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Jaspers Berry Wedding

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Wedding Photographer

Richard Johnston

At Lonely Hunter, we only photograph a limited number of weddings each year and do book out quite far in advance.
Don't leave it until we are already booked before you decide to make an enquiry..

Chris & Bernise – Jaspers Berry Wedding

Can you share a little about yourselves?: Bernise and Chris are both 34 yo. Bernise works as a marketing lead at Canva while Chris works in investigations and compliance at Sydney Trains. We both matched on Tinder in June 2019 and we have been inseparable since. Prior to meeting Chris, I spent 5 years as an expat in the UK, HK, Mexico and Singapore, living life by primarily chasing travel adventures and career possibilities. However, throughout all those fun times traveling and working overtime, I was perpetually single and never had a long term relationship. That changed 1.5 years ago after I moved back to Sydney, swiped right on a Van Diesel doppleganger (kind of :P) named Chris. Chris is actually my opposite in many ways – he LOVESSS planning, loves stability, has always lived in Australia and he has worked for one organisation for over 15 years, albeit climbing the ladder as the years go by! But we do share a love for holidays, travel, family, having children together, good food and DIY crafting! Our first date was at El Loco, and within the first week of meeting each other we went on 9 dates and have been inseparable since! He was super romantic – he baked me a peach pie on our third date, and would visit me everyday at work for a coffee in the park! I was amazed at how much we clicked even though we were quite opposite. What blows me away about Chris is that he is incredibly considerate, and never hesitates to puts others before himself. He is extremely loving to his parents, and has extended this same love, respect and consideration to my parents, family and friends. I’m also incredibly lucky that he is an amazing home chef too which has been very much appreciated during Covid. We hit all the relationship milestones a lot faster than most, we said ‘I love you’ at 1 month, met each other’s parents within 2 months, first overseas trip to the Philippines within 6 and he proposed after 8 months of dating. Covid accelerated our ‘moving in’ milestone as well and I moved in after 10 months of knowing Chris.

What did you learn about each other prior to your Jaspers Berry Wedding?: 2020 has tested us as a couple in more ways than one. Not only did we get an accelerated crash course in learning to live with each other, but we also moved to 2 different suburbs, worked from home, self isolated together, sold an apartment together, cancelled our original Boracay destination wedding and replanned our Jaspers Berry wedding together under the constant threat and uncertainty of covid restrictions. There were many tough moments, especially as we began to realise the majority of our overseas friends would no longer be able to come celebrate with us at our Jaspers Berry Wedding. Each time we had to cancel or postpone a significant milestone celebration like hens parties, graduation ceremonies and overseas trips was difficult. But one thing we both know for sure is that we are not going to let a pandemic postpone us from starting our lives as a married couple. We know now that if we can get through 2020, we can get through anything together.

Tell us about the proposal which lead to your Jaspers Berry wedding?: Chris planned a staycation party with close friends at the Double Bay Intercontinental Hotel in February. The excuse used was that it was a belated Christmas party. To distract me from his plans, he got one of his friends to take me to get a massage done while he prepared the proposal. He even wrapped the ring box in star wars wrapping paper so I wouldn’t suspect what was in the box. When I returned to the hotel, he asked me to go to the rooftop where I was welcomed by a gorgeous sunset view of Sydney and a glittering infinity pool. It was there where he dropped down on one knee and popped the question. His friends were all waiting to celebrate and toast us afterwards!

Venue Selection: Originally our wedding was planned to be in the Philippines which is where I was born. However, with covid changing our travel plans we hunted for a new venue around 6 months ago. This was challenging as many brides were doing the same and we never found a venue that gave us the same magical feeling we felt when we found our Boracay venue. We also didn’t want a beach location as we didn’t want our wedding to feel like the ‘second choice’ option. Thankfully, when we stepped into Jaspers Berry, it was love at first sight for both of us, just like how we met! We loved the European-Asian fusion architecture and style, reflecting our own heritages through the tropical Garden, grand oak tree, the fountain area, the classic orangery and the vintage furniture. We loved that the reception and ceremony could all be on one location, that our bridal party could all stay on site – so the weekend could still feel like a mini destination wedding and holiday. We loved the idea of all inclusive package for our Jaspers Berry Wedding, because we really didn’t want to add anymore planning stress given we’d already planned and postponed our Boracay wedding. We were also hoping we wouldn’t be impacted by anymore travel restrictions since it was within NSW! We locked it in as soon as we saw it and the rest is history!