Inspiration

This may be a small intimate wedding, but it's certainly not lacking in style and grace. The gorgeous outdoor ceremony at the Summergrove Estate in Australia is simply jaw-dropping, with a fabulous arbour altar and picturesque views that go on for miles. Taking inspiration from the great outdoors came the sophisticated white, green and navy colour scheme, proving that keeping things simple can have maximum impact. Mad Rose Films was behind the lens perfectly capturing and preserving all those wonderful memories in both stills and film, so get comfy and enjoy.

Location

Amber the Bride: We had a very small wedding, only a party of 40 (including the bride and groom). We always knew we wanted a small intimate wedding which included our close family and friends. We fell in love with Australia, so our wonderful guests jetted across the world for some sun, sand and celebrations!

Pre-Wedding Celebrations

As most of our guests were from the UK (6 from Australia) we had the week before the wedding as a pre-wedding celebration. Our week consisted of a ladies' afternoon tea, a boys' go-karting trip as well as many BBQs at the beach, including a game or two of rounders.

Dressing Room

The bridal party got ready in the beauty room at the wedding venue. This was perfect as it came equipped with showers, enough space for everyone in the bridal party, along with their dresses, hair and makeup chairs and so on. As the beauty room was onsite we knew we wouldn’t be (too) late!

The Venue

The venue was the very first thing we booked. Surprisingly, it was the only venue we went to view in person - as soon as we walked in and saw the landscape we knew this was the venue for us. The venue would hold our outdoor ceremony and reception. It had a wonderful relaxed feeling which was perfect for us and the day we wanted to create. Our main aim for the day was for people to relax, have fun and enjoy our celebration of love. Our wedding was not formal in the conventional sense, and the outdoor ceremony was something that we really wanted - we think the Australian climate helped this!

Dress Code

Our dress code was ‘Cocktail’. It wasn’t a hugely formal wedding, however, all our guests looked wonderfully smart without being stiff and uncomfortable. We also took into consideration the weather, with it being a 25-degree day we wanted to give guests the choice of wearing a suit jacket and tie. The cocktail dress code suited the wedding venue beautifully.

Colour Scheme

Our main colour scheme was Ivory, Green and Navy. As we had an outdoor wedding, we wanted to base our colour scheme on this, drawing inspiration from the natural earthy colours.

The Decor

The venue really spoke for itself, so we added small touches to make it personal to us. We created and designed all stationery, order of services, table names and so forth. We were presented with two peg dolls which we held close to our hearts and had them on our table places. For our favours, we had some yummy personalised chocolates, along with flower seeds. These were for the guests to plant when they got back to the UK - we thought this was a great way to take a piece of our wedding home with them. For the table decor, we had a trail or foliage down the middle, snaking in between candle holders. These were lit at sunset which created a romantic feeling.

Ceremony

We knew we wouldn’t have a religious wedding as either of us are religious - however, we still wanted a celebration to mark our love and commitment. We loved the option to have an outdoor wedding, the setting was so beautiful and we just knew it was for us. It was relaxed and simple enough for us to add our own small personal touches. We added an arbour and our florist really brought this to life - it acted as the perfect centrepiece for our ceremony. We kept our ceremony short but sweet, I walked down the aisle to Moonriver (instrumental version played by Michael). We exchanged vows, rings and had two beautiful readings from family which had a personal meaning to us. Our celebrant made our ceremony very personal to us both - which suited us perfectly.

Reception

We walked into our reception announced as bride and groom, the room was full of applause and cheer. We felt very special and loved. A glass of champagne was ready for everyone for when we arrived, we proceeded to do the speeches before the meal, this was so people could relax and enjoy their food & drinks. We cut our wedding cake and it was served for dessert. It was also a free bar, so our guests could really enjoy themselves. Our first dance was to Elvis Presley - Can’t help falling in love with you. Our DJ kept the party and celebrations going through the evening, we had a Photo Booth which was a huge hit with our guests. We ended the night with a tunnel of sparklers, it was a perfect way to end the night as Mr & Mrs. We stayed at the venue, along with our parents and maid of honour, as it had 5 wonderfully private villas.

Lorna Shaw

Written by Lorna Shaw

Videography: Mad Rose Films | Dress: Luv Bridal | Bridal Shoes: Dune | Headpiece: Arianna Tiaras | Makeup Artist: Lara Quinn | Bridesmaid Dresses: Jenny Packham | Grooms Suit : Hire 5 | Grooms Shoes: Clarks | Cufflinks: NOTHS | Venue: Summer Grove | Florist: Gypsy & Bloom | Cake: Two Little Bakers | Entertainment: Me Music | Ace DJ Hire | Celebrant: Amoret Ceremonies

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