Small & Seasonal - Hannah & Ryan's tiny autumn wedding in Hawke's Bay

Before I even saw Hannah and Ryan on their wedding day in Hawke’s Bay recently, I knew it was going to be something truly special for me creatively (because it’s all about me, right?!). The late afternoon sun was glinting through the trees, casting a golden glow over the autumn landscape and making the leafy ground look like melted gold. I walked into the riverside lodge they had booked for themselves and immediate family and almost begged them to have their ceremony beneath the trees rather than the more obvious spot overlooking the Tukituki river. The beauty of small weddings is that anything is possible, so five minutes later, Hannah and Ryan were exchanging vows with the help of celebrant, Sophie Hansen, perfectly dressed in gold for the seasonal showcase.

Hannah and Ryan are not the sort to seek out the limelight so the idea of a small wedding with only immediate family appealed to them and also meant they got to spend quality time with the people they loved the most, without the busy pace that inevitably comes with a Big White Wedding. They retained all the things that mattered (a gorgeous gown, exceptional food and wine and beautiful photography) but left the aspects that often make a wedding stressful at the door. After the ceremony, we spent some time chilling out and doing some family photography before I took them to a few of my favourite places to shoot an autumn wedding in Hawke’s Bay. With only the three of us, we were free to chase the last of the light all the way to the top of Te Mata Peak and the show from Mother Nature continued with an amazing sunset.

Normally there’s just enough time to pop off a few epic frames in the golden hour up the Peak before racing back down to a wedding reception with 100+ guests. Today, our time was our own so we stayed for a few minutes more to soak up the softer light that comes just after the sun dips below the horizon. Though in truth I could have stayed forever with these two in front of my camera.

If you’d like to see more recent weddings at some of the most beautiful wedding venues in Hawke’s Bay, please take a look at my recent work on the blog.