I’ve been super excited about this post for a while.
One of my favourite blogs is the brilliant Eat Drink Chic by the very talented Amy Moss. Amy is a graphic design turned style blogger who makes the best free downloadables and printables which she very kindly shares on her blog. It still has me checking on a regular basis for cool projects and I’m sure we will be featuring her work regularly in DIY Devotee.
I might have a bit of a girl crush on Amy. Not only does she have a super pretty blog with the most stylish ideas and shares, she also had what I reckon is close to my perfect wedding. What I would do if I had to go and do it all again… wait for it, Amy has a surprise wedding!
Amy has very kindly given me permission to blog about her wedding using excerpts from her own wedding blog posts, for which I am eternally grateful. Thank you so much Amy and I hope you all enjoy the eye candy and the sentiment.
An Engagement Party to Remember
On Sunday March 28 at 2pm, our guests, believing they were about to attend an engagement party, began arriving at our beautiful backyard picnic. One hour into the proceedings we shocked them with a surprise wedding ceremony!
The looks of astonishment and delight on the faces of our guests were pure gold. After 10 years of friendship, in which the last 4 years we were an inseparable couple, Mark and I finally got married!
Family Vintage
The Wedding appeals to me on so many levels… Amy totally knocked the styling out of the park with so many of her own cute DIY touches from the florals to the paper goods to the casual style and I love the relaxed vibe being carried right through from the back yard setting to the floral short wedding dress Amy wore – despite it’s unusual appearance it really was a bona fide wedding gown…
I wore my mother’s 30 year old floral wedding dress accompanied by an Alannah Hill floral hairpiece and vintage-style pearl white shoes each topped with a cute little rosette.
Setting the Scene for a wedding…
Mark and I stood under a pretty cream-coloured royal marquee set up at the front of the event, greeting our guests as they arrived.
Because we hosted it in the backyard of my husband’s parents place, it created a much more personal and intimate atmosphere and allowed us a few days to set up so that we had time to refine the details. Upon arriving, a lot of our guests may have thought that there was quite a lot of effort put into what was essentially just supposed to be an ‘engagement’ party.
A series of pop-up pagoda marquees were set up around the edge of one half of a tennis court. In the middle were four large umbrellas. This added an open, outdoor feel while still protecting us from the intermittent drizzle that occurred throughout the day.
At 3pm, Mark grabbed everyone’s attention and begins his speech, thanking everybody for coming and relating stories about how we met and how we were friends for many years before we eventually got our acts together and became a couple. At the conclusion of his speech, he casually lets it slip that we are going to be honouring our commitment to each other in the form of a civil wedding ceremony here today before all our guests.
The collective gasp, shocked and delighted faces, raised arms and exclamations such as “You sly dog!” were pure gold! I wish I could live in that moment forever! We spontaneously chose a spot amongst our guests to conduct a relaxed and unrehearsed ceremony. Our celebrant Deborah Cannon did a fantastic job especially dealing with our tendency to erupt in silliness!
A Wedding Picnic
I chose ’simple’, ‘rustic’, ‘recycled’, ‘vintage’ and ‘casual’ as the key themes of our wedding ‘picnic’. Wanting to capture a fresh, spring feel I set bright warm reds, oranges, pinks and yellows ablaze against a rustic landscape of wooden furniture, vintage crates, wine barrels, an odd assortment of collected jars and and bottles and bamboo plates and cutlery. Guests were advised a dress code of ’smart casual’ to maintain the relaxed and understated tone of the event.
Lemonade Love
The ‘homemade lemonade with elderflower water’ by our caterers was simply delicious and, in true recycled fashion, provided in jam jars.
Manila tags tied to the top of each jar allowed guests to write their names and re-use their jar throughout the afternoon. These were topped off with pinky red and white vintage-style paper straws which I bought online. The lemonade sat in glass jugs atop wine barrels as part of ’self service’ stations set up at various points throughout the event space.
Retro Writing
Our guestbook were Cavallini and Co. postcards from Zetta Florence depicting various flowers and vegetables. Guests would write us a little message on the back and leave them in this vintage-style wooden luggage.
Other props included Chinese Lanterns, a Faux vintage typewriter, Wooden Pencils from Oxfam, cute little stools to mix up the seating and Vintage Crates.
Festival Florals
Flowers were also casually placed in the vast array of jars and bottles of varying shapes and sizes and arranged haphazardly across picnic benches. Gerberas, roses, strawberry fields, gloriosa, tulips, billy buttons, green tricks, sunflowers and dahlias were among the flower types present.
A creative arrangement of cheerful and warm-toned flowers in hanging glass bottles floated magically above the buffet and was the chief focal point of the event.
Flowers were also casually placed in the vast array of jars and bottles of varying shapes and sizes and arranged haphazardly across picnic benches. Gerberas, roses, strawberry fields, gloriosa, tulips, billy buttons, green tricks, sunflowers and dahlias were among the flower types present.
Flower credits go to Melanie from Cecilia Fox. Her stunning hanging bottles stole the show. They were gorgeous! She also was a great help with all the other flower arrangements throughout the whole space. The vast majority of bottles scattered throughout the event were hired from Georgeous but I also added a few from my own collection.
The Photographer
Credit must go to Jonathan Ong to amazing photographer who took all the shots featured here and was fantastic at getting these images to me. I absolutely love his style and Amy has great things to say about him…
Luckily, on Polka Dot Bride I discovered Jonathan Ong. With a keen eye for composition and colour and a passion for detail, Jonathan and I spoke the same language and therefore worked really well together. I think it’s so important to be able to capture not only the results of all the hard work that went out into creating a beautiful event but also to capture all those special and magical moments that make up the wedding experience. Jonathan did a brilliant job with both of these tasks.
Cheers Jon! Look forward to working with you again in the future!
I love it. So simple and so full of personality. A very EDC wedding!
Thank you so much Amy and Mark for allowing us to share your wedding day, and thank you to Jonathan Ong for providing his beautiful images.
Yours Truly,
Rebecca
xoxo
