Real Weddings

Article by

Melissa Wakefield

Posted on

27/01/2022

Posted in

Real Weddings

There are a fair few reasons we can’t get enough of Tess and Dave’s big day. For a start, there’s the ‘Vintage Regatta Farm’ theme, complete with Henley Royal Regatta inspired blazer. There’s also the dreamy snaps from legendary lens-lady Hannah of Keeper Creative. But the real clincher? Definitely the duo’s commitment to curating their eclectic reception space. “We spray painted random garden sculptures gloss red and placed them throughout the barn and venue, we collected op-shop paintings and family photos (not even our families), that appeared to be from the ’80s, to hang inside the barn”, they share. Why, you ask? “Really all of this was to add an element of confusion to the part of our family who doesn’t really get us”. Phenomenal.

THE VENUE “We always wanted to get married on our own property so that when we are older and have kids, we can point at it and say ‘That is where your mum and dad got married!’. We go down to our dam all the time and can’t help but smile remembering that amazing day. We settled on a timber barn, as we’d thought to burn it down at the end, but we and some friends grew so attached to it, so it is now being re-erected for our friends’ wedding later this year.”

FAVOURITE DETAILS “We stocked our bar with lots of different local Ferguson Valley wines which had everyone gathered around the bar tasting and commenting which was a really fun element. That we didn’t expect.”

THE DRESS “My wedding dress didn’t arrive! Because we moved the wedding forward, my wedding dress was supposed to get in the week of the wedding… however because of COVID and the delay in the mail it arrived the Monday AFTER the wedding. We didn’t stress though (at least we didn’t have to cancel our wedding!) Elizabeth from Noa Bridal gave me the sample of the dress I bought and we got our epic EPIC dressmaker Patricia Dronow to magically turn a size 12 dress into a size 8… pretty much overnight. My bridesmaids had to meet her at the local pub car park to pick it up the night before the wedding and I didn’t really get to try it on all finished until the day of the wedding! However she did the most amazing job, I loved my dress and the story that went with it.”

FAVOURITE MOMENTS “Definitely the whole ceremony. We actually signed the legal papers the day prior and had a family friend ‘fake marry’ us on the day, so it was a very relaxed yet emotional ceremony. The best part was our lovely dog Luna was just walking around the whole time. When I walked down. The aisle she got excited and walked up to me and sat on my foot as she always does… Then during the ceremony, she saw a duck across the dam and took off which was hilarious! Then at the end when we walked down the aisle, I didn’t even realise but she was walking right next to me. Hannah got a photo of it and it’s my favourite photo of the day.”

MARRIAGE MEANS “To us, marriage means that we are our own family. We have our own rules and own traditions that is nobody else’s business.”

A WORD OF ADVICE “There is always too much food. We had way too much food, and we based this on the advice from our caterers. We threw away so much, and it didn’t sit well with us. If I were to do it again, I would allocate $3 per head to buy Tupperware and ask the caterers to package food portions into them and put them in the cool room for guests to take at the end of the night or that we could donate to an organisation the next day.”

In the mood for more inspo and more Western Australia couples? Click here for all the real wedding goodness you could ever need. But first, be sure to scroll down for one very happening d-floor…