Holly ‘s name fits her beautifully. She has all the radiance of a famous flower, which is lucky because she married a Tulip. Pete Tulip. Excuse me while I get a little cheesy… Their wedding planted the seeds for their incredible future together.

… Maybe that’s why it rained so much.

At the beginning of the day, Holly told me she’d be happy if the rain let up for half an hour for us to get their wedding portraits. Later she said fifteen minutes. She didn’t even get five – it rained non-stop all day – but she didn’t let it get to her. Instead, she hitched up her dress and conquered the rain with some admirable umbrella wielding (with a little help from her new husband and a very chilled out bridal party) and we all made it to the reception smiling, if a little soggy. We were also super-blessed to have the beautiful undercover facilities at Amore Gardens in the Currumbin Valley to keep us dry!

Botanical references abound, even if it hadn’t rained on Holly and Pete’s wedding day, there wouldn’t have been a dry eye at their wedding ceremony. I’ve been to a fair few weddings these days, and even I got teary at Holly’s mother’s proud expression as she walked her daughter down the aisle.

Congratulations, Holly and Pete!

Let me tell you a story.

One upon a time there was one very creative mum (let’s call her Ammber) and one very creative dad (we’ll call him Justin). They had one very ambitious three year old boy (who we’ll call Oscar) and one very cruisy 4 month old girl (let’s call her Evie), and together they made one seriously awesome Doyle family. That was their family super-power – making awesome.

One day, they realised they had made so much awesome that they didn’t need it all, but they didn’t know what to do with it. What does one do with surplus awesomeness? And then it hit them – one creates an AWESOME kids clothing label!

And so MyArkadia was born, a childrens’ clothing line with pieces so amazing I want to wear them myself. I’m not even kidding. I mustn’t be the only grown-up Arkadian either, because Ammber and Justin have just done their first run of ladies shirts (one of which has my name on it!! YES!!). If you like unique, environmentally-conscious and seriously cool kids clothes (or just awesome stuff in general) you should definitely check out MyArkadia right now. And then come straight back here for the rest of this post!

I had the honour of catching up with this Family of Awesome on two lovely Sunday mornings to make the memories you see below. I’ll let their photos tell you the rest of the story.

Way back in March, I held a family portrait giveaway on my Facebook page. I do that sometimes – have competitions and stuff – on my Facebook so if you haven’t “liked” my page yet, go do it now! The lovely family you see below was one of the winners of this giveaway, and we caught up to make some lovely sunny memories after rescheduling due to bad weather TWICE. Anita is half of the dynamic duo that make up Paper Dolls – The Lost Art – masters of amazing custom stationery, invitations and papercraft, and you should definitely check them out if you like pretty things (and honestly, who doesn’t like pretty things?)

I hope these photos bring some warmth and love and sunshine into your day!