Mackenzie and Oskar live in the South of France, my favourite place in the whole wide world, and so I was absolutely delighted to be asked to photograph their wedding there this summer. (In fact, when the initial email came from Mackenzie, it was so lovely and sounded so too-amazing-to-be-true it had me in tears!) In France, you have to have a legal ceremony in the Mairie or Town Hall, so couples often do this a few days or weeks before their actual wedding, allowing them the freedom of having whatever kind of ceremony they want to afterwards – be it outdoor, a church wedding or in a chateau. So after many emails back and forth, the idea came up that instead of an engagement shoot, I could fly out to Monaco to capture their legal wedding ceremony in the Monaco Mairie, and then have a fun photoshoot around Monaco afterwards. (I had to think really hard about this one!) So I flew out to Nice a few weeks before the wedding, had a day to get to know Monaco, and then met Mackenzie & Oskar for the first time after they had finished their rather unusual work. As captain and chief stewardess of a luxury motoryacht in the South of France, Mackenzie and Oskar live a rather unconventional life at sea. While it sounds terribly glamorous, (and I’m sure it is at times) I caught a glimpse of just how hard these two work, how they are pretty much on-call all the time, and how much they care for their clients. Not to mention how strong their relationship must be, working together 24-7! It’s definitely not all sipping champagne in the hot tub on the top deck… 😉 And no, I didn’t get to do that either, sadly! I did, however sip some delicious Provencale rosé in the sunshine while getting to know this lovely couple ahead of their (first!) wedding day. It felt like chatting with old friends 🙂 On the day of the wedding, we took a few shots around the cobbled streets of the beautiful old town before heading to the Mairie for the ceremony. The Maire of Monaco conducted a beautiful ceremony, and I felt very honoured to be a witness along with a few close friends. After the ceremony we went to the Hotel de Paris Monte Carlo, a stunning 5 star art-nouveau hotel, for a champagne lunch on the terrace. Mackenzie looked stunning in a gorgeous 60’s style white shift dress and a fabulous pair of aqua heels, and Oskar very handsome in his pale grey suit. There were so many amazing photos from this Monte Carlo wedding I had to split it into two parts. So here is part 1, the ‘pre-wedding shoot’, ceremony and lunch. Pop back soon for part 2, the ‘engagement shoot’ around Monaco.