Pre-Marital Bliss is a record of a time in my life when my now wife, Lizzie and I first got together. Quite early on in our relationship we decided to rent a crappy little flat in the centre of Christchurch–we thought we’d throw the relationship in the deep end quickly, so to speak. It was a two room, ramshackle apartment and neither of us had any money to rub together in order to buy anything nice, let alone of worth. Lizzie would go to the Salvation Army shop and buy mismatched dinnerware, furniture and artwork for fifty-cents a pop to try make us feel more at home, and we both worked multiple jobs in order to make ends meet. We’d wake up each morning as well as nod off to sleep at night looking at the ceiling of our bedroom, which was covered in a galaxy of glow-in-the-dark stickers, put there by a previous tenant. We’d count the stars and make plans for our future together; some inconsequential or silly, others intensely personal or ambitious. Looking back, it’s amazing how many of those plans have been realised. These pictures remind me of all the unexpected twists and turns life has and will inevitably continue to take us on as Lizzie and I now navigate married, family life. Suffice to say, I must have pegged my most ambitious wish to the right shooting star.
