DIY Maleny Wedding at Vue De Lumieres
Brides these days totally blow me away. I swear they get more talented year after year, and this beauty is no different. With the help of family and friends she whipped up a seriously darling affair, that even a torrential down pour couldn't ruin. In fact, the rain just made it that much more intimate and lovely. Sunlit Studios was behind the lens to capture all the pretty, and you can see it all here.
From the Bride...After a beautiful October day strolling the paths of Eze, France and a delicious dinner in Monte Carlo, Adam and I were enjoying the evening air on the balcony of our room at the Hotel de Paris, when he got down on one knee and asked me to be his wife. I giggled a lot and for long enough for him to feel he needed to clarify it was a yes… Eventually I managed to squeak a yes, before dissolving into a fit of giggles again.
For a few weeks, we bounced around in post-engagement bliss, but eventually I realised some further action was required, and so began 18-months of meticulous and maybe a little over-the-top planning.
I am a graphic designer, so was able to design, print and/or put together a lot of elements myself. From save-the-dates, invitations and programs, to the website, and even to the confetti cones. I bundled up sheaves of wheat with twine and a name tag to make place cards, and spent hours preparing quilted Ball Mason jars that I capped with hessian and sealed with twine for the bonbonierre. I threaded die-cut thank you cards and our wedding logo onto the twine to tie everything in with our theme. My amazing mother-in-law also made the flower girl dresses and page boy suits from scratch - just gorgeous!
Once I realised I was using a lot of hessian, twine and kraft card for those elements, the rest of the wedding came together so easily to form what became our rustically elegant wedding. It even changed which dress I decided to go with! Thankfully, Adam either agreed with my sense of style or just went with the flow, I'm still not sure which it is...
It wasn’t until the day before that I had a moment to think... And I started thinking I was a little nervous! We packed the cars and said our goodbyes – the boys, Adam, my groom, Ethan, his son and Jon, the best man went in their car and Tara, Adam’s daughter and I went in our car. Tara’s excitement was as infectious as it was precious and pretty soon she had replaced my nerves with energy and anticipation.
My sister, Leanne and her daughter, Olivia met us at our beautiful accommodation at Spicers, Tamarind in Maleny and we settled in for a relaxing night with pizza, champagne (for the big girls…) and gifts.
The next morning, my flower girls were so excited to have make up on their faces for the first time ever… Once it was on, they kept running back to the bathroom to inspect their faces and marvel over their longer eyelashes and rosy cheeks.
Our preparations were relaxing, mostly… until it started raining about an hour prior to our ceremony. I was terrified that it would be raining for our ceremony and found it hard to focus on something else, even though there was nothing I could have done…
Fortunately, the sun came out shining just as we pulled into our ceremony and reception venue, and I walked down the aisle of Vue de Lumieres in Maleny only five minutes late to our truly amazing string quartet playing Pachelbel’s Canon in D.
Everything about our ceremony was beautiful and emotive: from the way we incorporated Adam’s children to the vows we recited to each other for the first time. Thankfully, the adrenalin of the moment meant I didn’t wash away my make up with tears, but many of our guests were reaching for tissues, and I have to admit I like that our ceremony stirred that much emotion.
While we had our photographs, our guests were treated to canapés and champagne in the garden beside our marquee. There was also a vintage polaroid photo booth with foamy props and garden games to keep everyone busy, though admittedly these got the most use as soon as the flower girls and page boys got back from their photos.
After we returned from our photos, we were ushered fairly quickly into the marquee, as my worst nightmare was about to happen: a torrential downpour started as the entrees were being served and my heart broke as the beautiful vintage furniture I hired for a ‘break out space’ on the other side of the garden was covered up. It didn’t stop for over an hour…
During our entrees, our photographers, Sunlit Studios recommended a ‘rain photo’. I thought our photographer had actually gone mad… she wanted us to stand in the rain with a tiny excuse for an umbrella just for a photo? Fortunately, at some point I reasoned that she knew what she was doing and to just go with it… And we now have the defining photo of our wedding! To me, the photo says so much – it reminds me that I still had an incredible time, despite my worst fears about rain at a marquee wedding coming true; it tells me that beautiful things happen when least expected; and the closeness and intimacy of the photo highlights what a wedding is about – not the food, or the music or the setting, but about joining with the one you love, now and forever.
