Category: Real Weddings

We got married by the beach in Townsville, then afterwards at the Motor Boat and Yacht Club. I originally come from Melbourne, so I thought the water/sea vista would be lovely for Interstate guests. It was romantic, with the inclusion of an "Oathing Stone" ceremony, and "warming of the rings" where they are handed around for guests to bless and pass on their love. Everyone said it was the prettiest most fun wedding they had attended. We then flew out to Paris and The South of France for our Honeymoon

More things went wrong then went right! But it was the most amazing, enjoyable, perfect day - the best day of my life. The flowers were wrong, both in type, colour and number; it rained so our outside ceremony was moved inside and all teh curls fell out my hair; my sisters dress didn't fit (she was the maid of honour); the celebrant got the music wrong... but once I saw Ryan at the end of the isle none of that mattered. It was so special to be surrounded by your friends and family.

They say rain is good luck on your wedding day… Well, we sure do have a whole lotta luck coming our way, because it rained all day and night. Despite the wet weather, we both had the most amazing day! We were married in our home town of Wagga Wagga. The ceremony was held at a winery just out of Wagga called Borambola Winery – and the reception was held at the Wagga Wagga Country Golf Club. We relished the opportunity to return home from Melbourne to spend time with our families, and spend the morning of our wedding in our parent’s homes. We wrote our own vows. We selected two readings inc ‘Grow Old With Me ~ by John Lennon’ and another poem which added a personal, relaxed tone to our ceremony. I arranged a surprise gift for Sam and his groomsmen on the morning of the wedding – Cufflinks which contained the photos of our Grandparents. It was an added touch to our wedding – as we both have such large families, and not all our grandparents are surviving… Sam and his 2 brothers wore cufflinks with their grandparents, and my brother (who was also a groomsmen had our grandparents). The theme of our wedding was black, white and green.

We wanted our wedding to be relaxed but unique and chose the last Sunday of daylight savings in March. The venue had a private jetty that was perfect for my arrival from Circular Quay. A small group, including my mum travelled the short trip across the harbour to Gladesville in the 'white' water taxi. I had both my parents escorted me from the boat, up the many sandstone steps to the garden path, all to the sounds of a Tibetan bell blessing. At 6pm on 28 March, in front of 60 close family and friends, we exchanged our marriage vows on the lawn of Banjo Paterson Cottage Restaurant. Our celebrant gave us an Apache Blessing and Michael’s 8 year old son presented us with our rings. Our mothers played a special part as official witnesses. Following the ceremony guests were captured by the beat of the african drummers,with amazing sunset over the water and plenty of drinks and canapes. As the night fell, guest kicked off their shoes and danced on the lawn while watching spectacular fire twirling entertainment. All this before sitting down for dinner! Dinner was held in the beautiful old sandstone cottage restaurant which was set up with four separate rooms, some with water views, for a candle lit dinner. After our meal guests were invited into an adjoining room for the formalities and more dancing. Our cake was particularly special being made by Michael down to the last hand made rosette. Our first dance was to the beautiful heartfelt sounds of Stephen Bishop “It might be you, all of my life”. We waved off each of our guests as they left the restaurant, then took a taxi back to the Sir Stamford Circular Quay for a candle lit bath. What an incredible day.

We had the most beautiful day. Everything started relaxed with early glasses of champagne. We had a garden ceremony with 100 of our loved ones. I have never felt as happy as I did walking down that isle with him waiting. When I got close to him he mouthed "I love you" So romantic. We both wrote our own custom vows and poured different coloured sand into a vase to represent 2 families joined as one.

