Wollongong · Since 2010
Southern Highlands / Illawarra / Shoalhaven / Kangaroo Valley
Creating images that are timeless and real. I photograph the real emotions, the quiet in‑betweens, the deep belly laughs and the happy tears. No stiff poses, no forced moments, and no half your reception spent standing in a paddock.
Eliza Jade Photography is a wedding photographer based in Wollongong, NSW, shooting relaxed, candid weddings on digital and 35mm film across the South Coast, Southern Highlands and Illawarra. Wedding collections start at $4,150 for six hours, and a roll of 35mm film can be added for $250.
5.0 from 102 Google reviews
Signature frame. Couple in soft late light, wide enough to place the venue.
A real 35mm film frame. Grain visible, warm cast.
Candid guest moment mid-laugh, reception light.
Women-owned. Eliza owns and runs the business herself. Every wedding is shot by her.
LGBTQ+ friendly. All couples welcome. Always have been.
South Coast local. Based in Wollongong, so most weddings in the Illawarra, Shoalhaven and Highlands carry no travel charge.
Rating and review count as shown on Eliza’s Google Business Profile, confirmed 15 July 2026.
Contact sheet
This is how a wedding day actually reads back: in sequence, unedited, one frame after the next. Not a highlights reel of six perfect portraits. The whole thing, in order, including the bits nobody posed for.
Drag the strip
Getting ready. Hands, dress, window light.
Walking down the aisle, guests turning.
The vows. Faces, not the back of heads.
First look reaction from a parent.
Couple walking away, wide, late light.
Speeches. A table mid-laugh.
First dance, warm and slightly blurred.
End of the night, off guard, real.
What I shoot
Bride and groom mid-laugh during a candid moment, wide enough to show the venue
Full-day documentary coverage of the whole thing.
From the quiet chaos of getting ready through to the last song. I photograph the way the day actually unfolds. The real emotions, the quiet in-betweens, the deep belly laughs and the happy tears. No stiff poses, no shot list to march through.
Enquire about wedding photographyA genuine 35mm film frame, grain visible, ideally a couple in soft light
Add a roll to any wedding or session.
A roll of 35mm film, shot alongside the digital coverage and developed and scanned properly. Roughly 24 frames that look like nothing else: softer, warmer, a little unpredictable, and impossible to fake with a preset.
Enquire about 35mm filmAn hour, somewhere you love, before the big day.
The easiest way to get comfortable in front of a camera before your wedding, and honestly a lovely excuse for an evening out. We walk, you talk to each other, I stay out of the way. Beaches, escarpment, farmland, wherever suits you.
Relaxed outdoor sessions, or newborns at home.
Family sessions that do not involve anyone being told to say cheese. Outdoors around the Illawarra and South Coast, or newborn sessions in your own home where everyone is comfortable and the light is soft.
Church, then whatever happens after.
Coverage of the service and the celebration that follows, photographed quietly so the day belongs to your family and not to me. A minimum of two hours, which is usually enough to get the ceremony and the lunch.
35mm
Anyone can drag a preset over a digital file and call it film. This is a roll of 35mm, shot on the day alongside your digital coverage, then developed and scanned properly.
It behaves differently to digital and that is exactly the point. Softer highlights, warmer skin, grain that sits in the image instead of on top of it, and the occasional frame that goes somewhere unexpected. You cannot chimp the back of the camera and you cannot fix it later, so the frames that work feel earned. Couples who care about film tend to be the ones who still print things, and those are my favourite people to shoot for.
Her best single 35mm frame. Grain and colour shift visible, no digital cleanup.
Frame 12 ▶ 35mm ▶ scanned, not filtered
On Google
5.0
Every one of them written by a couple or a family Eliza has photographed. Confirmed on her Google Business Profile, 15 July 2026.
Read them on GoogleIn their words
Real review neededGenuine Google review 1. Paste the exact wording and the reviewer’s first name. Nothing goes here that a real couple did not write.
Real review neededGenuine Google review 2. Paste the exact wording and the reviewer’s first name. Nothing goes here that a real couple did not write.
To confirm The 5.0 rating and 102 review count are confirmed off her live GBP, but no individual review text has been captured. Real quotes need to be pasted in from Google, with the reviewer first name, before any testimonial appears on the page, and before aggregateRating can legitimately go into the schema.Real review neededGenuine Google review 3. Paste the exact wording and the reviewer’s first name. Nothing goes here that a real couple did not write.
Venues
Almost every couple does it in this order: fall for a venue, book the date, then start looking for a photographer. So there is a page here for each of the 16 venues across the South Coast, Southern Highlands and Illawarra I most want to shoot at, with what I know about the light, the spaces and how the day tends to run in each one.
