- Ceremony
- Mount Macedon Winery, Woodend
- Reception
- Mount Macedon Winery, Woodend
- City
- Melbourne
- Coverage
- Film photography
- Edit
- Lab scans of 35mm colour film, with the half-frame pairs left side by side as they came off the roll
- Team
- Jay and Sofia
Kristie and Gareth married at Mount Macedon Winery, near Woodend in the Macedon Ranges, on a clear Friday in September 2026. Ties Urie Photography was their photographer for the day. We were there for the 35mm: Jay and Sofia shot the day on film from half past one until half past nine, and we cut them a short video teaser as a gift.
It was a spring day of clear sun and long shadows that ended under a red sky, and their colours, pink, burgundy and gold, ran from the bridesmaids' pyjamas to the candles on the tables. Many of the frames came off the roll as half-frame pairs, two moments side by side, and we've left them that way.
Pyjamas and champagne
The afternoon started on the deck of a house with a terracotta tiled roof and tall glass doors, the lawn running away below it. The bridesmaids wore matching pink and red striped pyjamas and toasted with champagne on the deck, then cheered on the lawn and gathered round Kristie, who was in white satin pyjamas. She held up the open ring box for us, and the invitations, her shoes and her jewellery were laid out on her veil.
Into the gown
Then it was time for the dress. The lace train lay across the floor in a stripe of afternoon sun, and Kristie did up her shoes by the glass doors. A bridesmaid in dusty blue helped her with the last of it by a bright window, while an older woman in pink waited with the bouquet. The bedroom was simple and white, which is exactly what film likes: soft window light and nothing to distract from the lace.
Before four o'clock
Out in the garden, the guests arrived to a pink and lace welcome banner and a saxophone and guitar duo playing on a rug among the clipped hedges. Gareth, in his white dinner jacket, black waistcoat and bow tie, laughed with his guests on the lawn. The family took the front row of white folding chairs, and a phone went up on a stand at the front. Gareth's family overseas watched the day on a livestream.
Down the lawn
At four o'clock two page boys in little suits and a flower girl in pink came down the lawn from the timber pergola at the top. Kristie followed on her dad's arm, across the grass with her veil trailing behind her, past her guests standing on both sides of the aisle. The ceremony lawn slopes down from the pergola under tall gums and pines, so everyone could watch her the whole way down.
The ceremony
They held hands at the front, beside an arrangement of red, pink and white flowers on the grass, with the tall trees overhead and the dam, the paddocks and the valley falling away behind them. The celebrant, in a grey suit, led the ceremony, and Kristie read her vows to Gareth beside the flowers. With the spring sun coming low through the trees, the whole lawn came back from the lab soft and warm.
The surprise witnesses
Then came the surprise Kristie and Gareth had planned. Partway through the ceremony, Kristie and the celebrant brought an older woman in a floral blouse forward while the guests watched from their chairs: their grandparents had been asked, there and then, to be the witnesses. At the small timber-topped table on the lawn, an older woman in a pink shawl signed the certificate while Kristie held the page steady for her.
Married
When it was done they raised their joined hands at the front and the guests cheered, then stood arm in arm in front of everyone, the valley behind them. They walked back up the aisle past their guests, and Gareth dipped Kristie for a kiss while the guests took photos of their own. Afterwards, in the garden, the two of them just laughed, and nearby a guest pushed a little boy on the rope swing that hangs from a big old tree on the lawn.
Golden hour in the paddocks
As the sun dropped we walked them out into the paddocks. Kristie laughed as she led Gareth by the hand through the grass, and a shaggy Highland cow wandered over to see what was going on. Gareth twirled her into the setting sun. By the dam, in the low light, he threw his arms in the air, and the wind took her veil out behind them as they held each other. On the hillside it lifted again as they kissed. We finished in the wide open paddock, the two of them small under a soft evening sky.
A red sky
Then the sky went red. The winery sits on the western slopes of Mount Macedon, about 680 metres up, looking out over the Black Forest Valley, so on a clear evening the sunset fills the view. We caught Kristie and Gareth in silhouette against it, two dark shapes against the red, and then it was time to go inside for the reception.
Champagne and candlelight
Inside, the guests stood and applauded at their candlelit tables as Kristie and Gareth came in, and the bridal introduction ended, as they had planned, at a champagne tower, which they poured together. The long tables ran beside big windows over the vines, set with red and pink taper candles, carnations and bread rolls, with burgundy bows tied around the wine barrels. Gareth stood up for his speech beside Kristie at the head table, and the wishing well was an English red post box marked with their initials, among gold-framed family photographs.
On the dance floor
Their first dance was at a quarter to eight, with Horizon Duo playing on the open floor. After that the floor belonged to everyone. Kristie danced with a little girl in a blue tulle dress who had been around all day, an older couple danced with a child between them, and Kristie threw her arm in the air while the saxophonist played right beside her.
On film
Every photograph here is a lab scan from a roll of 35mm. Film colour is warmer and softer than digital, and the frames that came back with a flare of sun stayed in, because that is part of it. See 35mm film wedding photography.
