Spring is definitely in the air which means weddings GALORE over here at Style Me Pretty! Even if you're still waiting for the warmth of spring to hit your neck of the woods, surely you'd love to see some pretty pictures of an adorable warm weathered wedding from Australia? Of course you would!
Let's talk about my favorite things from Kristin and Tim's wedding: That hair piece (wow!), those gorgeous proteas (drool!), coordinating cake and paper products (genius!), and finally the oh-so-wicked pictures from the photobooth (fun!). There is no shortage of inspiration from this wedding and our bride, Kristin is ready to walk us through her planning process from her big day:
I have a background in hospitality, and Tim in graphic design and printing, so it was pretty well decided right from the start that good food, wine, photography and stationery would be priorities in our wedding! We decided on Home Hill winery as our venue (just south of Hobart, Tasmania, Australia) because we knew they do great food, great wine, and above all, because the owner Rosemary personally looks after all the weddings there to make sure everything goes just perfectly. It's a beautiful venue, with rammed earth walls and floor to ceiling glass to give views out across the vineyard. We had originally planned to have our ceremony outside in the vineyard, but the weather was looking a bit uncertain, so on the day we made the call to hold the ceremony in the winery's barrel room instead. In the end we were glad to have done this (even though the weather turned out ok!) - it gave a more intimate feel to the ceremony, and provided good acoustics, particularly for the classical guitar my cousin played as guests were arriving and during the ceremony.
I loved my dress. You often hear of brides going for months and months searching and searching for
the perfect dress, so when I was happy with the first dress I tried on, in the first shop I went into, I was a bit nervous - it's not meant to be that easy is it?! I tried on a few more in that same shop, but didn't like any as much as the first one, so decided it was meant to be. I didn't bother going anywhere else or trying on any more dresses after that. I went back and put a deposit on it that afternoon! With the dress organized, I then went to see a fantastic milliner in Melbourne who worked with me to create a headpiece to match my dress. I think she did a fantastic job - I got lots of compliments on it too.
We chose what the groomsmen would wear first, and then, with fabric swatches in hand, went out with the bridesmaids to find dresses to match. After traipsing around so many bridal shops, and finding nothing that was quite right, we thought we'd have a look in the local department store to see if there happened to be anything. We were so lucky to find three dresses all in exactly the right size for each of the girls, and on the sale rack too!
Tim is a keen cyclist, and his groomsmen (his brother and two friends) all cycle too, so the best man organised some little bike cufflinks for them all to wear on the day. With Tim's sport incorporated into the day, we then also managed to get my sport - running - in there too, when our photographer Jonathan Wherrett took us back out in the vineyard at night for a great photo (and done with just one take!). You'll know which one I'm talking about! Jonathan is such a fantastic photographer, and was so great on the day - fantastic with people, and he worked so hard to get as many photos as possible in the short time we had between the ceremony and dinner.
We also had a friend of mine from orienteering do our cake. We gave her some samples of our wedding stationery and a rough design, and she did a great job to create a really simple, elegant (and delicious) cake. We did a few things for the wedding ourselves too. Tim designed all our stationery, which we had printed on beautiful thick card with a gorgeous caramel-gold spot colour ink. As favors, we gave each guest a corkscrew (fitting for the winery setting), which doubled as a place tag. We also did all the reception flowers ourselves, and ended up sourcing flowers for the florist for the bouquets too! I'd had my mind set on using cream proteas. However, we had a fairly warm summer here, and the plants were all finishing blooming a lot earlier than usual. So it was a real mission: the word went out everywhere - my grandma had all her flower society friends on the case, and my Dad, who sometimes does a guest spot on a talkback radio show, even put out a call on the radio for cream proteas for us! We ended up with just enough for the bouquets, but not the reception, so instead we used berzelia with ivy leaves, ivy berries and willow branches for the table arrangements.
We also made some moustaches for the guests to use in the photobooth. We got a chalkboard and some other props for the guests to use too, like a wig, feather boa and silly glasses - we got some great photos! We hadn't really thought about it at the time, but as it turns out there was a bit of a "Mo" theme to the wedding. We had all Motown music for our processional, recessional, first dance and cake-cutting songs, and our wedding was in November. There's a fundraiser each November called "Movember", which is a moustache growing charity event to raise awareness and funds for men's health - particularly prostate cancer and depression. Both Tim and I have family members who have been affected by these, so all the moustaches in the photobooth were quite fitting.
Above all, we really wanted to create an event where all our guests could just have a great time, and I think we managed to achieve that!
Thanks Kristin! Congrats on a gorgeous, fun day!
xoxo Chantale from La Belle Bride
Photography: Jonathan Wherrett / Shoes: custom made by Anna Fiori / Dress: Elizabeth de Varga / Earrings: Cellini / Rings: Sargisons Jewellery / Headpiece: Louise MacDonald / Grooms and Groomsmen Fashion: Les Lees / Cufflinks: Benjamin Cufflinks / Bridesmaid Dresses: Myer / Cake: Cathy the Cakewoman / Stationery: designed by the groom, printed by Focal Printing / Ceremony and Reception Venue: Home Hill Winery / Makeup: Sharkra