Jenny and Jason’s Wedding
What’s better than an engagement party? An engagement party that becomes your wedding! Surprise!!
Jenny and Jason didn’t want to have a big wedding with all the pressure that weddings can being and so we planned their surprise wedding as part of their engagement party.
Setting the Scene
In planning the ceremony, we were conscious of not alerting guests to what was happening later in the evening. Jenny and Jason chose Verity Laneas the venue for their party, they’d recently celebrated a family event there and so it ticked all the boxes, nothing to alert family or friends, an area with lots of space for mingling and later dancing, easy food, a casual and informal set up.
As friends of Jenny and Jason’s it wasn’t strange that I was there alongside my husband (with his camera in hand). We’d both worked with Jenny and maintained a friendship from that time. When people arrived, we had a table for the fabulous engagement cake made with a few balloons behind it – nothing over the top. Nothing that screamed ‘wedding’.
Canberra Wedding Location
Wedding Photographer
The Surprise
I’d taken on the role of ‘MC’, grabbing the mic and telling people that hot food had arrived. After people had been eating for a while, with a nod from Jenny and Jason I got people’s attention, started talking about the engagement, got Jenny to flash her bling, the reason we were all here to celebrate – and then let them all in on the surprise.
We easily created a wedding frame by moving the balloons, simple set up and we were ready to go! (My legal documents had been hiding behind a curtain - always the professional celebrant still).
Fun, quick moving photos
Jenny and Jason hate being the centre of attention, hate photos and wanted to get to the fun of partying with everyone as quickly as possible. As we wrapped up the wedding ceremony, their guests were given the challenge of having all the photos taken within the time of the one song we were about to play. They needed to organise groups and move as quickly as they could. Michael Taylor got our newly married couple in position on a couple of chairs, got ready, we hit play on the song and he started snapping!
It was a fabulous approach that created many fun photos and reflected the creativity and sense of humour of Jenny and Jason’s guests. We even had a few people in the photos via video.
The incredible wedding vendors who brought their dream day to life!
