From Ashlea's very first email to me, I knew that photographing her & her hubby for their anniversary was going to be something pretty special. Their story really touched me - here is a snippet of that first beautiful email from Ashlea:
"We met while Ben was traveling with his band in America. They happened to be staying near my University that I attended at the time and different circumstances brought us both to the same bar on the same night. We locked eyes that night, Ben coyly came over and charmed me with his Australian accent and the rest is really just history.
We spent nearly our entire relationship apart, communicating mostly through Skype and FaceTime. We would visit each other for a few weeks at a time every 6 months; those were always the sweetest weeks. Ben surprised me in November of 2012 by showing up at my apartment in America when I thought he was supposed to be on a camping trip back home in Australia! It was a week after that surprise that he hit me with another one when he took me back to the park in which we had our first date and proposed to me amongst a bed of fairy lights and flowers.
Our engagement led to our marriage and our marriage led to us settling down in Perth. We relish in the fact that we now get to bask in the wonderfulness that is spending time together and knowing that we don't have to turn around and say goodbye a few, short weeks later."
To celebrate their one year anniversary, they spent some time in the beautiful Snow Mountains & Thredbo, in one of the historic & beautiful cabins at Moonbah Huts. I'm so inspired by them and their genuine devotion for each other and I'm so grateful that I was able to be there to capture just one day of their incredible love story.
The song below is one from Ben's band Death and a Cure. I thought that it only fitting to share it along with the photos from this day. It's the second track on the album Red Sky Night. In ben's own words:
"This album was written during the long distance relationship that culminated in me marrying the love of my life. Red Sky Night as in shepherds delight was an idea I had to keep me thinking about the incredible times together with her that were waiting around the corner. I didn't want to focus on the hardships of being apart for so long, so instead I created this."
