Eight Willows Retreat
wedding photographer

Eight Willows Retreat sits on 75 acres of bushland at Metricup, in the heart of the Margaret River region — tall eucalypts, a lake, chalets for your guests, and a function centre looking straight out over the water. Ceremony, portraits, reception and bed, all on one property.

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We photographed Danja & Andre here in July. A South West winter has a reputation, and it can live up to it, but a clear July afternoon down here is some of the kindest light of the year — low, warm, and soft enough to shoot straight into. Most of the portraits on this page were made in the last hour of it.

They married in the bush, under a timber arbour hung with flowers and white drapes, on pale sandy ground among the trees. Eight Willows calls its bush ceremony setting the Bush Chapel, tucked down a white limestone path from the function centre, and it feels properly private. The canopy there is open rather than dense, so the light stays even across a whole ceremony instead of breaking into hard patches on faces.

Then there’s the lake. The lawn runs right down to the water, and with the sun low across it you get reflections, warm light through the trees behind, and room to move — which is how you end up with a groom twirling his bride instead of two people standing still. The water sits beside the Lakeside Function Centre, so portraits there cost you a short walk rather than a drive.

The veil photographs were made with the sun coming straight through the eucalypts, and a long, straight tree-lined road gave us a clean frame to finish on. Bush, water, lawn and road — the variety is the point of a property this size, and none of it needs anyone to get into a car.

One practical thing worth knowing early: Metricup is roughly three hours’ drive south of Perth, and Eight Willows has chalets on site plus The Residence, a four-bedroom house that suits a bridal party. Getting ready, getting married and going to bed in the same place is a real gift to a wedding timeline — nobody arrives flustered, and nobody has to leave the dance floor early to drive home.