oh, it was also our 6th wedding anniversary. At the time, (my) Katie wasn’t too impressed that I was thinking of booking a wedding on our anniversary. After the wedding, we were driving home chatting and reflecting on the day. Katie said she wholeheartedly agreed with what I said to her at the time …

“I’ve got a very good feeling about this one.”

~Matt.

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Music Credit: James Vincent McMorrow “Higher Love” and Matt Corby “My False” – Buy on iTunes here and here.

Katie (bride) kindly took this of us to commemorate our anniversary.

Then we thought about it some more, and decided to give it a go. Why not? Life is short, we enjoy teaching other photographers and in all our trips to America we’ve never been to Colorado.

Like Jami, we’re firm believers in putting things out there and seeing what happens. That’s how we spent nearly 3 months overseas in 2011 and shooting weddings in the UK and Florida, USA.

Short story … after announcing it 2 weeks ago, 10 lovely photographers have already registered for our Colorado Workshop. That means there’s only 2 spots available!

To find out more and to register for the Colorado Workshop just click HERE.

Then we’re going to Vegas baby! We’ll be there for the WPPI conference and again we thought … why not?

We’ll be putting on an intimate, small group mentor session in Las Vegas, just before WPPI kicks off. Most likely a day between the 16th and 20th of February. It will be limited to only 5 people so that we can maximise one-on-one time with everyone.

We’re working on all the details at the moment. To receive all the information once it is ready, just click HERE and enter your e-mail address. People who sign up will be the first to receive the info and will get a head-start to register before everyone else.

Here we were thinking that we wouldn’t be doing much traveling in 2012! Goes to show you never know what extra special things life has in store for you just around the corner.

~Matt and Katie.

p.s. This photo is from the wedding we shot on the weekend. It makes us happy!

Sharlene and Danica (Kiara’s mum and sister) worked so hard to provide an extra special experience for all the guests. We’ve been on Sharlene’s case for years to start up a styling business because she is so talented! You can check out her blog here: Sweet Stella

It was such a happy wedding with Kiara and Callum grinning from ear to ear almost all day! They were simply so excited to be marrying each other, and the support and love from their friends and family only added to the joyous atmosphere. All the personal touches and gorgeous styling were the icing on the cake!

I’m also super-excited to let you know that this wedding is also featured in the Autumn 2012 issue of Cosmo Bride magazine which hit newsstands yesterday. Yay!

~Katie.

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After a few days of easing into the new year I’ve become more comfortable with letting go of 2011, and I’m ready to embrace 2012.

Here are a few of my favourites from 2011. I tried hard not to over-think the choices other than to go with my gut and pick images that really sum up my approach to shooting weddings.

~Matt.

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Music Credit: Passenger “Month of Sundays” and “The One You Love” – Buy on iTunes

2012 will be even better, but I think in a very different way.

Right now we’re working on ‘Matt and Katie 2.0′ which will be launched towards the start of next year. And I know already of another few exciting announcements we have in store.

To everyone who helps us live this wonderful life, thank you.

2011 has been an amazing year for us, and we have so many incredible weddings from it to share.

Like this one.

~Matt.

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When we travel or go on holidays, it’s rare for a camera to leave my side. I’ll always carry either our new little Fuji X100, or a bare bones version of our Nikon D700 work camera paired with a versatile lens like the 24-70mm f2.8.

In a different country and culture, I feel like an outsider looking in. And the type of photos I take when we’re traveling are reflective of that feeling. That’s why I don’t take any portraits or posed photos.

Just like on a wedding day, I’m always on the look out for interesting moments, shapes and stories to capture. 99% of the time, the people in the photos aren’t aware of me, or my camera. Capturing something real and honest is what excites me about photography.

There’s a fantastic book by Sir Ken Robinson called “The Element”. In it he proposes that everyone has a sweet spot in their life. A point at which they are ‘in their element’.

Here’s how he describes it:

“The element is the point at which natural talent meets personal passion. When people arrive at the element, they feel most themselves and most inspired and achieve at their highest levels.”

I like to describe it as finding your sweet spot in life.

I’m an observer and this style of documentary photography is my sweet spot.

And I am in my element when I’m able to do just that. To observe. Camera in hand. On holidays, or at a wedding.

So, these images are the chronological story of our most recent 2 month overseas trip, told through a collection of street/documentary photography. Down the track we’ll also share a collection of beautiful ‘non-people’ photos, stuff like landscapes, vistas and the various beautiful places we visited on our trip.

At the end of this post I’ve pasted the list of all the places we visited. See how many you can pick from the photos without peeking at the list. And keep an eye out for the Mano Lisa. Yep, that’s not a typo. You’ll know it when you see it.

Enjoy!

~Matt.

p.s. I don’t usually put music to our blog posts but this song by our good friend, Stu Larsen, fits perfectly with our trip and our strange traveling lifestyle. Take your time, listen to the music and words. And think about the stories of the people in the photos.
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Brisbane > Sydney > Abu Dhabi > London > Leeds > London > Fleet > London > Paris > London > Bath > Wales > London > Venice > Corfu > Mykonos > Santorini > Ephesus > Venice > Rome > Athens > Santorini > Athens > London > Southhampton > London > Abu Dhabi > Sydney > Brisbane

We have soooo many amazing weddings to share with you all, I thought I’d start by sharing Kira and Willy’s wedding.

