Three years ago, when I began daring to tell people I did photography (but was still too scared to say "I am a photographer"), the follow-up question was almost always, "Oh, so you do weddings?"
Erm, no. No, ma'am. I do birth.
Cue expression of mild shock, then softening... "Oh, so newborns?"
I mean, yes, newborns too, but mostly birth. Like, babies being born, birth.
The wide-eyed expression would return in full force, followed by a myriad of suggestions of other things I could maybe do, like photographing people's pets, as visions of bribing pampered, grumpy cats to sit in front of formal backdrops flashed through my mind.
There was a reason for my hesitation to work in areas except for birth (and especially not pet portraits)... before I had the language for it, my heart was completely and utterly drawn to documentary photography. I didn't want to ask people to look at me, and I didn't want people asking me how they should pose. I simply wanted to see, and to photograph what was true. Birth was perfect for this. People expected me to just show up and tell the story. But weddings? I believed that people would expect me to write the story, too.
And then, one evening in the middle August, my phone buzzed. An enquiry had come through, the option ticked for an Artist Session, but when I opened the email, I read, "Hey Georgia, I know you don't do weddings, but..."
"Hey Toooony," I said, already surprised at myself for what I was going to say. "Someone wants me to photograph her wedding... and she said really nice things about my work... and it's a small backyard wedding... and I'm actually quite keen to chat to her more about it!"
And chat we did. A few emails, a phone call, me literally bounding into the kitchen afterwards telling Tony how amazing this bride sounded before running back to my desk to send her details. I already felt like I'd made a friend. And when I drove home from the cafe after meeting Kaitlyn and Noah a few weeks before their wedding, I drummed on the steering wheel, bounced in my seat, unable to contain my fizzy excitement that I would get to photograph this beautiful, kindred, down-to-earth couple who trusted and shared my vision for photos that would simply document their day, celebrate their marriage, and honour who they are both as a couple, and in the context of the people they love.
And so it was, on the 9th of January 2026, I photographed a wedding. I witnessed, I documented, I held space for the story that was there and allowed it to unfold before my lens, and oh, what a story I beheld! It was one unbound by expectations and convention, with eyes brim with love and hope, marked by delight and peace and playfulness and seriousness and God.
It was a wedding that was truly Kaitlyn and Noah.
And I think, yes, perhaps it is true that I don't normally do weddings, but...