Despite feeling devastated about the rain, somewhere amongst the laughter during the speeches, I forgot about it, and just marveled at the amazing stories people had to tell. My sister wrote the most beautiful speech, and somehow learned all six minutes of it by heart – it was truly incredible and one of the highlights of my evening! During Adam’s speech the rain clouds were passing low over the mountain and made the most breathtaking haze behind him amongst the fairy- and bistro-lights.
In between our delicious soups, mains and desserts, I finally had a moment to just sit and take in how everything looked… and it was gorgeous. Everything had come together exactly as I imaged, from the natural touches of hessian, jute twine and kraft card, to the soft lighting of the fairy lights, to the intimate feel of the marquee. The cover had even been lifted from the vintage furniture, and it was still usable! Everything was just stunning and I was so glad for the amount of effort my amazing suppliers and I had put in.
Before I knew it, dessert had been had, the cake was cut, the dance floor was swept dry, and we were walking out to dance to Beyonce’s rendition of At Last. Neither of us are dancers and were so nervous to try to pass off our swaying as dancing in front of our family and friends… but in the moment, it was just lovely to have what felt like a private moment with each other.
With that, the formal part of our evening was over! The kids took over the dancefloor for a while, and whilst I can’t say I’ve ever seen a dancefloor used in the way they were using it, I love that they had a great time, slipping, sliding and jumping.
For me, the concept of a wedding day going unreasonably fast couldn’t have been more true from this point – I feel like I lost two hours in a matter of moments and wish I had done more with my time!
Before I knew it, we were saying our goodbyes, and just like that, 18 months of planning; kilometres of jute twine; hundreds of sheets of kraft; endless Etsy deliveries; and hours upon hours of design later our wedding was over! Fortunately we had the bonbonierre to console ourselves with when we got back to Spicers – four delicious macarons hand made by Mark Canham… They lived up to the hype and it was the perfect end to a perfect day.
For a few weeks, we bounced around in post-engagement bliss, but eventually I realised some further action was required, and so began 18-months of meticulous and maybe a little over-the-top planning.
I am a graphic designer, so was able to design, print and/or put together a lot of elements myself. From save-the-dates, invitations and programs, to the website, and even to the confetti cones. I bundled up sheaves of wheat with twine and a name tag to make place cards, and spent hours preparing quilted Ball Mason jars that I capped with hessian and sealed with twine for the bonbonierre. I threaded die-cut thank you cards and our wedding logo onto the twine to tie everything in with our theme. My amazing mother-in-law also made the flower girl dresses and page boy suits from scratch - just gorgeous!
Once I realised I was using a lot of hessian, twine and kraft card for those elements, the rest of the wedding came together so easily to form what became our rustically elegant wedding. It even changed which dress I decided to go with! Thankfully, Adam either agreed with my sense of style or just went with the flow, I'm still not sure which it is...
It wasn’t until the day before that I had a moment to think... And I started thinking I was a little nervous! We packed the cars and said our goodbyes – the boys, Adam, my groom, Ethan, his son and Jon, the best man went in their car and Tara, Adam’s daughter and I went in our car. Tara’s excitement was as infectious as it was precious and pretty soon she had replaced my nerves with energy and anticipation.
My sister, Leanne and her daughter, Olivia met us at our beautiful accommodation at Spicers, Tamarind in Maleny and we settled in for a relaxing night with pizza, champagne (for the big girls…) and gifts.
