Our wedding photos were published on Hello May magazine today which made me realise that I still haven’t blogged our own story. 

THE STORY OF US

Andrew and I met back in 2009 on a bar shift at the Burswood Dome during either a Black Eyed Peas concert or Monster Trucks.. either way, it took about 4 years in the friend zone until we finally got together after bumping into each other accidentally on purpose at Running of the Bulls in Spain in Pamplona. Running for your life will do that to ya!

It wasn’t until a year later when Andrew received a contract to play cricket in England for the season that (I joke, but pretty accurate) he gave me an ultimatum that if I went over I had to move as his ‘girlfriend’. We ventured off to a little village in Essex and the rest, as they say, is history!

HOW HE ASKED

One weekend in winter we were down south for my Birthday Weekend and we came home from dinner to a courtyard covered in hundreds of candles. I thought it was a bit over the top not really being the romantic type but it was only until I saw the flowers (which was totally out of character) that I realised what was going on. Before I could turn around to say anything he was down on one knee. It was a total surprise, to say the least! I was in utter shock and besides saying yes straight away was left speechless – Andrew still says it’s the quickest decision I’ve ever made!!

He did well to make it a total surprise I had no clue, we travel a fair bit and everyone thought he’d pop the question when climbing Machu Picchu the month later but I’m so glad he did it before because 1. it was a huge surprise and 2. getting engaged while you’re all sweaty, exhausted, hangry and haven’t showered for 4 days isn’t as glamorous as Instagram makes it out to be!

We didn’t want a long engagement so picked the one free date I had 6 months away. In hindsight putting a wedding together in pretty much, the last two months was probably silly.

OUR LOVE FEST

Here are some of the images beautifully captured by the legend that is James Simmons.

Feel free to ask any questions!

Being the middle of Summer we didn’t want the guys to have to wear suits. Andrew wanted to feel a bit fancy so decided on a nice light jacket, but one that was summery and fun, not too serious or anything like what he’d wear to work. I think the lads were chuffed!

We booked an Airbnb that I have always loved – Its open plan was perfect for getting makeup done and having people over the next day as well as being beautiful!

Being in the industry and looking back I think that if I wasn’t a photographer I probably wouldn’t have done half the things we did but most things were totally worth it. In March we ended up having a second wedding for my family in South Africa which was super chilled, put together at our beach cottage / Grandad’s pineapple farm in 24hours with the local farm minister (who I only met as I walked down the aisle) – it was so much fun and really ‘us’ . Although we only have crappy iPhone quality shots of the ceremony and reception up on the deck overlooking the Kleinemonde River, it was perfect. We did a photoshoot in Cape Town on a different day for those Insta worthy shots – the whole thing made me really stop and think what is important about marriage and on a wedding day. Sometimes we get so caught up in material things like wedding trends and styling or having pretty shoes. In SA i went barefoot, it was grand.

The girls pretty much got to pick whatever they wanted to wear, after a few text messages back and forth – having the girls over East made it a little trickier but loved what they ended up wearing.

I’ve never understood the whole matching bouquet thing, or bouquets in general unless it’s to have something to hold onto but I absolutely loved these Botanica Naturalis creations.

HELPING HANDS

Being in the industry I am blessed to know so many incredible and incredibly talented people so it was super hard choosing who to hire!

I made a list of who I wanted/ enjoy working with, trying to include as many friends as possible, then realised very quickly I wasn’t going to be able to have everything I wanted and afford a nice long honeymoon /second wedding and I was actually shocked by how expenses weddings can become.

We wrote a list of the top 5 things that we each wanted that we would book no matter what and a list of 5 things we didn’t care for and then compromised which worked really well. It was so sad only being able to pick one of each vendor because Perth is just overflowing with creative geniuses and beautiful souls.

THE I-DO’S

A family friend who we stayed with when we first moved to Australia is a pastor and he made the ceremony really personal as I didn’t want the standard celebrant script (which I can pretty much recite off the top of my head after hearing it so many times). 

Marriage is very special to us. It’s us adventuring through life and navigating the world together through the good and the bad until one of us kicks the bucket. Someone to do life together with. A lot of people say it feels no different being married but I can already feel it has brought us closer knowing this is forever. Andrew is the most amazing human and even though we can fight a lot sometimes – usually (pretty much always) because I’m hungry – I love knowing that we will be able to find a way through anything life throws at us.

