Kimo Estate Wedding Photographer – Olivia & Regan

Regan had a cocktail in one hand and his dad in the other before midday, and nobody had even mentioned the ceremony yet. That’s the first thing I remember about shooting this Kimo Estate wedding photographer day for Olivia and Regan. Over a hundred guests were coming, the timeline had more moving parts than most weddings I shoot in a season, and the morning still felt completely unhurried.

Olivia and Regan got married at Kimo Estate, just outside Gundagai, on a March day that swung from full sun to moody cloud and back again before the night was through. Their wedding had over a hundred guests, two separate getting-ready houses, a first look with Olivia’s dad that genuinely wrecked me a bit behind the camera, and a sunset at the end of it that I’m still thinking about.

Olivia and Regan

Regan got ready in one of Kimo’s onsite annex houses with his groomsmen and his parents, dressed in a classic black suit and bow tie, working through old fashioned cocktails like it was the easiest morning of his life. Across the road, almost literally, Olivia was in a separate annex with her bridal party. Same morning, same venue, two completely different energies running at once.

What struck me on Olivia’s side was how unguarded it all was. Nibblies and drinks with the bridal party, everyone still in pyjamas before a single dress went on, that particular kind of laughing that happens when nobody’s camera-ready yet. Olivia’s the kind of bride who’d rather have that hour than skip straight to hair and makeup photos, and it showed in how relaxed her bridal party was the whole morning.

Why Kimo Estate Works for a Wedding This Big

Kimo Estate is a working sheep and cattle farm a few minutes outside Gundagai, sitting on land that runs to roughly 7,000 acres. That scale matters more than people think when you’re planning a wedding for over a hundred people. There’s room to spread a day out instead of cramming it into one building, which is exactly what Olivia and Regan did.

The homestead gardens, where the ceremony happened, date back to the 1870s, and the property’s been doing weddings long enough that the team knows how to move a big group through a day without anyone standing around lost. The Grain Shed reception space is the other half of the equation – built in 1905, restored with its original timber frame still showing, with a cathedral ceiling that does something to candlelight I haven’t seen replicated anywhere else I’ve shot. It seats around 200, so a guest list like Olivia and Regan’s wasn’t pushing any limits.

What I actually love about Kimo for a day this size is the eco huts. They sit up on the hilltops above the main estate, looking out over the Murrumbidgee flats, and they’re a genuinely different environment from the ceremony lawn below. For a couple wanting big celebration energy during the day and something quiet and dramatic at sunset, that contrast is the whole point. It’s close enough to the Snowy Mountains foothills that the light out in the surrounding paddocks gets that sunburnt, golden, almost cinematic quality late in the afternoon, which is exactly what we got.

Getting Ready Across the Road from Each Other

I split my morning between both annexes, which is its own kind of fun when you’re trying to catch genuine moments on both sides before the day properly starts. Regan’s side was banter, cocktails, his dad cracking jokes with the groomsmen. Olivia’s side was softer, slower, that pyjamas-and-nibblies stretch before anyone touched a hairbrush.

The detail shots tell their own story here. Olivia’s rings sitting on the windowsill. Her shoes still in the box. The dress on its hanger in the annex doorway, catching the morning light before it ever touched her skin. None of it staged. Just the actual order things happened in.

The First Look with Olivia’s Dad

Olivia was already in her dress when her dad came to the door. We’d planned a quiet first look between the two of them before the ceremony, and I positioned myself so the door opening would catch his face the second he saw her.

He didn’t say much. He didn’t need to. That’s the thing about these father-daughter moments that I’ve learned to just let happen rather than direct – the silence does more work than any line either of them could’ve said. Olivia’s eyes went straight to glassy. So did his.

This is the bit I keep coming back to from the whole day. Big weddings can swallow the quiet moments if you let them, between the guest list and the schedule and a hundred people needing your attention. Olivia and Regan built in the time for this one anyway, and it paid off completely.

The Ceremony at the Homestead Gardens

Olivia walked down the aisle on her dad’s arm under a flower covered arbor set up in the homestead gardens, with celebrant Steph Slater holding the space the way good celebrants do – present, warm, never rushing it. The ceremony ran emotional from the first few steps. Olivia’s dad actually hugged Regan partway through the service, which is not a thing I see often and not something either of them planned, as far as I could tell from where I was standing.

That’s the kind of detail no styled shoot or venue brochure can give you. It happened because these two families genuinely like each other, and a hundred-plus guests watching didn’t make either of them perform around it.

The walk back out went through confetti thrown by the whole crowd, which is always one of my favourite few seconds of any wedding day. Then straight into canapes while everyone’s still buzzing off the ceremony.

Confetti, Canapes and Family Photos

After the confetti settled, it was straight into the part of a big wedding day that takes real planning to get right – canapes for the guests, then group and family photos, then the bridal party. We moved through it briskly enough that nobody stood around bored, but slowly enough that I actually got the reaction shots rather than just lined-up smiles.

