A Day With a Jervis Bay Elopement Photographer – Joey & Alex at The Cove

A woman in a sun hat was walking back from the beach with a snorkel bag when Jacqua, the celebrant, asked if she had ten minutes spare to witness a wedding. She said yes before anyone had explained what that meant.

I’ve shot a fair few legal ceremonies as a Jervis Bay elopement photographer, but that’s the first time the second witness got recruited off a sandy footpath about ten minutes before the celebrant turned up. Nobody had planned it. Joey and Alex just needed two witnesses and one of them happened to be on the same patch of coastline that morning, snorkel gear and all.

That’s the kind of day this was. Mostly planned, occasionally not, and somehow better for it.

Joey & Alex

Joey and Alex grew up two minutes apart. Same suburb, same high school, years of crossing paths without it meaning anything. Then Alex poked her on Facebook, which is either the most 2010s sentence I’ve ever typed or proof that timing matters more than proximity. Early dates were Game of Thrones reruns after work, the kind of low-key, no-performance hangouts that quietly turn into something neither person saw coming until it had already happened.

By September 2024 they’d decided they didn’t need a room full of people to know what they already knew about each other. Joey writes and crochets in her spare time. Alex likes watching her do it. That’s not a small detail, it’s basically the whole relationship in one sentence, and it’s why a five-person day on the South Coast made more sense to them than a hall full of extended family they’d see once.

Why a Jervis Bay Elopement Photographer Loves The Cove and Booderee National Park

The Cove sits inside Booderee National Park, about a thirteen kilometre drive in through rainforest before the road opens out onto Bherwerre Beach. There’s no phone reception worth mentioning for most of that drive, which sounds like a problem until you’re standing on a private stretch of sand that nobody else can just wander onto. That’s the actual reason a quiet ceremony beach was so easy to find here. It’s not a secret. It’s just inconvenient enough to get to that most people don’t bother, which is exactly what makes it useful for two people who didn’t want an audience.

As a Jervis Bay elopement photographer, this stretch of coast gives you something most of the NSW South Coast doesn’t, which is a beach that faces back toward the bay rather than straight out to open ocean. Murrays Beach in particular looks across toward Beecroft Peninsula and the mouth of Jervis Bay, sheltered by Bowen Island, which means the light in the last hour before dark does something most east coast beaches can’t manage. You get a proper sunset over water, not just a sky going orange behind you while you face the wrong way. Joey mentioned this to me before we’d even started shooting, and she was right to bring it up, because it’s genuinely rare on this coastline.

The trade off is the park pass and the drive, and neither is a real obstacle if you build half a day around it rather than squeezing it into an hour.

Getting Ready Together at the Airbnb

Joey and Alex spent the morning in matching pyjamas on the sofa of a coastal Airbnb with a plunge pool, writing their vows out by hand into vow books before either of them had touched their hair. No separate rooms, no superstition about seeing each other too early. They just sat there together and wrote.

There were custom cupcakes and biscuits made specifically for the day, sitting on the bench while Alex got into a white dress with denim accessories and Joey pulled on a sharp gray suit. They helped each other with buttons and zips the way you’d help a friend, not the way wedding photos usually show people getting dressed, which is to say there was no performance to it. It just looked like two people getting ready for something good.

The Legal Ceremony on the Beach at The Cove

Jacqua found a quiet stretch of sand below The Cove and that’s where the legal ceremony happened, just the two of them, Jacqua, and the woman who’d been walking back from snorkelling five minutes earlier. No music, no procession, no one to perform for. Jacqua ran the ceremony with the kind of calm you actually want from a celebrant on a day with no buffer of family and friends to absorb any nerves. It was short, it was real, and the only sound underneath it was the water.

The Picnic and Personal Vows at Murrays Beach

From The Cove they drove to Murrays Beach, picnic basket in the boot, and found a spot on the rocks above the water looking out toward Beecroft Peninsula. This was where the day’s actual vows happened, the personal ones they’d written in their books that morning, separate from anything legal. The waves were the only audience, which is precisely what they’d wanted.

Alex got partway through and stopped for a second, looking down at the page rather than at Joey. Nobody filled the gap. The water kept moving behind them and Joey just waited, the way you wait for someone you’ve already decided to spend your life with.

Sunset, Blue Hour, and Cupcakes on the Sand

The sky went pink and gold over the bay as the sun dropped behind Beecroft Peninsula, which is the exact thing you can’t get on most of this coastline, and it’s the bit of the day Joey still talks about. Blue hour came in right after, the last of the warm light sitting low across the water, and that’s when some of the strongest portraits of the day happened. Joey and Alex ate their custom cupcakes on the sand as the sky finished darkening, still in dress and suit, nobody in any hurry to leave.

My Favourite Moments from This Jervis Bay Elopement

• The snorkel-bag witness, recruited with about ten minutes notice
• Vow books being filled out in matching pyjamas before either of them had done their hair
• Jacqua running a legal ceremony for an audience of exactly one extra person, calm as anything
• Alex stopping mid-vow on the rocks and Joey just waiting, no rush to fill it
• The sunset actually going down over water, which doesn’t happen much on this coast
• Cupcakes eaten on the sand in full dress and suit as the sky went dark
• Blue hour light sitting low across the bay for the last frames of the day

Vendor Credits

Celebrant: Jacqua Celebrant
Florist: Ooopsiee Daisy
Hair & Makeup: Georgina Smith
Dress: Affordable Bridal
Suit: Peter Jackson
Cake: Sugar Plum Fairy Cakes

Booking a Jervis Bay Elopement Photographer for Your Own Spring Day at Booderee

Getting in and around Booderee

You’ll need a park pass to drive into Booderee National Park, currently around $20 per vehicle for a 48 hour pass, bought online or at the entry station on the way in. It covers both The Cove and Murrays Beach if you’re planning a day like Joey and Alex’s that uses both. Murrays Beach itself is a short, mostly flat walk from the car park through coastal bush, easy enough in a dress or suit, though if you’re planning portraits on the rocks at the eastern end, decent shoes for the walk out and sandals for the actual shoot are worth packing.

Why spring works here

Spring gives you long enough light to fit a getting-ready morning, a legal ceremony, a picnic, and sunset portraits into one day without rushing any of it, which is exactly the shape Joey and Alex’s day took. If a sunset over water at Murrays Beach is the thing pulling you toward a Jervis Bay elopement, get to the beach with at least ninety minutes of light left, Beecroft Peninsula doesn’t just decide to look good on command, but a head start gives the light room to do its thing properly.

If you’ve been quietly looking at this coastline for a while and wondering whether something this small and this yours is actually allowed, it is. If this sounds like your kind of day, I’d love to hear about it.