From A Foreign Shore.

From A Foreign Shore.

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You need to read this. I don't normally (maybe even ever) begin my features with that phrase but it's important that you know how beautifully written Samara's account of her very own love story is.

If you are in need of some romance then this has it in spades, the images are equally as moving. I'm a firm believer that there is someone special out there for everyone and that sometimes they might not necessarily be on your door step.

Samara is Australian and Richie is English and they met in Berlin....they say the rest is "history" yet it's really only the beginning.

For as long as I can remember I've had an intrinsic knowing that the love of my life would be found on a foreign shore, somewhere far, far away from the place I know so well; Australia. As a little girl and later as a young woman I harbored an insatiable curiosity about the world that could only be appeased by travel. I was nineteen and on my way home after my first big trip abroad when I found myself standing in the Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris with an inexplicable longing to be boarding at the opposite gate, labeled 'Heathrow'. I should have known in that moment that the great love of my life was going to be an Englishman.

I met Richie five years later in Berlin. Our paths crossed whilst he was on a long weekend away from London, and I was drawing to the end of a two-month trip around Europe. He was soft spoken and had those kind, dark eyes; the kind that compelled me to meet up with him the following week in London. From there we spent ten magical days together, which followed by four months of long distance adoration from across the globe. We were unabashedly crazy about each other, so I packed up my life and made the plunge; finally getting to board that gate to be with my love from a foreign shore.

It's been 15 months since he met me at Heathrow holding a bouquet of tulips and our world is still encased in a shimmering magic that at times seems dreamlike. We got engaged on Easter Sunday this year in Central Park, on the lake, in a rowboat. I am an extraordinarily difficult person to surprise and so his success in doing just that was enough to earn him a definitive yes from me (after initially shaking my head in disbelief for about 30 seconds or so).

Marriage is something that we both knew we wanted from the word go and so the idea of waiting any considerable amount of time was quickly turned down. It took no more than a day, two at most, to pick a location and a photographer. The location was the simplest decision we've made yet. Richie's Grandma Maimie is 93 years old and lives in a quaint home in Leicestershire, a home that has been in the family for over 60 years. It is surrounded by an acre of the loveliest English garden I have ever seen and offers every summer berry one could think of (a true novelty to an Antipodean). In the first instance that I ever stepped foot in her garden I had a 'moment' and in that 'moment' I saw my wedding day unfold. So it was to be, Grandma Maimie's garden was chosen as the venue for both our wedding ceremony and reception.

The indispensible 'number two' on our list of decisions to make was the photography aspect. With less than three months until the wedding I was very aware of the difficulties that we would be faced with when trying to find - a) that perfect photographer, and b) that perfect photographer who would be available on our date. Her name was Claudia Rose Carter and if that name alone didn't do it for me it was her remarkable ability to speak directly to my heart through her photographs. Luckily for us, she was a mum-to-be and had kept her schedule quite open. After making initial contact, I felt a genuine connection with her and knew she was going to be someone who we would want to have around on our day.

The pre wedding shoot is something she feels very passionate about, in fact she insists, and that we in turn were very grateful for. I found her take on it to be refreshingly original and uncontrived. After tossing up a few options as to where the shoot would take place we ultimately decided on doing it in our flat and amongst the streets surrounding us. This presented us with the chance to be as spontaneous and comfortable as we could possibly be and also allowed for something of extreme sentimental value to be created. Having never done anything like this before we were naturally feeling nervous, however it only took a mere few minutes in Claudia's presence to feel at ease.

The wedding is happening in three weeks time and a part of me still feels like I'm a little girl looking up at the sky daydreaming about all of this. My mother and three of my dearest friends will be arriving shortly on English soil to join the other 30 guests who will be sharing our intimate day with us. The day where all of my dreams come true.

And I just can't wait...

Photography by Claudia Rose Carter

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