A N D R E W & D E B B I E
Andrew and Debbie hosted a casual lunchtime soiree surrounded family, friends and the bush.
F R O M T H E B R I D E . . .
We first met…
Andrew and I met during our undergraduate degree at LaTrobe University in Bendigo. We were both 18 year olds living on campus, away from home for the first time. We were virtually inseparable from the moment we met, and this remains unchanged over 10 years on.
We knew it was love…
Maybe because it was 10 years ago, or maybe because we were best friends from the very beginning, but we can’t pinpoint the exact moment we knew it was love! However we know for sure that as we grew into young adults together, our love developed and deepened and still grows stronger every day.
The proposal…
I had, not so secretly, been hoping to get engaged for a few years, but Andrew had convinced me that we shouldn’t get married until after he’d finished his postgraduate degree. So needless to say it came as a complete surprise that a year before he was due to graduate he popped the question!
We were overseas in Europe at the time where Andrew was completing a university placement in Graz, Austria. We were in Ljubljana, Slovenia for a long weekend and I’d really wanted to try Couchsurfing to save some money on accommodation, but for some reason Andrew, the normally more adventurous of the two of us decided we should book a fancy hotel instead. We spent the day exploring Lake Bled, where Andrew had initially planned to ask the big question. Unfortunately for his best-laid plans, it was raining, wet and cold and I became a little bit miserable! Sensing this, Andrew took me to a back to the town centre where we had a beautiful lunch in the castle. We then went walking around the town centre, on the guise of looking for a wine bar to sample some local beverages. Andrew spied a fountain in the centre and asked me to climb up to pose for a photo. Instead, he brought a ring box from the camera case where he had been hiding it for the last couple weeks and asked me to be his wife!
O U R D R E A M W E D D I N G . . .
We always wanted…
Andrew and I are always outdoors, either biking, bush walking or kayaking and wanted a venue that was typically Australian and outdoors. However we are sensible and as the wedding was in November, a month where the weather can do anything, so we knew we needed wet weather back up options. We also knew we didn’t want the traditional sit down three course dinner and dancing. It was also important to us to upcycle as many elements and reuse decorations wherever possible to not only decrease costs but also keep our carbon footprint down.
We had a rustic Australian style wedding, and used lots of decorations from Andrew’s parent’s farm to add to the theme. To match this style, we tried to use typically native flowers apart from a King Protea or two because they are just so beautiful!
Wedding photography…
We found our amazing photographer, Georgia Verrells, in a fairly non-traditional way. We originally contacted another photographer who was a bit out of price range. He was lovely enough to understand and instead recommend Georgia to us who he had worked with in the past as he felt her style suited our needs. He was completely right! Georgia’s un-posed story telling style photos, have a laid back vibe which reflects our personalities down to a tee. Georgia herself is a beautiful person, who made us feel completely at ease. Her communication leading up to, during and after the event was amazing, which is so important with all the elements that make up even the simplest of weddings!
Ceremony location…
The ceremony was held at Saladin Lodge in Narbethong, which is operated by the amazing Kim Rycroft. Saladin Lodge is a site with incredible accommodation and cafe, perfect for all types of events. Kim kindly allowed us to arrange her property to suit our needs and gave us heaps of helpful tips and ideas leading up to the wedding. No problem was ever too big for Kim. She didn’t even bat an eyelid when we decided half an hour before the wedding to get her to serve coffee to our 100 plus guests that had driven a couple hours to be there. Kim has a wedding sixth sense- as an example she made sure there was a bucket of apples on site in case we felt like having photos with her horses!
Reception venue…
The reception was held a couple kilometres down the road from the ceremony at Narbethong Community Hall. This incredibly beautiful venue is a community run and operated hall. Having been rebuilt in 2011 after the devastating Marysville fires destroyed the old hall, it is now an architecturally timber designed hall that fitted the brief of feeling outdoors whilst being indoors with its massive garage style doors opening up onto a huge grassed areas.