Wide shot of the Book Barn interior set for a wedding, timber beams and bookshelves visible
Berrima · Southern Highlands
Vineyard estate and the Book Barn
Wide garden view at The Merribee showing the granite paths and layered planting
Numbaa · South Coast
Garden estate near the Shoalhaven River
The transformed hay shed set for a reception, or the boat shed and jetty at dusk
Sutton Forest · Southern Highlands
Ninety acres, a hay shed and a jetty
The heritage homestead facade with the park-like grounds in front
Sutton Forest · Southern Highlands
Heritage homestead and keystone barn
The creek frontage with willows, late afternoon light
Berry · South Coast
Creek frontage and a 1920s farmhouse
Ceremony Rock with the sandstone escarpment behind it
Kangaroo Valley · South Coast
Rainforest, escarpment and Ceremony Rock
Where I shoot
Wollongong is home, and it happens to sit right in the middle of the best wedding country in New South Wales.
North of me the escarpment runs down to the sea at Clifton and Thirroul. South through the Illawarra to Shellharbour, Kiama and Gerringong. Then Berry, inland to Kangaroo Valley, and down through Nowra and the wider Shoalhaven to Jervis Bay. Turn the other way and it is a straight run up into the Southern Highlands for Berrima, Bowral, Mittagong, Moss Vale and Sutton Forest.
That geography is the practical reason to book someone local. I am not driving in from Sydney on the morning of your wedding hoping the Illawarra traffic behaves, and I am not charging you a travel fee and a night of accommodation to shoot forty minutes from my own house. For weddings further out than this, just ask and I will quote it.
Service area
Pricing
You should be able to work out whether I fit your budget before you spend twenty minutes writing an enquiry. Most couples book seven hours at $4,550. All prices in AUD.
Extra hours $400 each. A roll of 35mm film can be added to any wedding for $250, which is roughly 24 frames.
Couples and engagement sessions are the same rate as a family session. Christenings run a minimum of two hours, with extra hours at $400.
Eliza herself, working. Camera in hand, not a posed headshot.
The photographer
“My style is deeply rooted in natural beauty, capturing the raw, unscripted emotion of human connection and the landscape around you.”
I have been photographing weddings since 2010, all of it from here on the South Coast. In that time I have learned that the photographs couples actually keep are almost never the ones from the shot list. They are the ones nobody noticed being taken.
So that is how I work. I turn up early, I stay out of the way, and I photograph what is happening rather than arranging it. I will guide you when you genuinely need it, usually for about ten minutes of portraits, and the rest of the day is yours. Digital as standard, 35mm film whenever you want it.
When I am not shooting I am off on some adventure with my husband, or taking an unreasonably long time over a coffee. I am a one-woman business, which means the person you meet, the person who answers your emails and the person at your wedding are all me.
How it works
Send through the form or ring. Tell me the date and the venue and I will let you know straight away whether I am free.
A call or a coffee, so you are not booking a stranger. We talk through how your day is shaped, what matters most to you, and which coverage actually fits.
Once you are booked in the date is yours. From there we stay in touch, and closer to the day we work out a loose plan for the light and the portraits.
I turn up early, work quietly, and photograph what happens. If you have added a roll of 35mm, that gets shot alongside the digital coverage.
FAQ
Eliza Jade Photography's wedding collections start at $4,150 for six hours, with most couples booking seven hours at $4,550. Elopements and small weddings start at $2,550 for two hours. Extra hours are $400 each, and a roll of 35mm film can be added for $250.
Both. Every wedding is covered on digital, and you can add a roll of 35mm film for $250, which is roughly 24 frames. The film gets shot alongside the digital coverage through the day, then developed and scanned properly. It is real film, not a preset made to look like it.
Yes. Eliza is based in Wollongong and regularly photographs weddings across the Southern Highlands, Kangaroo Valley, the Shoalhaven and the South Coast, at venues like Bendooley Estate, Mali Brae Farm, Wildwood and The Merribee. She also travels further afield for weddings and elopements by arrangement.
Most couples land on seven hours, which usually covers the back half of getting ready through to the first dances. Six hours works if your ceremony and reception are at the one venue. Eight hours suits a day with travel between locations or a long reception you want documented to the end.
We shoot anyway. Overcast light is genuinely lovely to photograph in, and most venues around the South Coast and Highlands have a covered space or a barn we can use. On the day we stay flexible, keep an eye on the radar, and grab the outdoor portraits in whatever break in the weather turns up.
Yes. Elopements and small weddings start at $2,550 for two hours of coverage, with extra hours at $400. It suits couples marrying somewhere quiet along the coast or in Kangaroo Valley with a handful of people there. Same documentary approach, just a much shorter and calmer day.
Many venues ask suppliers for a certificate of currency for public liability insurance before the day. Eliza can supply her insurance details to your venue on request. Ask when you enquire and it will be sent through with the rest of your booking paperwork.
Send the enquiry form on this page with your date and venue, or ring Eliza on 0430 326 289. She will confirm whether the date is free and what coverage suits your day. Dates are held once you are booked in, not while you are still deciding.
Enquire
Saturdays in the good months go early, sometimes eighteen months out. Send your date and venue through and I will come straight back to you on whether I am free.
Rather just talk?
0430 326 289 hello@elizajadephotography.comQuiet Friday to Sunday, because that is when I am shooting. Weekdays are best.