The bridal party photos were where the day’s energy properly cracked open. Champagne got popped. Olivia and her bridal party were full belly-laughing through most of it. Regan and his mates had their own version of that – less champagne, more banter, the kind of mate energy that comes through in photos even when nobody’s posing for it.

Portraits Around the Homestead and Out in the Fields

Once the group stuff wrapped, I took Olivia and Regan off on their own. We started around the veranda and the older details of the homestead itself, then kept walking until we hit the open fields beyond the garden.

This is where Kimo Estate’s land does the heavy lifting. March had given the paddocks that brown, sunburnt look that’s so particular to inland New South Wales, with the kind of gum trees that look like they’ve been there since before the property was a property. Against that backdrop, with the light starting to turn, we got some genuinely moody, atmospheric frames of the two of them that I don’t think would’ve happened anywhere else on the property.

The Reception in the Grain Shed

The Grain Shed is where the day shifted gears completely. Candelabras hung above the tables, the light went soft and moody as it filtered through that old timber structure, and speeches were given by candlelight before the cake got cut. There’s something about that cathedral ceiling and the warm light underneath it that turns even a straightforward speech into something cinematic on camera.

A hundred-plus guests in a room like that, mid-speech, candlelight flickering across faces, is one of those setups where my job is mostly just staying out of the way and watching for the reactions. The laugh someone tries to swallow. The look between two parents. That’s the stuff that matters more than the speech itself, a year from now.

Sunset at the Eco Hut

While the reception kept going, we slipped away up to one of Kimo’s luxury eco huts on the hilltop for sunset portraits, and the sky decided to put on an actual show. Blood red, properly dramatic, the kind of colour that doesn’t happen every wedding and definitely doesn’t happen on command.

From up there you get the full, unobstructed view across the property, and with that sky behind them, Olivia and Regan got some of the moodiest, most cinematic portraits of the whole day. It’s a short walk from the main reception area, which made it an easy slot to fit into a packed evening without anyone missing too much of the party.

The Party

Back down at the Grain Shed, Regan and Olivia kicked the night off with drinks among their friends before more speeches happened outside under the evening sky. Then the first dance went off properly, and the dance floor opened up for real after that. Drinks flowed, the whole room let loose, and the celebration carried on well into the night.

By that point I’d been with these two since before either of them had put a dress or a suit on, and watching the room go from quiet annex mornings to a full dance floor felt like the whole arc of the day landing exactly where it should.

My Favourite Moments from This Kimo Estate Wedding

• Regan with a cocktail in hand before 11am, completely unbothered
• The pyjama morning on Olivia’s side, nobody camera-ready and nobody minding
• The door opening on the first look with her dad
• Her dad hugging Regan mid-ceremony, completely unplanned
• Champagne popping mid-bridal-party-photos
• Candlelight across a hundred faces in the Grain Shed during speeches
• That sky at the eco hut. Genuinely one of the best sunsets I’ve shot all year

Vendor Credits

Venue & Catering: Kimo Estate
Celebrant: Steph Slater
Florist: Scooter Flowers
Makeup: Tara Florence Artistry
Hair: Kate Lily
Music & Entertainment: Boom Box 2 U
Accessories: Witt & Pearl
Dress: Made With Love
Suit: Peter Jackson
Wedding Party Outfits: Shona Joy, Peter Jackson
Shoes: Bared, Florsheim
Rings: Dimitries Jewellers Canberra
Cake: Sweet Bee Cake Designs
Stationery: PaperLust
Transport: Goodes Coaches

Planning a Big Country Wedding at Kimo Estate

What to Know Before You Book the Date

If you’re looking at a Kimo Estate wedding photographer for your own day, the first thing worth knowing is how much room the property gives you to spread a hundred-plus guests across the day without it feeling rushed. The homestead gardens handle the ceremony, the Grain Shed (seating around 200) handles the reception, and there’s a genuine logistics win in having two separate annex houses if you want a split getting-ready morning like Olivia and Regan had.

Distance-wise, Kimo sits close enough to Wagga Wagga and Gundagai for most guests to manage comfortably, and it’s a manageable drive for anyone coming up from the surrounds of the Snowies or down from further north in NSW. Autumn gave Olivia and Regan that golden, sunburnt paddock look in the late afternoon, which is worth keeping in mind if you’re chasing a similar feel for your own portraits.

The eco huts are the detail most couples don’t think about until they’re planning the day. If you want sunset portraits with a real view, ask early – they’re a short walk from the Grain Shed, which makes them easy to slot into a reception timeline without losing too much time with your guests. [VERIFY: current onsite accommodation capacity and whether eco hut sunset access requires booking in advance through Kimo’s wedding coordinator]

If you’re planning a day at any of the larger countryside properties across this part of NSW, it’s worth taking a look at how other big country weddings come together for more on what makes a venue work at scale. No dramas either way – happy to jump on a call if you want to talk through what a day like this could look like for you.