Sydney, New South Wales, Australia Pre-Wedding Photos | Reg & Alvin

Reg and Alvin had me in Australia for a three-day pre-wedding adventure that took us from the iconic Sydney Opera House all the way south through Kiama, Kangaroo Valley, and finally to the blinding white shores of Hyams Beach in Jervis Bay. Three days. Hundreds of kilometers. 

We started before the sun did. Sydney in winter has a particular kind of silence at that hour, the kind that makes you feel like the city is holding its breath. We pulled up to the Opera House while the sky was still deciding what color to be, and for a stretch of time that felt longer than it was, it belonged entirely to us. From Sydney we drove south to Kiama’s Bombo Quarry, where the volcanic rock formations gave us this moody, otherworldly backdrop that felt nothing like a typical pre-wedding set. It felt like a film location that hadn’t been discovered yet.

The next couple of days Kangaroo Valley for a horseback riding session and to Hyams Beach, Jervis Bay — which holds the Guinness World Record for the whitest sand on Earth, and earns it completely. I’ve been to the white sand dunes of New Mexico and the island of Boracay, I thought I had a reference point. I didn’t. This was different, fine and powdery and almost luminous, the kind of sand that doesn’t feel real until it’s between your fingers. The best part, we had the whole beach to ourselves.

Pre-wedding shoots aren’t just about the photos, though the photos were exceptional. They’re about giving a couple the chance to be themselves in front of the camera before the wedding day, to get comfortable, to laugh, to be cold and tired and happy all at once. Reg and Alvin gave me that completely.