mary + craig: engagement

Do you believe in fate, signs or psychics? Fortune telling perhaps? What if you went to see a clairvoyant and you were told that on a particular day something significant will happen to you? Sure it could be nothing or it could be something but what if that significant event was meeting the person you were going to spend the rest of your life with?

Well that’s exactly what happened to Mary. One night, during her holiday in Australia, she was sick in bed. She told herself that she didn’t come all the way from Canada to just lie around in her hostel. She dragged herself out of bed, went to the pub and she met Craig.

When Mary got back to her hostel, she picked up her journal to write about that special person she had just met. The entry wasn’t blank. It was written in already and it told Mary that this was the day something significant was supposed to happen to her. Few years later, the man she met in the pub that day proposed =)

Mary and Craig are the first couple that have booked me for a wedding and if you want to talk signs well they actually got engaged on my birthday!

The engagement session took place at Willow Glen which is their farm located 4 hours away from Sydney. Check out the previous post to read about our lovely weekend at Willow Glen.

The first spot for our shoot was this historic old rusty bed. I think it had been a long time that this bed has seen any action.

We hadn’t been shooting very long when big clouds swept over the sky and the sun was gone. Craig took a quick break and Mary waited patiently for his return.

We know Craig wasn’t all keen on the photo shoot and perhaps he was a little shy but when he got in front of the camera, he was quite natural and photogenic. These two have great smiles and this would have to be the most natural couple portraits I have done to date.

“Surely we must be done by now?” Craig asked pleadingly. Ok ok we’re done here (for now). Craig quickly ran off once the green light was given haha. I don’t know what he was doing as Mary, Eric and I were busy having fun taking photos at the rusty bed.

After a while I turned around to see where Craig was. My eyes caught a picture. I saw the thistles spread out everywhere between me and where Craig was standing. Behind him were trees that have shed leaves for the winter. I quickly told Mary to run up to where Craig was. She ran up and gave him a quick kiss. This is one of my fav photo.

Perhaps Craig and give Mary a piggy back but oh no Craig had other ideas.

Like his spit roast for the reception idea, piggy backing on Mary’s back didn’t stick either hehehe (sorry Craig, I couldn’t resist!).

The first day that I arrived, I spotted the brightly coloured armchair they had in the living room. I had this idea of taking the armchair outside in the open grass area for the photo shoot. Mary suggested putting it on the hill where they ceremony will be held. Great.

What’s even more awesome was when we drove back to the house, the cows were grazing right outside. I told Mary and Craig I wanted the armchair right in the middle of the herd! I was so excited about this idea and it turned out quite bizarre and really fun to shoot!

Here we started off with Craig. He is looking quite comfie watching his cows.

In the real world, would an Aussie bloke like Craig be just sitting there in a chair? Of course not! He’d have a beer in his hand!

The beer was a great idea Mary. It kept Craig sticking around for a little while longer =)

We took the chair up to the hill and the cows still followed.

I asked Mary to send the cows away so that she and Craig could have some privacy.

Last quick snaps on the front porch and we were done!

Thank you Mary and Craig for a lovely weekend at the Willow Glen. I can’t wait to capture the day you say I do. See you in October!