We wanted our Wedding to be a relaxed, casual affair. We chose a spot under some shade down by the lake at Yanchep National Park in Perth. It was a 32 degree day but the breeze off the mirror like lake cooled things down. Small signs which were placed along the pathway, guided guests to the ceremony. Both my parents walked me down the red carpet aisle as I wanted to symbolize both of their input into my upbringing. We stood in a heart shape made out of white pebbles during the ceremony. Each guest received a pebble at the start of the ceremony which they were asked to warm in their hands with well wishes for the bride and groom during the ceremony. When we signed the registry the guests came up and placed their pebbles in a large vase filled with water and rose petals. The vase is a focal point in our house today. The Guests greeted us with rose petals and bubbles as we ran back down the aisle as the happy couple. We had our own portable ipod playing song by Michael Buble’ before the ceremony, during the signing and at the end. The reception was in a Cabaret Cave at Yanchep National park. The cave is only used for private functions so is a well kept secret. The cave is lit by millions of fairy lights and candles. This cave was used in a music video by the Australian Band “Empire of the Sun-Standing on a Shore”.Place markers were pebbles with guests names on each. The favours were small brown paper bags with a small hand beaded African animal keyring. These came over with Marks family from South Africa.Our first dance song was and Bryan Adams “Inside Out".

Our day was wonderful. We were so happy with everything and cherished every mument. We had friends and family from near and far with us. We were married in a small country Church by my father who is a Pastor. Our reception was at a local winery that had perfect views and a great atmosphere for a party. The theme of the wedding was based on red roses and the gold of my dress. Single roses in ornate jars and bottles I collected lined the window sills in the Church and vases of flowers were on each table at the reception. All our bouquets were red roses and the cake also had red roses and was designed after my dress. We had live music at the Ceremony and reception which everyone loved. The bridal party travelled in a super stretch limousine and a friend who is a professional photographer took our wonderful photos. Andrew and I wanted to have a day that was special, fun, relaxed and a real party feel to it. We wanted to have lots of personal touches and paid attention to the finer details. We feel we achieved this and wouldn't change anything.

We wanted our Wedding to be an initimate affair; casual and with a vintage feel. We themed our wedding around the 1930's glamour of train travel and used this throughout our ceremony and reception. Our ceremony took place at The Workshops Rail Museum, in front of the beautiful brown brick Powerhouse. We loved this building because of the old feel of it and wanted it to be the backdrop to our ceremony. I walked down the aisle with my father and my son to Pachabel's Canon in D Major. Michael and I wrote our own vows as we wanted to express to each other how much we meant to the other person. It was really touching. Our readings were an Apache Wedding Prayer, A reading by Walter Pinder, and Michael and I read "The Art of Marriage". Our reception was also held at The Workshops Rail Museum in the Refreshment Room. This meant that everyone could easily walk around the museum while we were having our photos taken and be served fingerfoods under the old tree that was on the ground. The Refreshment Room contained all the old turn of the century carved wooden tables and chairs that the museum had. It also had lots of pictures of trains so we thought that was a great way to incorporate our train aspect into our reception. We chose this room for the intimate feel and added to the elegance of our vintage theme. Our main colours were black and ivory for a vintage glamour feel. We also added a touch of red by using the old train lanterns on the tables as decorations. Our cake was a double stacked two tiered mud cake and our bridal waltz was to Billie Holiday's "I'll be seeing you"

Our wedding day was all we could have hoped for a beutiful ceremony, beautiful blue skies and a wondeful time spent with our friends and family.

A truly magical day. I stayed at my parent's house with the 2 bridesmaids the night before and in the morning we had champagne breakfast, then the hairdresser and makeup artist arrived, the morning went so fast and before I knew it we were leaving for the church! Arriving in the cars and seeing everyone there to see me was the most amazing feeling, walking down the aisle I was so calm and sooo excited I was saying hello to everyone, we had a harpist play during the ceremony which added to the romantic feel. The ceremony was beautiful and went for 20 mins! I had my niece and the groom's sister do a reading. After the ceremony we went for photos (which are amazing) to a junk yard, and on top of a hill, very different locations but brilliant. We returned to the reception about 6.20pm and were introduced to the room at about 6.40pm, the room looked magical with fairylights across the back of the bridal table and clustered into the centre of the room. I had silver chair covers and purple sashes to match the colour theme. The food was fantastic, and everyone had a brilliant time. The day went so quickly and I wish I could do it all again. We left at about midnight in a stretch limo to our accommodation. A few weeks later I did a trash the dress shoot, where you just get unique photos in water and sand that you wouldn't get on your wedding day!