Your wedding is a world you build together. Make it one you'd want to live in.
I'm Carly, founder and photographer at Carlita Sari — based in Sydney's Inner West, capturing weddings across Australia and overseas. I photograph weddings for big-hearted, colourful humans who don't quite see themselves in the wedding industry's norms, who'd rather celebrate in a way that feels completely, deliciously them.
I think we’re living in fascinating times.
Amidst the rise of nefarious forces, we're also seeing a heart-led renaissance of reclaiming spaces — to repopulate them with the full colour and diversity that reflects all of us.
We do this beautifully through our music, art and festivals. Yet weddings we're still cautious to touch — perhaps because many believe they were invented by institutions they don't resonate with, and see only two options: do it as prescribed, or don't do it at all. Subscribe, or boycott.
A false binary, which regrettably overlooks a more beautiful truth:
Nobody owns weddings.
Not the church,
not the state,
not the industry,
and not your aunt.
Every culture that has ever existed found some way to gather its people and celebrate love out loud. That instinct is older than every institution that has since tried to claim it.
What did get claimed was marriage. For centuries, it functioned as a legal transfer — a woman handed from her father to her husband, her identity absorbed into his. Australia didn't write 'the union of a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others' into law until 2004, and dropped 'a man and a woman' in 2017. Yet most of what we call tradition today — the white dress, the giving away — is leftover from that arrangement.
Here's the distinction:
A marriage is a legal act, and the legal part is a shorter list than most people imagine. A wedding is everything else. And everything else is yours.
So make what is yours, intentionally yours. Build something you’d want to live in! Whether it’s a wedding on a magical island, rainforest, warehouse, jazz club, your bestie’s backyard - wherever! Fill it with what you LOVE: a top notch sound system, the long table midsomma feast of your dreams, a rave cave, an ott dress code, gratitude, poems that make people cry, surprises that make them laugh. Encourage your favourite people to arrive as their most magnificent selves, and participate - because interaction and collaboration matter.
If the heart that beats through everything feels golden - that’s what the transformative experience will be.
To test this, I threw my dream wedding...
In 2024 I married forty of my dearest friends on Minjerribah, Quandamooka Country (North Stradbroke Island), in an Ode to Platonic Love.
I wanted to push the boundaries on what made me uncomfortable about the wedding industry.
The historical exclusion of same-sex weddings. The gatekeeping of who gets to celebrate love, and how. I wanted to test if power still held inside ritual and intention, beyond the rules. And I wanted to honour the abundant, generous and gloriously diverse loves of my life.
So I built them the wedding they deserved. Rewrote it steeped in everything meaningful to me:
Honouring country, a deconstructed ceremony, spoken word, singalongs, dancefloors and a fabulous dress code — (because why decorate your venue when you can decorate your guests?!)
However what undid me wasn't just how it felt for me. It was watching what it ignited in everyone else. Friends arrived braced for a typical ceremony and left transformed. “I think that just healed all my attachment wounds” said a beloved, as we all purred in agreement.
That's the moment this work changed for me. I didn’t just want to bring people exquisitely beautiful memories, I wanted to remind them of their paintbrush: to remember if the world they were looking at didn’t feel like them, it’s totally possible to paint something that does.
That moment gave me clarity. However the instinct began long before weddings…
What I bring, beyond the camera
Before weddings, Carly learned her craft in the arts. photographing for Opera Australia (of Sydney Opera House), Sydney Theatre Company, Biennale of Sydney, Rainbow Serpent and WOMADelaide, alongside years in music festivals, queer parties and the bush doof scene.
Those spaces honed skills that have been invaluable at weddings. How light behaves when you can't control it. How costume, colour and space build feeling. How to take photos full of life and humanity. And - most importantly - how being joyfully connected to what's in front of you is the only way to truly capture it.
I also provide planning and support as part of every package — because photography starts well before the lens. A decade of weddings has allowed me to collect a treasure trove of insider hacks.
I've seen hundreds of run sheets; I know which decisions protect your day (and your nervous system) and which ones will pull you away from the things you love. I've seen what makes a wedding sing, and what sucks all the oxygen out of a room. I'll help you build timelines, share my tips, intel, parent-whispering hacks and the vendors worth booking.
Whilst you might not see these actions show up in the photos directly, they will show up - as magic, connection and emotion. Because humans who feel seen, safe and cared for, can more easily surrender to love, fun and joy.
Still here?
Then I suspect we might be a wonderful fit ;) Go have a wander through the gallery — or if you'd like to check your date is free before getting too attached, hit me up below.