When you combine the breathtaking landscape of New South Wales with a couple as stunning as this darling duo is, amazing things can happen. Like stop you in your tracks weddings filled with gorgeous DIY details, a custom lace gown and the prettiest of pastel colors. And when that glorious soiree happens to be captured in beautiful images by Bianca Dopson Photography, it ups the amazing by about 100 percent. It's the perfect start to the weekend and you can see so much more right here.
South Coast Wedding from Bianca Dopson Photography
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From the Bride... The first thing I did when I woke up in the morning was run outside and check the weather — I said all along if it was a rainy day I would be devastated. Although on the day, to my own complete surprise, I was so relaxed I didn't seem to mind at all. The rain stopped for all the key parts of the day and made for some absolutely amazing photos. Maybe rain isn't so bad after all.
The location was in a quirky little historic village called Mogo, and we couldn't have had a more perfect location — a historic gold rush park. Our photographer Bianca said it best when she described it as sort of like a warm log cabin. Because it was a rainy day, the two open fires in the hall were perfect and really did set a warm, cosy cabin atmosphere. The hall was completely rustic, built with wood with exposed beams for the ceiling and long wooden trestle tables. The entire hall was decorated with hundreds of jars, which we collected ourselves (we had almost everyone in town saving their empty jars for us), washed and decorated. All of the decorations were related to our "quirky, vintage, rustic, alternate" theme — old-school buttons, old wooden pegs, jute twine, little paper roses, old-style measuring tape and candles, just to name a few. We also took the larger jars and wired them to turn them into hanging lanterns, which worked a treat. A couple of other decorations we made ourselves were the large hanging hearts, which we made by winding the jute twine around a cardboard heart shape. We used distressed calico as tablecloths to again have a rustic feel. It was well worth the hours and hours we spent doing DIY decorations — thanks, mum!
One wish I had for the reception was to be sure that everyone enjoyed themselves — I didn't want to have one of those weddings where guests were just sitting at the table all night. One of the best things we did for the reception was to hire a photo booth, which I think everyone made good use of. The booth came all set with props and an album for the photo strips. Looking back on the photos later on on a disc was a great laugh! Some other things that made our wedding extra special: having my grandfather (who is very special to me) and my father share the duty of walking me down the aisle, having a clothesline and well wishing tags instead of a guest book, having nibbles served while the guests waited for the bridal party instead of sit-down entrees, the beautiful character of the old church we were married in, and of course all of the love and support that our friends and family shared on the day! I couldn't go without mentioning our wonderful deacon, Paul Rummery, who helped keep us on the straight and narrow in preparation for our day, as well as our spectacular photographers, Bianca Dopson and her hubby Colin, who did an absolutely fantastic job on our photos! Thanks to you, we have such amazing pictures to keep for the rest of our lives, and that means so much to me. In the lead-up to our wedding, everybody would say to me, "Enjoy the day while it lasts; it goes far too quickly," and, well, they were right! It was by far the most special day of our lives so far, and I wouldn't change a thing!
Wedding Photography: Bianca Dopson Photography / Ceremony: St. Mary's Church in Moruya, New South Wales / Reception: The Original Old Gold Rush Colony in Mogo, New South Wales / Portrait Location: The Priory at Bingie in Bingie, New South Wales / Floral Design: Joycies Flowers / Wedding Cake: Amber Andrews of Amber's Creative Cakes / Wedding Dress: Custom by Isabelle Hennequin / Hair: Bec Brown of Expressions Hair Studio / Makeup: Sarah Quinn + T'Mia Gibson