THE VENUE

We wanted something simple, fun and outdoors that was a blank canvas for us to make our own.  Andrew’s parent’s live across the road from the Perth City Farm farmers market which was handy and I had recently shot a wedding there that I really enjoyed. It is super convenient, especially having the ceremony and reception in one place. Being such short notice, we somehow picked one of the only Saturday’s they had free in the summer so thought that was a sign. Perth City Farm and its DIY nature had its pro’s and con’s – if you’re thinking of getting married here feel free to get in touch for the low down. It is definitely a lot more effort to make it look nice than we thought!

We didn’t really have a theme for the wedding, we just wanted something outdoors and a big party that everyone could relax and have fun with little formalities, structure or any formal wedding vibes. Judging by the sore heads and feet the next morning I think we got there. 

We tried to hand-make or design as much of the wedding as possible to make it special to us, even if no one else knew about it. 

We also weren’t going to have an arbour but when I showed Andrew a picture of one I liked and he went away and made it so that was really sweet.

We now have a rose growing on is in our garden. Confetti cannons are the best.

TO DIY OR NOT

Our whole wedding was pretty much DIY. I designed the invites with the help of my talented aunty, who painted them & Mayumi from Decarlo Calligraphy who helped me with all my signage – which I got my jeweller friend to engrave (on the day – yikes).  I hand-fed each invitation into the printer cause the beautiful handmade paper was too soft. I really enjoyed making things like that personal.

Don’t get me wrong, DIY is great for being able to personalise a wedding but in the end it was a lot harder to put together (and more expensive) than I thought! Luckily my brother Ross co-runs an awesome events company and helped (/got roped in last minute) to save the day and organise all the drinks, bar staff, logistics and setup! It was a bit different to the usual 15,000person Oktoberfest he’s used to but he did comment that he thought it was more hard work….or maybe he said i was, not sure!

FAVOURITE THINGS

LOLS

This is us getting locked in a racecourse after going off-road for photos and having Uber save our bacon leaving Liv ( one of the photographers) behind with the car. 

Giant sparklers are a great distraction if you don’t want to do a first dance. 

 

Huge thanks to Maevana for making my reception jumpsuit.

OKAY THAT’S ENOUGH

My advice.

YOU DO YOU.

Do what makes both of you happy and don’t do things to please others or because you think you have to.

WRAP IT UP

The one thing I wanted to know during wedding planning was what were the things couples were really glad they did and what did they wish they did differently.

Being someone who wanted to elope, It took a long time to come around to the whole wedding idea, especially when Andrew has such a large family and most of mine are overseas and wouldn’t be there.

I am really glad we had a celebration with everyone and didn’t elope. Even being a bit of an introvert and not liking attention we did little things during the day to make the spotlight not on us, but on people mingling and enjoying themselves. 

One big thing I learnt was that money is a renewable resource but time spent with all your loved ones in one place isn’t. You can’t get back these moments in life, they are some of the best days of our lives right here and now.

THINGS I’M SO GLAD WE DID

THINGS I MIGHT HAVE DONE DIFFERENTLY

– I didn’t get to see or eat the amazing grazing table that Emma from Styled Notion created – her iPhone pics looked incredible or much of the fab food from Soul Provider!

– Hired someone separate to do the setup and pack down. My Brother got roped into helping but i’m sure he would recommend this too. DON’T DO DIY!

– Had more photos with friends and fam – I know this is hard but as a photographer, this is one thing I know is hard but important

– The power went out in the Kitchen at City farm so maybe had their phone number to try fix that, lucky Soul Provider sorted it and I didn’t even know it happened

– Wear a bra (lol)

– I wish I didn’t get annoyed with Andrew during planning when I couldn’t make a decision, told him he was doing nothing but then didn’t let him organise anything because I knew it wouldn’t have been pretty haha!

In the end, I wouldn’t change a thing. I’m actually so glad we had a wedding over eloping, I guess maybe because we kinda got to do that with our Part 2 South African wedding. By having the two separate celebrations both our families got to witness our union and we got to do it all our way which was perfect.

Feel free to ask me any questions!