Give us colour, give us laughter, give us dogs any day of the week. Luckily for us, Sophia and Malcolm’s love session captured by the talented  Zoe Eley Photography has all three and if you are anything like us? You’re going to fall in love with every single capture.

These two? They’re not planning on an Aussie wedding, but they wanted to make sure they captured their wedding portraits in their home town, with the addition of four-legged best bud, Rocket.  They tell  “We’re not the world’s most formal or fancy people, so we thought a more natural style of photography of ourselves in a location both important and every day to us would be good. Also, importantly, we wanted to have some photos with our dog, Rosie, in them – we love her immensely, and the park we took the photos in is her favourite place, so having her included made perfect sense. Soon after we got married, we adopted Rocket, another greyhound, so interestingly these photos are very much a snapshot of our family at that moment in time.”

And their love story? Well, it blossomed while the pair were studying at university. The story unfolds a little something like this: “We met at university, as we lived on the same floor of our residential dorms. Despite this, we really didn’t get a chance to speak or get to know each other until a formal dinner event a year later, where we were placed on the same table and started talking. The rest, as they say, is history.”

On her love for Malcolm, Sophia says “I love Malcolm because he feels like home to me. He makes me want to be a better person every day, and I love that I get to spend the rest of my life with my best friend. Plus, he’s a pretty great dog dad to Rosie and Rocket.”

“The photo shoot took place at Flagstaff Gardens in Melbourne – we live just over a block away, and often walk our dogs Rosie and Rocket through the gardens. It’s a beautiful park between the tall office buildings of the CBD and the inner city suburbs, with some grassy lawns, flower gardens, shrubby areas and several large shady trees. As well as getting our photoshoot done here, we actually held our reception here as well in the bowls club within the gardens.”

On Sophia, Malcolm shares “I love Sophia because she’s a genuine and principled person, and she makes me laugh and smile every day. I really appreciate spending time with her, and just being near her brightens up my mood if I’m having a rubbish day.”