They met at a teenage dirtbag themed birthday party. Holly says it was love at first sight. Nathan, on the other hand, thought that Holly was tall. Years later they booked a bush camp at Mt Evelyn for a whole weekend, and as their Yarra Ranges wedding videographer I got all three days of it.
Most of the work I do as a Yarra Ranges wedding videographer happens inside a single day. This one did not. Holly and Nathan booked out Mt Evelyn Discovery Camp for the whole weekend, married on the Saturday, and then filled the days either side with archery, a giant swing, bunk beds and everyone they love staying on site.
Because nobody had to drive home, the whole thing moved differently. Gum trees, festoon lights, and a food truck. Guests arrived in casual clothes on the Friday and were still there on the Sunday. As a result, the room was already warm well before anyone walked down an aisle. That is the quiet advantage of a multi day wedding, and it shows up in the footage immediately.
Holly's sister Willow ran the ceremony, while Lachlan Grisold from Weddings by the Beard handled the legal side. Having a sibling stand up and marry you changes the entire temperature of a ceremony. Willow knew exactly what to say, because she had watched the whole thing happen from the beginning. Right back to that birthday party, in fact, where Nathan wore skinny leg jeans and eye makeup and had, in her words, nothing to lose and everything to gain.
"Holly says it was love at first sight. Nathan, on the other hand, thought that Holly was tall."
Willow's description of what their love actually looks like was the spine of the ceremony. Homemade penne wrapped around a pencil. Finger guns before bed. Pulling your socks up as high as they go and then jumping into the ocean. Whippersnippering. Car snackies. Above all it was a list only someone inside the family could have written, so the room felt every item on it.
Then the vows. Holly told Nathan he loves the parts of her that are grumpy, sassy and sad, the parts she finds hard to love, and that in doing so he has made her feel whole. Then, without missing a beat, that he and his tight pants are the best thing that ever happened to her. Nathan explained that Holly asks him deep existential questions late at night and then gets annoyed when he expects a response. Eventually she admitted she did not want to talk to him at all. She wanted to fall asleep to the sound of his voice. So he promised to keep talking her to sleep when they are old and wrinkly and dotty.
LoveCo Beauty handled hair and makeup, while Holly wore Anna Campbell and Anna Quan. Michael Briggs was on photography and Ryan Frost from Frosty's fed everyone. Meanwhile Continuum Jazz played through the afternoon before The Mad Hatters brought electro swing to the evening, which is exactly the right amount of unhinged for a camp reception.
When Holly and Nathan came back down that aisle, the sky disappeared. Guests on both sides, arms up, the bush behind them, and so much confetti in the air that for a few seconds you could barely see the couple in the middle of it. Easily the biggest confetti throw of the year, and one of the few times I have had to trust the focus and simply hold the frame.
Eucalypt green, dappled bush light, hot pink blooms, and a sea of white confetti on the ground. A camp in the Yarra Ranges gives you a setting that no styling budget can buy, and this day leaned all the way into it rather than trying to dress it up.
The vibe in one word
The speeches. Every single one of them. This was one of those weddings where the material is so good the edit almost builds itself, and the range across the night was enormous.
Helen opened with a confession. For over ten years she had been convinced Holly wanted an ethically sourced gemstone for her engagement ring, so she had briefed Nathan accordingly, photos and all. It turned out Holly wanted, in her own words, a blood diamond, and did not care if it came off a dead person. Mark followed with the story of realising mid medical lecture that he and Holly had matched with the same guy on Tinder. Then Phoebe brought up the giant painting of a chicken in the living room, before noting that Nathan's commissioned painting of his best friend's headshots through the years was equally weird.
After that came the best man swap. Yanni, eighteen years a close friend, explained that Nathan summoned him to an intimate dinner, sat him down, and told him he wanted Brendon to be his best man. Brendon then opened his own speech with a thank you and a direct message to Yanni that will not be reproduced here. Later he admitted he had a bet with Holly that he could not cry at her wedding, and that on the way out he would be reaching into the wishing well for his fifty bucks.
This is where it turned. Guy talked about toddler Nathan cheering him up during illness by hitting him with a plastic golf club every time he closed his eyes, before landing on how lucky he feels to call Holly his daughter. Tom, meanwhile, opened with the benches. Holly had asked him to knock up a dozen for the ceremony, so he suggested white plastic chairs at a dollar each instead. The success of his argument was proven by what everyone was sitting on that afternoon. Of course, the benches are also available for two hundred delivered within the eastern suburbs, cash on the nail.
Then Tom got to the parental chat. He asked Holly what the go was with Nathan, and she looked at him and said she just loved him. That was the moment. He said it was pretty gosh darn significant to him, and you could see it land again as he said it out loud. Then, because he is Tom, he immediately followed it with the fact that Nathan came round next time and rewired his grinder, so he knew he was a keeper.
Finally the couple closed it themselves. They thanked their couples counsellor Karen, who helped them work out that it was their similarities causing them to lock heads, not their differences. Same conflict style, as Nathan put it. Non-confrontational, and then building burning resentment. Holly said she felt like the luckiest guy in the world, caught herself, and decided he was too. After that Nathan sent everyone off wanting the cellars drank dry and the dance floor danced wet.
Weekends like this are the reason I keep taking Yarra Ranges wedding videographer work on. The bush gives you the setting, but the people give you the film.
A camp full of people who all knew each other by Sunday. When a wedding runs across a whole weekend, the room is already warm before the ceremony starts.
Every good day has a good team behind it. Here's everyone who made Holly and Nathan's weekend what it was.
