Christine & Gav's Bendigo Wedding

I am so, so keen to finally be posting this blog of my beautiful longtime friend Chrissy and her awesome partner Gav! I have known Chrissy and her family since childhood so it was lovely catching up with everyone on the day!

It has taken me quite a few hours to select just over 100 photos for the blog (out of almost 1000) and then individually place them on this page, as my website platform has recently changed their blogging tools and you can't upload all the images at once! 😭😭 But enough about my problems... 😂

This was my first wedding of 2020 and it was a stunner. The weather was very kind to us seeing that the wedding was in the middle of January, starting with a cool morning and only becoming particularly warm in the evening. Chrissy and Gav held their ceremony and reception at the All Seasons in Bendigo in the 'Conservatory'. I quite enjoyed this venue as an 'all-in-one' location where guests could book a room for the night and the bride and groom could get ready if they so desired. The Conservatory did have a lovely garden but I would still recommend scouting another one or two locations for photos (as we did).

Our day started at Chrissy and Gav's house where the bride squad was getting ready. Chrissy and her team had done an excellent job setting up the lounge room and kitchen area for hair and make-up, provided by Sheridan Cox and Taylah from Glow beauty Bendigo, respectively. The house was also full of light which made photos a breeze! Towards lunch time we had the rest of Chrissy's family arrive to get the wedding car ready, which the bridesmaids helped out with... well sort of! 😂

Back at the All Seasons Gav and his boys checked into their room to start sprucing themselves up. Surprisingly, without the make-up this activity was rather quick, even with a shower thrown in here and there. After working out their ties, it was time for a well deserved beer before heading over to the ceremony.

In true Chrissy fashion, everything was on time. Hair and make-up was finished, dresses were on and Chrissy and her team were just waiting for the limo to arrive when I got back to their place. We snapped a few quick photos before it was off to the ceremony as well. The ceremony was held in the lovely court-yard at the back of the Conservatory function room. My wonderful P.A (also known as Janet, aka Mumma Bear) had already captured some excellent snaps of Gav and the groomsmen waiting patiently for the girls to arrive, so I was able to go out and greet Chrissy when her and the bridesmaids pulled into the drive. This ceremony location was paved and allowed for super easy access if you were wearing fancy footwear like heels, which I thought was a nice touch. The lighting was also amazing for ceremony photos as once Christine has walked down the isle to meet Gav, the couple and the rest of their wedding party was in shade (a bonus considering the day was pretty warm if you were in the sun!).

As I said before, the gardens in the Conservatory are lovely but I do recommend going to one or two more locations for photos. Down the street directly across from the Conservatory there are a number of pretty bush-land like stops near dams and lakes. We went to some of these locations for a few photos then back into town for some garden shots. To finish off, we took some classic snaps on the stairs of the old Bendigo Post Office. I was also sure to capture a few moments between Chrissy and Gav in the back of their very cool limo that they hired through Oz Limos.

To finish up our session we got the family together for some quick photos in the Conservatory Gardens. By this time in the day I was trying to stay out of the sun because the day had now turned quite warm, so the gardens were lovely.

The reception was gorgeous with a raised area for the wedding party so they could see everyone, plenty of dance floor room and views of the gardens. The food was delicious and Christine and Gav's cake from Country Cakes was impressive.

It really was an amazing day for an amazing couple! Thanks for letting me be part of it and I hope these photos help you remember the day 💖