The next morning, my flower girls were so excited to have make up on their faces for the first time ever… Once it was on, they kept running back to the bathroom to inspect their faces and marvel over their longer eyelashes and rosy cheeks.
Our preparations were relaxing, mostly… until it started raining about an hour prior to our ceremony. I was terrified that it would be raining for our ceremony and found it hard to focus on something else, even though there was nothing I could have done…
Fortunately, the sun came out shining just as we pulled into our ceremony and reception venue, and I walked down the aisle of Vue de Lumieres in Maleny only five minutes late to our truly amazing string quartet playing Pachelbel’s Canon in D.
Everything about our ceremony was beautiful and emotive: from the way we incorporated Adam’s children to the vows we recited to each other for the first time. Thankfully, the adrenalin of the moment meant I didn’t wash away my make up with tears, but many of our guests were reaching for tissues, and I have to admit I like that our ceremony stirred that much emotion.
While we had our photographs, our guests were treated to canapés and champagne in the garden beside our marquee. There was also a vintage polaroid photo booth with foamy props and garden games to keep everyone busy, though admittedly these got the most use as soon as the flower girls and page boys got back from their photos.
After we returned from our photos, we were ushered fairly quickly into the marquee, as my worst nightmare was about to happen: a torrential downpour started as the entrees were being served and my heart broke as the beautiful vintage furniture I hired for a ‘break out space’ on the other side of the garden was covered up. It didn’t stop for over an hour…
During our entrees, our photographers, Sunlit Studios recommended a ‘rain photo’. I thought our photographer had actually gone mad… she wanted us to stand in the rain with a tiny excuse for an umbrella just for a photo? Fortunately, at some point I reasoned that she knew what she was doing and to just go with it… And we now have the defining photo of our wedding! To me, the photo says so much – it reminds me that I still had an incredible time, despite my worst fears about rain at a marquee wedding coming true; it tells me that beautiful things happen when least expected; and the closeness and intimacy of the photo highlights what a wedding is about – not the food, or the music or the setting, but about joining with the one you love, now and forever.
Despite feeling devastated about the rain, somewhere amongst the laughter during the speeches, I forgot about it, and just marveled at the amazing stories people had to tell. My sister wrote the most beautiful speech, and somehow learned all six minutes of it by heart – it was truly incredible and one of the highlights of my evening! During Adam’s speech the rain clouds were passing low over the mountain and made the most breathtaking haze behind him amongst the fairy- and bistro-lights.
In between our delicious soups, mains and desserts, I finally had a moment to just sit and take in how everything looked… and it was gorgeous. Everything had come together exactly as I imaged, from the natural touches of hessian, jute twine and kraft card, to the soft lighting of the fairy lights, to the intimate feel of the marquee. The cover had even been lifted from the vintage furniture, and it was still usable! Everything was just stunning and I was so glad for the amount of effort my amazing suppliers and I had put in.
Before I knew it, dessert had been had, the cake was cut, the dance floor was swept dry, and we were walking out to dance to Beyonce’s rendition of At Last. Neither of us are dancers and were so nervous to try to pass off our swaying as dancing in front of our family and friends… but in the moment, it was just lovely to have what felt like a private moment with each other.
With that, the formal part of our evening was over! The kids took over the dancefloor for a while, and whilst I can’t say I’ve ever seen a dancefloor used in the way they were using it, I love that they had a great time, slipping, sliding and jumping.
For me, the concept of a wedding day going unreasonably fast couldn’t have been more true from this point – I feel like I lost two hours in a matter of moments and wish I had done more with my time!
Before I knew it, we were saying our goodbyes, and just like that, 18 months of planning; kilometres of jute twine; hundreds of sheets of kraft; endless Etsy deliveries; and hours upon hours of design later our wedding was over! Fortunately we had the bonbonierre to console ourselves with when we got back to Spicers – four delicious macarons hand made by Mark Canham… They lived up to the hype and it was the perfect end to a perfect day.