Ryan & Zach, Zach & Ryan {Bellingen Coffs Harbour Wedding Photographer}

Zach & Ryan traveled from where they now live in Belgium to wed near to where Ryan grew up – it was two days of celebrating with their friends & family & the legal follow up to Wedding 1.0 which had taken place in Greece earlier in the year. When Ryan & Zach entered the room at Cedar Bar, Bellingen they arrived to the loudest round of applause & joyful calling out that I have ever witnessed at a wedding. Their day was not about weddingy gimmicks or fanfare but truly about each other & their loved ones bearing witness to their union. It was also about these freaking AMAZING suits (try to top them if you dare). I’d like to include here some words from Ryan’s speech that really resonated with me & was personally a beautiful reminder of what marriage is all about- I think he says it best:

“Most of me wishes this speech could be just about Zach; but it’s not.

Marriage between two people in love is relatively new thing: For most of human history marriage was about survival or property or pregnancy.

And a marriage between two men in love is just about the newest rarest type of marriage going. There are more countries which would jail us for this wedding than would legally endorse it.

We weren’t allowed to get legally married in Greece, to give just one example. We weren’t allowed to do it here in Australia even one year ago.

Because of that I didn’t grow up expecting to find love. I certainly didn’t expect to fill a former church with all of you to witness it, and I bet some of you never expected to be at a wedding between two blokes.

So that is a big journey too. When we start dancing, remember how far we HAVE ALL come in order to build and celebrate this love.

But maybe most importantly, a marriage isn’t just between two people. It’s also between those two people and their community: you. We didn’t just bring you here for a party. We brought you here because we trust you to help make us a kinder, stronger pair.

We’re so glad all these kids got to see it, the the completely normal but wonderful thing that it is. So they know that no matter who they are, or who they love, one day they can get married too”.