Pre-wedding parties…
Andrew and his friends had a quiet-ish bucks weekend at a friends’ house in Lorne while I had a reserved high tea at my parents’ house with a few close girlfriends. The wedding weekend itself was a family affair as we set up the ceremony and reception venues ourselves. Both of our brothers, parents and a few family friends helped to set up and take down the decorations, which was a very enjoyable and relaxing experience.
The bridal party…
Andrew and I had a very small non-traditional wedding party. We each have one brother who we’re extremely close to so decided to have Andrews brother, Chris, as a groomsman and my brother, Josh, as a brisdesman.
They wore…
Our brothers wore their own suits but we got them to wear matching ‘Happy socks’ to the groom.
The groom wore…
Andrew had a suit tailored by Oscar Hunt in Melbourne. Oscar Hunt is not just a tailor; it really is the whole experience. Complete with a well-stocked bar, glass panels for tailor viewing and extremely professional communication and service, the staff and products from Oscar Hunt were incredible. Andrew can’t wait to have another occasion to visit and purchase a second suit.
The wedding dress…
Unlike the grooms suit, a brides dress typically only gets worm for one day. To this effect, I had decided from the outset to purchase a second hand dress to give a dress another chance to shine. Still White is Australia’s best second hand wedding dress website where I eventually purchased my dress from. It ended up being the first and last dress I tried on – no bridezilla here! The dress was made by Jack Sullivan and was still in the bridal shops in High St, Armadale when I purchased it from another bride. The dress has since been sold on the same website, so the dress will have a minimum of three perfect days to be worn.
Bouquets…
To cut down costs we purchased the flowers from two wholesalers; Azalea in South Melbourne Market and Chorley’s florist in Croyden. The flowers needed to be bought two days before the wedding, so to ensure longevity and to fit with the theme we stuck to seasonal Australian natives with a few pretty King Proteas thrown in the mix. Our mums made the bouquet together while family friends concentrated on the flowers for table decorations, aisle decoration and button holes – first timers but all extremely talented women!
Reception decor…
To keep in the rustic theme, we hung bunting flags, had hessian table runners on white tablecloths, wood slice centrepieces with flowers in lace jars as well as various suitcases and other old paraphernalia throughout. To add a personal touch we got our mums to find their own wedding photos plus those of our grandparents and spread them throughout the venue.
It was an entire family effort for the decorations – Andrew, my dad and both of our brothers set up the Chuppah, chairs and aisle decorations at the ceremony venue. Then everyone came together and did bits and pieces (photo booth, entrée table, chairs and tables, indoor and outdoor decorations) with barely any direction at all. I think the way the hall was set out made it easy for everyone to decide where all the decorations went – and it all came together perfectly. When we originally packed up all the decorations that we’d been storing at home, we thought that 3 cars and a trailer load would be too much! Rather every piece gathered was used and looked like a professional had pulled it all together. All our hours of googling wedding magazines and Pinterest paid off.
Wedding cake…
Andrew and I love cake, but we love cheese even more. So naturally we decided on a three tier Cheese tower instead of the traditional cake. It was sourced locally from Cold Stream Dairy, just on the outskirts of Healesville. It was easy logistically as we could pick it up on the way to the venue, but the deal was really clinched by the service and attention from the owner/operator Anna. She was so lovely form the very start and even let us into her fridges to choose the cheese wheels ourselves!
On the menu…
We had a lunchtime wedding and wanted a relaxed feel so we opted out of a sit down meal. Instead we made our own entrée and dessert buffet with the mains being catered by food trucks. We also decided against set seating to encourage mingling and getting to know each other.
The entrée star was the Cheese Wedding Cake, which we paired with a fruit and nut buffet. The fruit and nuts were sourced from South Melbourne market the day before.
