In March last year, we ran a fun giveaway with Nerida McMurray Photography and Oscar & Ruby to give away two fantastic styled engagement shoots. Today we’re sharing the runner up shoot of Jasmine and Patrick that has a vintage glamour feel to it!

The couple chose The Commons Bar & Restaurant and Paddington Reservoir Gardens for their engagement photos. Jasmine tells, “We both wanted to make the most of this opportunity – after all, how many times do you win a themed engagement shoot! Patrick was secretly hoping for a Wild West theme (we both have cowboy boots that we bought when we were in Austin, Texas earlier this year), but this style was more appropriate as we wanted something classy, old-world and stunningly gorgeous, all of which we think was definitely achieved thanks to the amazing work of Jess and Nerida and everyone else that helped make it happen.”

Their story goes like this “We both attended a SubSki (University) party at Cargo Bar with our respective best friends, who are now the Best Man (York) and Maid of Honour (Claire). Patrick knew Claire through his sister and so they met up during the night, during which barely a word was spoken between Patrick and Jasmine. As the night wore on Patrick and York left to go to another party, but it sucked so they decided to head back to York’s place, but felt that they needed some other company. So Patrick called Claire and invited her and Jasmine over to continue drinking, play some UNO and generally have a carousing good time. Claire, initially tentative to the idea came round to it (after all, it was 1 in the morning and Jasmine and her were at McDonald’s chowing down on cheeseburgers) so agreed. Patrick and York’s cab ended up arriving at his house just as Claire and Jasmine’s cab was pulling up which had to be a sign, right? Anyway, what followed was as expected; drinks and laughter and a really good time. York ended up passing out so Jasmine, Claire and Patrick continued the night in fine style before ending up in the only spare bed together. The funniest part about all of this is that everything was completely innocent, but it seemed that Patrick was a little bit smitten with Jas. This was evident when Patrick suggested to Jas that with Claire out of the room, we should pretend to kiss to shock her when she came back in. Well Jasmine agreed, but Claire wasn’t shocked. It was like she expected it! Anyway, she left again and Patrick tried the same line, but this time we actually kissed… and the rest, as they say, is history! ”

“We love lots of things about each other. We find that we are in-tune with each other and know what the other wants intuitively without necessarily having to ask, which we think comes from spending the past 5 years together, but also from having a strong bond. Jasmine has an amazingly generous and kind heart to those that she cares about. She is fun and loves to laugh – not to mention is a killer at karaoke – and Patrick thinks it’s cute when she gets worried and her face crinkles with wrinkles. It is her kindness and zest for life that makes her such a joy to be around, and that is why he can’t wait to spend the rest of his life with her. Patrick always makes her laugh (or at least tries to), and even now after all these years she still laughs at his lame jokes. Jasmine loves that Patrick is kind to her, and looks after her when she is sick. He also accepts and loves her for who she is, even when she’s tired and grumpy and just wants to go to sleep at 7pm. She is so happy to have him in her life as her companion and best friend, and can’t think of anything better than waking up next to his mug every morning for the next 70 years. ”

“We generally have such a good time together that there are probably lots of incidental funny stories, but none off the top of our heads. One of the earliest ones is after our first meeting when Patrick asked Claire (MOH) if he could get Jasmine’s number. Jasmine’s reply? ‘Sure. He can have my number. It’s not as if anything will ever come of it.’ A running joke with everyone we know (and probably lots of people we don’t) is that we love to have photos taken of us. Every time we go out a camera appears and hundreds of photos get taken. Even if it’s not our camera! Sure it may be considered vain, but we just appreciate the fact that time flies and that in 50 years time we’ll look back on those photos and really appreciate how far we’ve come together. It did mean that when we told people about the prize, they said how much we would appreciate having 300 photos taken of us at a professional level! The story of our engagement is also amusing, but that’s dealt with in the next question! ”

“On a weekend away in the Hunter Valley we went to a vineyard for a romantic mid-afternoon picnic with views over the valley itself. Clouds covered the sky, and a slight breeze was blowing the leaves in the trees. Patrick was undecided as to if he should propose due to the inclement weather but then, like a sign, the sun burst forth through the clouds and dappled sunlight poured through the tree above to create beautiful patterns on the ground where we sat. Fortified by this event Patrick asked (knowing full well how much Jasmine likes her photo being taken) if she would mind heading into the vineyard itself so he could take some photos ‘as the light was just beautiful’. So off she went, with a glass of wine in hand, to stand among the clipped vines. Patrick pulled out his camera and took some photos but decided that he needed to change his lens (all of course a pretence). After rummaging through his bag for the ring box he walked back over to Jasmine and the conversation went a little bit like this; ‘You know I love you right?’ ‘Yes…’ she replied tentatively. ‘Do you love me?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘On a scale of one to 10 how much do you love me?’ ‘Thirteen…’ ‘Do you love me enough to marry me?’ ‘Umm. I don’t know.’ (She didn’t quite know where this was heading and wasn’t sure if he was being serious or taking the piss!) At this point, Patrick was committed so was not to let that answer daunt him and so slowly he knelt to the ground and asked the most important question of his life: ‘Will you marry me?’ And without even a look at the ring itself, she exclaimed ‘Yes!’ ”