Real Weddings

Article by

Laura Wilson

Posted on

28/03/2019

Posted in

Real Weddings

This fun-loving couple might give you a good idea (or two) guys! To start with, “we bought a GoPro and mounted it to a bottle of Fireball whiskey and saw the wedding from an entirely new perspective,” says the bride. “It made for a LOT of laughs (and some heavy heads) the next day.” We bet! The lead up to their big day was a little bit chaotic, though. Just five months out from the ‘I Do’s’, this pair’s venue was shut down, but as often happens, it was meant to be. Read all about it below, and see the awesome pics by none other than Shane Shepherd…

THE VENUE “Our wedding venue shutting down threw a complete spanner in the works! Most other venues in the area were already booked – it very nearly threatened to bring out the inner bride/groomzilla in us both, but luckily we had an incredibly calm wedding planner in Rachael, of The Events Lounge, who has seen/ done it all before and allowed us to mope around for a few days while she tentatively booked us in at the newly built, The Orchard Estate. We trusted Rach so much that without having even seen the space, we said yes. It ended up being our dream blank canvas and we felt we could play with the details so much more than we could have at our previous venue.”

FAVOURITE DETAIL “The floral-wizardry from Stem Design. It very nearly took my breath away. I still to this day do not know how Nicole came up with my dream bouquet when all she got from me was a long and convoluted email containing a whole lot of layman’s terms and some Google images for reference. What a bunch of legends they are! And don’t get me started on the foliage installations!”

THE DRESS “Unlike many women, shopping for a wedding dress was my idea of EXQUISITE HELL and I did not enjoy any part of the process. I hated 99% of them and was drowning in Swarovski crystals and tulle. Nothing felt like ‘me’ and it frustrated me that I might have to spend thousands of dollars to squeeze into a dress in a style that I would never normally wear in everyday life. I went for an appointment with Pallas Couture and was sold on the fact that they could custom make a dress to fit ME. I was able to customise one of their designs to my taste and added some beaded Aztec-style sleeves to a dress that was previously very floral, feminine and dainty.”

MEMORABLE MOMENT “My sister’s speech. She is absolutely terrified of public speaking and admitted prior that she had thrown up four times in the lead up to it. It was the most incredible speech filled with funny anecdotes of our childhood and I laughed and cried the whole way through it. It meant the world to me that she went out of her comfort zone to do that.”

A WORD OF ADVICE “Don’t be afraid to break the rules! We were really uncomfortable with some of the suggested wording for our ceremony script. It was stiff and formal and just not us. It wasn’t until we had an honest conversation with our celebrant, Chiquita Mitchell, that we realised we didn’t need to include most of it! She let us know what we needed to say legally and we scrapped the rest! The ceremony was one of the highlights of our day because it felt raw and very true to who we were as a couple.”

WE’RE GLAD WE… “I am REALLY glad we hired an experienced wedding planner! It was hands down the best money we spent. I don’t think we could’ve done it without Rachael and her team from The Events Lounge. Our plans definitely would not have been executed nearly as well and most importantly we were able to soak in everything on the day knowing it was all being looked after. I had countless guests comment on what a legend Rach was. She even found the time to sit me down, hand me a glass of bubbles and wipe the mud off my shoes and dress so I didn’t ruin all of our wedding photos!”

STANDOUT VENDORS “I hired the most incredible photographer (Shane Shepherd) and videographer (Jared and Jacob from Humdrum Films). It ate a lot of our budget, but realistically that is all you have once the day is over. They both are truly masters of their crafts and it made life easier that they all knew each other and had worked together before. They spent the whole day bouncing ideas off each other and got the absolute best out of everyone with their upbeat personalities and charisma.”

This wedding was originally published in our 2018 Real Weddings Special. If you’d like to check out more from this issue, limited copies are available via our online store. Keen for even more inspo? Our 2019 Real Weddings Special has just been released and you can get both mags for the price of one via our online store. If you want to know more about Shane Shepherd, head to his Directory listing for a contact form and more real weddings including his talents on the blog.