Taco Truck and Trailer Made catered the mains. The Taco Truck naturally served tacos (fish, bean, beef and chicken) and also had nachos on each of the tables when people first arrived. We decided to have Trailer Made serve entirely vegetarian options due to religious and other dietary restrictions of our guests. Their menu consisted of roaming vegetarian canapes, Haloumi salad, Turkish Pizza and Turlu Turlu.
The dessert was a buffet catered for by our mums and Andrew – I had nothing to do with it except for some ideas. They each made large quantities of mini desserts like mousse, chocolate biscuits, orange cake etc. There ended up being about 15 different options and barely anything was left at the end.
Bonbonniere…
We originally weren’t going to give any bonbonniere because we’ve always felt that they haven’t had a specific use and didn’t want to fill up our guest’s drawers with clutter. Then on Pinterest one day I saw people giving plants and succulents as gifts, which we thought was a brilliant idea. We found a lady on gumtree who grew succulents exactly for this purpose, then painted our own little pots to fit with the theme. It’s so lovely even now when we go to visit our guests houses to see the little succulents in their gardens or kitchens and we feel like a piece of our wedding is still with them.
Memorable moments…
Although we didn’t have a traditional wedding party, we asked a couple of our little cousins to be flower girls. They were filled with such raw excitement for the entire day, adding an extra element to our super fun wedding.
Andrew and I aren’t dancers – never have been and I suspect our left feet will mean that we never will be. However, after most of the guests had left we put on some traditional Jewish music and our friends lifted us in chairs above their heads as they’d always wanted to be part of a Jewish celebration.
The whole entire wedding weekend was filled entirely with smiles and laughter. We’ve heard so many horror stories about stress levels from the bridal party or even guests but there was none of that to be seen. We can’t say that everything went perfectly to the plan in our heads, but I can’t even remember what that original plan exactly was! Getting married is so much more fun than we ever imagined it to be.
Wedding soundtrack…
I walked down the aisle (with both of my parents – Jewish tradition, but I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way) to ‘Book of Love’ by Peter Gabriel. It had to be the exact version from one of favourite TV shows – Scrubs.
We signed the documents to ‘A whole new world’ from Aladdin.
Then walked down the aisle together as man and wife to ‘All you need is love’ by John Lennon and Paul McCartney as we’ve always loved the movie ‘Love Actually’
M A R R I E D L I F E . . .
Honeymoon…
We were lucky enough to have two honeymoons. The first one was in Australia and started the day after the wedding. After we helped pack up a bit, we popped our kayaks on the roof and headed up the coast for a camping/kayaking holidays.
Then we came back for Andrew’s university Graduation and left the next day for 3 weeks in Chile! Two very different holidays but oh, so much fun.
The future…
We’ve been quite nomadic in the last 10 years of knowing each other, having lived in Carisbrook, Melbourne, Seymour, Bendigo, Wangaratta, Benalla and have currently relocated to Geelong. So we’d really love to lay down our roots and live somewhere for more than a year, plant a lemon tree, rescue a dog and become part of the community. Where that will be though, your guess is as good as mine!
In 40 years we hope to…
Be travelling the world, meeting new people and living life together as happy and healthy as we are now.
W E D D I N G W I S D O M
Wedding planning tips…
Enjoy the planning of the wedding together. A wedding is such a reflection of both of your personalities so have fun with all the little details together. We loved printing and collating the invitations together and how our families were involved throughout the whole process.
How to enjoy the wedding day…
The wedding day really does go by as quick as everyone says! Go to sleep early the day before, because you want to enjoy every second possible after waking up on your big day.
Photography Georgia Verrells Ceremony Venue Saladin Lodge in Narbethong Reception Venue Narbethong Community Hall Wedding Dress Still White Bride’s Shoes Bared Groom’s Suit Oscar Hunt Wholesale Flowers Chorley’s Flowers and Azalea Florist arranged by family and friends Catering Taco Truck and Trailer Made Food Cheese Wheel Cake Cold Stream Dairy Caravan Bar The Wandering Woodsman