I love waking up on the morning of a wedding. I imagine how the bride is feeling – is she hungry? Did she sleep at all? I imagine the groom, scrambling to iron his shirt and trousers (perhaps for the first time). Then I roll out of bed and head to the kitchen to make the first coffee of the day and to spend some time in the quiet with Jesus. Wedding days are crazy, but they are also so full of hope and joy. And coffee. Always coffee.

Kelcey and Joel’s wedding day was no different, save that I knew that I was about to see two of my closest friends marry each other. We’d spent the night before at the church, preparing the venue with the rest of our community, and I knew that they were excited, but not too nervous for their wedding day. After all, the civil ceremony was in March, so they were already stuck (at least, that’s what they kept reminding each other).

On Kelcey and Joel’s wedding day, I got to meet Kelcey and our friends for breakfast before we began. We commandeered the kitchen as our getting ready area, and we all ate and got ready together. We live in community with each other, so it just made sense for us to begin the wedding day the same way that we begin all of our other days.

After a couple of hours (and cups of coffee), we had finally wrangled Kelcey’s plaits into submission. She is a hairstylist, but she couldn’t get to the right angle, so Carrissa and I traded in our cameras and became her arms and eyes in the back of her head. Joel arrived at the house so that we could capture the getting ready process before the first look.

Then the herd of us (videographers, photographers, and the couple) tramped around the corner to Minkie’s, our local coffee shop. I have always wanted to do wedding photos in a cafe, since Ole and Juliette and I stopped in one during their wedding photos in 2015, and Joel and Kelcey were keen to try it out.

We ended the couple photos with a walk to the park so that we could balance the urban photographs with some nature. Then we all piled into an Uber and made it to the church early, surprising the guests that entered later.

Our community has a variety of skills, and when any of us get married, we all pitch in to do most of the wedding ourselves. We cater, decorate, do the music and media, and even party at the end of it. Joel and Kelcey are our family, and it is our privilege to honour them on their wedding day.

The reception ended up basically being a massive dance party with all of our family present, and we switched our shoes and danced to all of our favourites until we were too exhausted to stand anymore.

Now Kelcey and Joel are back from their honeymoon, and they’ve jumped right back in to life in our community. I think I love this bit even more than the wedding – seeing them learn to manoeuver through marriage at the same time that they give so much of themselves by serving others. People think that weddings and marriage are all about the two people getting married, but as I watch these two, I see how they constantly give more of themselves for others. That’s definitely my favourite part of their wedding.