A Ben Ean Wedding in the Hunter Valley

Ben Ean Hunter Valley was the location where Ethan and Rachael made their vows.

I met Ethan at the beginning of last year at a Central Coast Expo. He and Rachael decided to book me in and soon after we had a catch-up over a coffee. I loved hearing about how these guys met and this is their words on how it happened: “We had both been going to Tumbi Indoor Sports for a long time but never crossing paths until one night about 9 years ago we were both playing volleyball on opposite courts when Ethan got smashed in the face with the ball by one of his teammates. Five minutes later, Rachael got hit in the face on the next court by her teammate when we first locked eyes and noticed each other when Ethan made a smart remark saying that’s 1 all. For the record, Rachael got hit again 5 minutes later and she clapped back with that 2-1. Ever since then, we kept seeing each other and chatting and the rest is history” – one of the things I love about what I do is hearing some of the weird and wonderful ways of how people meet. A lot of it is ‘right place right time’, and in the case of these guys it was being smacked in the face by a volleyball!

When we were chatting Rachael told me she would love a photo of the bridal party running from a dinosaur. I knew what she meant, I’d seen this done a couple of times. It’s a lot of fun and involves the bridal party committing to it and showing off their best scared faces. In this blog, you will see some shots of the bridal party running. As I hadn’t done this before, I tried a couple of things. All of them together and also hilarious photos of them by themselves, or Ethan pushing his sister out of the way, two groomsmen carrying the other groomsman and the look on faces had me cracking up as I was putting them together. In the end, this is how I did it – a composite of six images.

Originally this lovely couple were to be married at Tamburaine but bad luck struck when the reception area burned down a few months back. Like so many, I was upset to see this, I’ve photographed a few weddings at this venue and it was one of my favourites. However, as I’ve learned with the Hunter Valley community, other venues stepped in and came to the rescue and Ben Ean (only down the road from Tamburlaine) had the date available and provided a gorgeous day for Ethan and Rachael.

It’s been such a joy sharing this journey and also the surprise of being 28 weeks pregnant when they turned up to their engagement shoot! What a big year 2023 is for Ethan and Rachael, a beautiful wedding and a baby whose arrival is very soon – looking forward to hearing the news of Baby Milne.