Kira and Willy hired the ‘Barefoot Villa’ at Pavilions, Broken Head as the location of their wedding. The beautiful beachfront property was the perfect relaxed setting for an intimate wedding, surrounded by their closest family and friends.

Willy and his mates got up early for a morning surf. And yes, we were a little worried that we wouldn’t get them out of the water in time for the ceremony, but they came to shore with plenty of time to spare. The waves were a bit of a distraction before the ceremony, but all eyes were on Kira as soon as she walked onto the beach.

The ceremony was decorated by Byron Bay Designer Weddings and even though it was an overcast day and the clouds threatened to bucket down rain, not a drop fell during the ceremony. In fact, just as they were saying their vows, the sun momentarily peaked through to say hello before hiding away again.

The gourmet BBQ reception was delicious, and the speeches were fantastic! Kira’s Dad’s speech had everyone in stitches, possibly one of the greatest speeches we’ve heard to date!

I’d confidently say that Kira and Willy’s wedding day was close to perfect, and we were lucky enough to be able to capture it for them.

Thanks Kira and Willy, we hope you are having an amazing time traveling around Europe and the UK. So jealous! I want to be back there now!

~Katie.

We only wanted a few, so we were stoked when we booked three weddings in a row, on consecutive weekends!

The funny thing is, soon after we booked the weddings, my brother (Lachlan) decided to come home! He couldn’t hack the cold weather. Haha!

Matt and I were both still very excited to be heading over to the UK. The last time I was in England I was 13, and this was Matt’s first time over there.

The three weeks we planned to stay soon stretched out to two whole months. Yes! That’s right! After finishing the weddings we’d have a month and a half off in the UK and Europe. How amazingly blessed are we?! When you make the flight to that side of the world, you really make the most of your time over there.

Not only were we lucky enough to spend three weeks in London, we also visited Wales, Paris, Rome, Venice and Santorini. We had such an amazing time, even getting to attend Wimbledon twice. Once for the finals!

So, this is the first of our UK weddings.

We first met with Hatty and Joel over Skype, and after giggling like children at their ‘cute accents’, we got to know them more and chatted all about their wedding day.

As Hatty and Joel described their ideal day to us, we became more and more excited about our trip over! We couldn’t wait to meet them in person! After arriving in London and having a few short days to get over jetlag, we caught the train from London to Leeds.

The morning of the wedding Joel picked us up and we chatted away with excitement during the 40 minute drive out of town to the Priory Cottages. He dropped us off and made a quick exit (so he didn’t see his bride).

Hatty was sitting getting her makeup done when we walked into the beautiful stone cottage. She squealed with excitement and thanked us repeatedly for coming all the way from Australia to shoot her wedding. I squealed too, and repeatedly thanked her for making it possible!

The setting for the wedding was amazing. A beautiful square of stone cottages, with white pebble paths and rows of lavender around a centre water feature. Wheat fields surrounded the property, with occasional patches of red poppies springing up in the distance.

The weather was forecast to be horrible and rainy, but as the day went on, the sun came out more and more! We joked with Hatty and Joel that we’d brought the sunshine over from Australia, that was our gift to them!

Matt caught a lift to go photograph the boys, and after Hatty finished her hair and makeup she slipped into her beautiful elegant gown, and then we were off to the church in an old 1961 Bristol. Hatty got choked up as she said her vows, which was really sweet. Joel simply beamed from ear to ear.

Probably the highlight of the day for me was just after we hopped back into the Bristol after the ceremony. I was sitting in the front next to the driver, with the newlyweds in the back seat. I heard Hatty exclaim “Joel! I’m just soooo happy!” It was a really lovely moment and summed up the whole day perfectly.

As you can see in the photos, not only were there huge amounts of joy at this wedding, but Hatty and Joel had also gone to so much effort to make it personal. All the little details had meaning to them, they’d really put a lot of thought into every part of their day.

For example, they had Blackpool rock candy – because Joel grew up in Blackpool. Instead of having a guest-book, they had guests write notes to them on vintage Hawaii postcards, because Joel proposed to Hatty in Hawaii. The confetti thrown outside the church was grown in Wales by Hatty’s auntie. All the food was organic and free-range, sourced locally in Yorkshire, and the wedding cake was home-baked by good friend Fran. How sweet!

The reception was lovely, the food was delicious, the guests had such great time. The speeches were hilarious, yet heartfelt and the first dance gave me goosebumps.

Hatty and Joel, we had such an amazing experience! It was so wonderful spending time with you both and so special to be a part of your big day. As we said to you then, even if yours was the only wedding we shot over there – it would have totally have been worth the trip over!

~Katie.

Surely this is a dream?

Please don’t wake us. We want to sleep forever.