Wedding day mystery: Who are happy couple in the photos?

It's literally a developing story: Snap shots of a stunning young bride and groom from a bygone decade.

Eyes to the camera, both smiling, her gloved hands holding a traditional bouquet, and he donning a lovely carnation in a button hole.

Who are they and where are they now?

The photos were taken by photographer Ian Hulse, who has since died. His son Richard wants to give the couple pictured these precious souvenirs of their special day. But he needs help finding them.

"When my father passed away I inherited his personal archive of private, creative work that he did when he was a professional photographer. It also included a whole lot of family photos - stuff from the 1960s and from the 1970s," Richard told Checkpoint.

"Recently I was looking through these photos for an image of my mother to scan, and I found a little packet of negatives that was somebody's wedding, that was not part of our family. 

"He was active from the '50s through to the late '70s, but he was doing weddings I think from the '60s through to possibly the early '70s."

Richard thinks based on the negative the mystery wedding photos could be from the late 1960s or early 1970s.

"Someone described them as being quite … picturesque. They've got this kind of old world feel to them. There are large flowers the bride is holding. 

"The suits are back in fashion now, these photos could have been taken relatively recently. 

"They're backlit, which is quite a common attribute I think for wedding photos, because it creates a beautiful halo around the bride's veil. 

"I'm guessing it's Wellington region, possibly even Lower Hutt. My father was active in Lower Hutt and Wellington as a wedding photographer."

Richard said in earlier decades the negatives would have been about half the frame size.

"These are 6x7cm, so the camera he would have been using to shoot these was probably a Mamiya 6x7 medium format. This type of film known as 120, in the professional trade."

At the top of the packaging it says: "Barr-Carlyle wed".

The couple may be in the 70s or 80s now, Richard said.

"I think they're probably still living. They look young enough in this photo to still be around, so I hope we can actually find either them or their children, because I think family history represented in photographs are so important.

"And quite often these memories are lost, from generation to generation because nobody knows you know who's in the photo."

The 12 negatives include shots of the whole bridal party, the bride and groom, and just the bride. 

Richard hopes anyone who knows the happy couple, or are family, should email Checkpoint@rnz.co.nz to get the photos back to the people in them.