Wineport Lodge Wedding – Amanda & Terry’s Lovefest
This was over a year ago already… Am I the slowest photographer to blog ever? Honestly, I just couldn’t share this on my shitty website that didn’t work last year and then this year has just gone so fast… And also, also… there’s just a part of me that sort of feels, or felt, protective of these images… That I didn’t want other people just ‘looking’. Is that weird? I feel like it’s weird, but then I realised that other people really do need to see how beautiful that day was.
When I look back at Amanda & Terry’s wedding, (in Wineport Lodge FYI, lakeshore loveliness) what I remember most is their first look, and that moment after it was all done when we just looked at each other in a sort of stunned silence.
It was an incredibly emotional, raw experience, to be there in that moment with these two people whose love for each other is almost like a physical presence. They have this bond that they just can’t escape, and you can just feel it.
For me, being married is saying that you’re going to spend your lives just showing up for each other, helping each other and making each other better, and to my mind, Amanda and Terry are the embodiment of that.
They’re honest and about who they are and just so beautifully open about their love and how much they adore each other and how much their people mean to them…
The amazing Karen Dempsey AKA The Bald Priestess led the ceremony, not a dry eye … Honestly.
These are my thoughts that week about their gathering later in the day:
This week I stood in a sun-soaked dining room with a tiny wedding reception all held captive by the way the bride’s father, Brendan, wove each and every person around the table into a beautiful story of a family joined and doubled in one pure lovefest of a day. I don’t think I was the only one surprised at how connected everyone was, even before they came together. They were all little things – inconsequential on their own, but together they built up into a fascinating and touching narrative. Notes had been scribbled for hours, thoughts as they occurred – things as they were noticed.
He’d spent the whole day really being right there in the room with everyone and his gift to his daughter was this beautiful illustration about how perfectly connected everyone in the room was.
Earlier this year, as I was preparing to blog some of the weddings from last year, I asked some questions from my couples. What Amanda and Terry said is beautiful, but even more so, that they each gave their own answers, teamwork man, beautiful flippin teamwork!!
How do you work on your marriage?
Amanda:
We’re friends. We know and show up for each other and we communicate well. We’re apart during the week so we get to miss each other a lot. But every weekend we reconnect with and mind each other. We simply always get along. Terry is very easy going and a great listener, so I always have him to talk to when I’m stressing out of my head. He’s on the road all week and I’m a real home maker, so he loves coming back to the home fire burning. We rarely eat out because I love to cook for him. We mostly just light the fire, hunker down with the cat and the dog and watch movies or shite TV or just listen to music. We’re a happy, uncomplicated little family.
Terry:
Not for one second do I forget how lucky I am. I don’t and never will take our relationship for granted. We always talk to each other, and more importantly, we “LISTEN”. I have total respect for my woman. I Love, mind and protect her every second of every day.
I think that pretty much says it all right?
Can you even begin to imagine how bloody honoured I felt to be a part of that world? Can you now understand why it’s take me so long to share this with you?
PS – Amanda and I met earlier this year to chat about our work and common values.
PPS – Please take a minute to check out Amanda’s website, she is a constant state of evolution with her work and the ways in which she brings others along on her journey. I feel like you might be into it, and maybe I’ll see you at one of her workshops soon.
