Brooke & Toby

You know my favourite place for an engagement session is at home, but what if you’re happier spending your weekends out and about? What if you love winter and adore hiking? Well, you do what today’s lovers do and you make sure you head to your very favourite spot, your very favourite part of the Australian bush and you invite a talented photographer (meet Amy Skinner Photography) along for the ride.

“Mainly during the winter months, one of our favourite things to do is go for a bush walk” explains Brooke of the couple’s decision to head to Lesmurdie Falls in winter. ” The scenery is always stunning after rain with loads of greenery and the rivers and waterfalls running. As it’s our other favourite place to be and we are getting married on the beach, we agreed to have the best of both worlds!” Add in a dash of winter sunlight and Dotties, you have an engagement session that is a story we can’t wait to share.

“We actually went to school together! ” tells Brooke of how these two came to be “Toby and his family had just come back from a trip around Australia while I had just moved to the school a year before. We were, without a doubt, polar opposites and have probably talked more in the last week than we ever did throughout our entire schooling!!”

The groom to be popped the question on the beach. Brooke fills us in. “We had been talking about the idea of getting married for a while, but it always seemed so far away; on the other side of my university degree. The night we got engaged, we were celebrating our 3 year anniversary at our favourite place, the beach. It was the beginning of January, so we made a picnic of fish and chips and watched the sunset. After we had finished, we walked along the beach as I yabbered on about a time where Cottesloe got these tiny bioluminescent creatures called dinoflagellates which make the water glow. By the time my speech had ended, we had reached the end of the beach and decided to walk to the end of the groyne where we stood in each other’s arms and watched the sky turn an incredible shade of orange. It didn’t take long for Toby to admit that he had a question to ask, which not only led to him getting down on one knee, but also led to the falling over of myself (literally).”

Brooke and Toby? Oh they have plenty of fun stories about their time together they could share, so we asked them for just one. “We discussed a few funny stories that we could tell, involving crab-claw-tongs, painting ceilings with salad and the consumption of unreasonable amounts of Rescue Remedy. However, the memories that stuck out most with us come just before we started dating.
Both of our best friends had just started dating and we taken along as the designated “chaperones.” This began with many awkwardly constructed conversations but soon led into shoulder massages, extremely witty pay-outs and a cheeky “Oh Toby, I just realised I don’t have your number in my phone.”

On what he loves about Brooke? “I love her creative and beautiful mind” tells Toby, while Brooke says “I love his continual, unfailing support. He has the kindest and most gentle soul.”