An Australian and Hungarian couple, with guests travelling from around the world

Kathryn is Australian and Mark is Hungarian. For their wedding in Hawaii, family and friends came together from Australia, Scotland, England, the United States and Hungary. Their celebration at the Sheraton Kauai Resort brought people from different parts of their lives to the same island.

I photographed their wedding as part of a three-week journey that took us around 24,000 kilometres by air and another 6,200 kilometres by car. At the centre of that journey was the opportunity to document Kathryn and Mark with the people who had travelled so far to celebrate with them.

A Winter Wedding on Kauai

Although the wedding took place in winter, our time in Hawaii was warm and humid, with an occasional ocean breeze. The coastal surroundings gave the celebration a relaxed atmosphere and plenty of possibilities for photography.

The ceremony and reception were held at the Sheraton Kauai Resort. With guests arriving from several countries, the wedding was also a chance for family and friends to spend time together in a place far from their everyday lives.

Beach Portraits and an Award-Winning Photograph

Between the ceremony and the reception, we took time for a creative portrait session along the coast. Kathryn and Mark enjoyed the session, and we made photographs both on the beach and along the road beside it.

That stretch of road became the setting for the cover photograph of this story. The image later earned us a Hungarian wedding photography award, giving it another place in our memories of the trip.

For me, it remains closely connected to the experience of photographing Kathryn and Mark: the enjoyment of the session, the coastal setting and the time we had together between the formal parts of their wedding.

Three Weeks and Nearly Ten Thousand Photographs

Across the entire three-week trip, we made 9,950 photographs. Those images recorded a much wider journey, with Kathryn and Mark’s wedding forming an important part of it.

The selection here returns to their celebration: the couple, the people who joined them and the coastal portraits we created on Kauai. It brings together the photographs I most wanted to share from our time with them.

Kathryn and Mark, thank you for inviting us to Hawaii and trusting us with your wedding photographs. It was a pleasure to be part of a celebration that brought so many people together across such great distances.