When you get married in a bushfire: Phoebe + Wills Blue Mountains Wedding Day

I've heard people say that before you decide to marry somebody, you should see them in every season. Every literal season, but also every circumstantial one. How somebody handles stress, unexpected curve-balls, hard conversations and difficult conditions speaks leaps and volumes about their character, and therefore about your future life together.

When you pledge yourself to somebody in marriage, there are not many guarantees you have to offer them. You can not guarantee what will or will not happen. There are no certainties of health. No monetary for-sure's. No safety-sure thing. Not even people stay the same. If anything, you're guaranteed to change in a way that's impossible to foretell or predict.

What you can promise then is commitment, and presence. You can promise yourself, in each and every circumstance, come as they may. 

This whole lesson and idea is what sticks out in my mind most prominently when I think about Will and Phoebe's wedding day. It was, in reality, nothing like they had planned it to be. Circumstances well beyond their control, and constantly changing, dictated just about everything about it and yet they handled it with valiance, grace, humility and prayer.

In his reception speech Will only half-jokingly called their wedding the "series of unfortunate events." Events which included a car accident only weeks before the wedding, a cast that came off three days before, and most pressingly: very real, and very scary bushfires; ravaging and devastating Australia's beautiful landscape.

On the advise of the RFS, they moved their wedding venue two days beforehand, and then again the day before; mass communicating these changes with all their guests and vendors.  Twice.

They ended up at the iconic and beautiful Hydro Majestic Hotel in Katoomba. It may not have been their first choice, but it was a stunning number three.

The day itself was both very hot, and very windy. The grand valley below was filled with smoke; parting occasionally to show the bold blues that gives the Blue Mountains their glory and their name. When I arrived, they were tossing up whether or not to move the ceremony - set outside to overlook the valley - inside; to avoid the heat, the wind, the smoke. 

With all the last-minute decisions that had been made and continued to be made I expected to find Phoebe frayed at the edges or at the end of panicking (I myself 100% would have been). 

She was neither; simply calm, excited, and a little bit nervous. Very ready, to see her man and do the thing start their life together. Her soon-to-be sister in law Jessie was pinning up her hair, and her girls (when they weren't running around fixing last minute everything) were laughing and chatting lightly around her. The flowers arrived to huge coos of adoration (thanks to @the.posy.poet on insta), as did her Mum; thrilled to see her beautiful, bridal girl get ready.

About an hour before the ceremony was set to start, we found out the road had been closed: effectively meaning that any guests who weren't already there, wouldn't make it. Whatsmore, we could actually now see the smoke from a nearby bushfire billowing up out the window. Everybody got a text on their phones from emergency services, urging them to get out and drive to Katoomba. Thankfully, we were in Katoomba. This was happening, it was real.

And yet, there was Phoebe: laughing, excited, calm. The girls held hands, gathered in a circle, and did the only thing they could do: they prayed.

When asked if we would need to evacuate, the hotel's representative smiled and simply said, "let's just get you married" and it was battle stations ready. Phoebe jumped into her dress, having the sweetest first looks with her bridesmaids and her Dad, before making her way down the stairs to the room that awaited, with the guests that could make it - to the wedding it would be. 

The ceremony was sweet and simple. They wrote their own vows, smiled at one another endlessly, and couldn't help but kiss again (and again) over the signing of the marriage certificates. 

The family that made it (most of them!) huddled into family formals, before we took the bridal party outside into the heat and the wind - all of us sculling full water bottles whenever possible - to walk along the hotel's stunning rim. 

My favourite part of the day was the time I got with just the two of them. Their love was real, raw, bold, obvious. They are the kind of people that you want to be friends with: kind, fun, selfless lovers of Jesus who roll with the punches and press into life's important things.

Facing one direction, the sky was a beautiful blue: wooing us and opening up the stunning scenery that lay just below and all around us. 

Facing the other direction, the sky was a vicious purple: it looked un-real, bold, and un-kind.

We ran around, and explored the hotel, and danced to the tune of the mountains for what they were that memorable day.

Their reception was amazing. A stack of donuts, some fantastic speeches and pass-around plates of phenomenal food. So many more people had been able to make it by that point, and it was such a joy to see them, and their new family, be celebrated by so many.

So much of what goes into the magic of a typical wedding-day was stripped away for Phoebe and Will. They did not get their venue of choice. Their wedding was not outdoors. All their guests could not make it. The weather was not kind. And yet, that is what made it so beautiful. 

By force of nature (literally) their wedding quickly and passionately became about the things that truly matter: the two of them. Promising the whole of themselves - whatever happens, seen and unforeseen - to one another. They learned lifes lesson hard and fast; there are no guarantees but we can promise each-other ourselves. Fully and completely. No matter what. 

That is what I will remember most about this truly incredible day. Not the crazy, not the smoke, not the fires. The promise: each-other, forever, no matter what.

*I had the pleasure of working alongside Mikhail Cass of Cass Brothers Productions as my second-shooter all day. He's amazing and incredibly talented in his own right.

Phoebe’s gorgeous dress was by Rebecca Ingram. The girls makeup was by Ali Stradler.

** Like all Australians, I am deeply saddened by this bushfire disaster unfolding around the nation. The loss of human life, animal life and infrastructure is devastating, and beyond comprehension. Here is a list of helpful ways we can all be of assistance in this incredibly difficult time. My heart and prayers are with our nation and all those affected.