Our Wedding!

I have been meaning to do this for SO long, so sincere apologies for the delay. But it’ll be worth it... I hope.

I know everyone always says it, but this weekend was by far the best weekend of our whole lives (Soz Olive) and one that took a full week in Fiji to recover from. Feet were swollen and both our voices were completely gone but by GOD it was worth it.

Both Aidan and myself are what most would consider extremely laid back people, and I think this was evident throughout the whole entire wedding.

Probably too laid back at times.

Like I hadn’t even seen my flowers until they got delivered (loved them) and hadn’t seen the cake until we were cutting it (loved that cake!) but this is us; unorganised and unapologetic.

We wanted a location wedding, and the only obvious one for us had to be Byron Bay! We LOVE Byron, we try to go a few times a year and love everything it represents. We recently bought ourselves a little house up there in the hopes when we are old and child free we can live out our retirement barefoot and carefree.

lucky enough to have a few local friends we asked local legend Kurt Kristen (who ended up being the biggest GOAT and not only singing in the band, but lending us his EPIC property for our recovery) he straight away told us we had to book ‘The Secret Garden’ a super cool, quirky garden tucked just behind cheeky monkeys it has an awesome guest house attached to the venue and we just had to have it!

We talked about what we thought was important for our day. It came down to LOADS of booze, easy access to food and being able to cater to half a footy team, and not too many formalities.

I wanted a giant party, and Aidan wanted a music festival. We got both. 

None of this would have been possible without all the family, friends, and help we had. It was all these people that made the memories that we will never forget and hold truely dear to our hearts.

MUSIC: 

This is something that I still can’t believe we were lucky enough to have.  

I walked down the Isle to ‘Claire De Lune’ which is a spine tingling song by Flight Facilities, who as you’ll see are our favourite band in the world.

This is a special song as 1/2 of Flight Facities is Hugo Gruzman who is more like family than a friend so having his song was a no-brainer for us. Also we had Lucy Washington (from band Yuma-X) actually sing the vocals for this. If you’ve ever heard Lucy’s voice you’ll know it’s instant goosebumps.

We then had Lucy sing another gorgeous song  ‘The Wedding Song’ by Angus and Julia Stone whilst we signed our paperwork and this song is so beautiful I suggest any romantic download it ASAP!

Then came the band. And holy shit. ‘The Hombre’s’ if you’re from Byron chances are you know. Kurto is the lead singer of this band, and was the man crush of many men and women at the wedding. (He’s also toured with Flight Facilities on their global tour doing the vocals!) we were also lucky enough to have Pat Davern on the guitar from iconic Aussie band GRINSPOON getting our guests warmed up!

We has our first dance to the band who rocked  ‘All Night Long’ by Lionel Richie.

The photos from this moment are incredible however my dance moves were absolutely atrocious. Why change them when I’ve been awkwardly dancing for the last 27 years.

As the sunset and the aperols were swapped for harder liquor we had Hugo (from Flight Facilities) jump on the DJ decks, and this is when shit got real. There was some really crazy stuff going on, my brand new brother in law in particular was butt naked being lead around by his gorgeous girlfriend by a belt around his neck; and this wasn’t even close to the weirdest thing happening on the dance floor. 

One special moment that really sticks out is when Lucy Washington got back on the mic and Hugo started spinning their anthem ‘Crave You’ and the dance floor went absolutely mad!

Still processing how good this moment was.

I think another person who deserves a mention is my dearest Mum: Barbara, who was caught on the DJ decks at LA LA Land where the party kicked on at 3am spinning some deep house tunes. A quote from

my Mum

 ‘I’ve been trying to think of when I’ve had a better time in my life, and there is none’

pretty much sums up the weekend.

FOOD: 

We wanted lots of easy access to food through the whole night, and not to have to have a seating arrangement for our guests so we organised the ‘The Bun Mobile’

which was a massive hit with our guests, they  organised for fresh charcuterie boards and sushi to come out straight after the ceremony, and kept serving food all night, the highlights were 100% the Bao buns and Fried chicken to keep booze filled bellies full! 

BOOZE: 

Again, HOW lucky are we. My First cousin owns the most amazing winery in the King Valley, Sam Miranda. 

Sam and his beautiful wife Rachel were SO generous and helpful making sure we had all the very best wines for everybody! They are famous for their Prosecco, and we utilised this in both the Aperols and on its own. We well and truely over ordered here and we even had to do a sneaky midnight bottle shop run to keep up with demand!! THANKYOU SO MUCH  

Balter Beer:  Their XPA was voted the BEST craft beer in the country this January!

Balter Brewery was started by a group of mates which includes an all round legend by the name of Aza Waters and some surfing legends , Mick Fanning, Joel Parkinson and a few others.. It is infamous with Byron locals, known for being not only god damn tasty, but with one hell of a kick to it that is guaranteed to get any wedding going off! We were absolutely stocked up, and from all reports this was the beer of the weekend with people still saying they can’t look at a Balter Beer without being transported back to this weekend!

And once again special shout out to my Mum, who towards the end of the night bought out a whole table of party favours... homemade Lemonchello and Frangelico, every guest stocked their handbags, pockets and socks full of these bottles which were popping up for the rest of the weekend knocking the socks off anyone who dared to get through a whole bottle!!

MAKEUP: 

Tess Gordon from The Face Lab is the ONLY person who I completely trusted with my own makeup, my bridesmaids and family. Her talents are extrodionary, and personally I like the ‘less is more’ aproach with makeup, highlighting natural features and avoiding looking too cake faced. I wanted to be able to photograph nicely, but also feel comfortable knowing I was looking like myself just 10x enhanced! Tess worked her arse off and managed to absolutely NAIL all the looks for the day, she well and truely deserved her Balter Beer after that morning!

FLOWERS:

I used ‘The French Petal’ and cannot recommend enough if getting married in Byron, Estelle was a professional through and through and managed to read my confusing mind and provided us with flowers so beautiful I couldn’t imagine anything more perfect! 

HAIR:

Edwards and Co Byron Bay, of course! 

THE DRESS:

Where to begin.  

I had NO idea what I wanted to get married in. That was until I saw on Instagram the wedding of some beautiful woman in Byron Bay wearing the most delicate and unique dress I had ever seen. 

Detective skills put to use I discovered it was actually made by her friend and lingerie designer Christie Nicole (we had run in the same party circles in a previous nightclubbing life!) She explained she had just made it for her friend Kym out of love and curiosity, however enjoyed the process so much she was thinking of expanding into the Bridal industry full time. And it’s safe to say she did this, in a BIG way!

Christie quickly agree’d to design and create my dream dresses. What I loved most about deciding to go with Christie, apart from her obvious talent, is how unique and individual each dress is, and it’s all done by her hand, with her Grandmothers help and guidance and it just feels so god damn special knowing how important it is to her that it’s nothing short of perfection.

I had decided on my Reception dress concept before I actually got to the ceremony dress, we wanted a fully open back laced right up with ribbon, appliqué from beautiful one of a kind fabrics covering all the parts, and a fun and flirty skirt with flared detailed sleeves. 

This dress was then inspiration for my actual wedding dress which I wanted to be simple, comfortable and pretty with a wonder edge. A simple cut with a princess skirt which was semi sheer showing just the brief outline in the sun gave it a modern twist.  

She also made the most beautiful and delicate veil to match. 

I honestly felt like a princess and cried my eyes out when trying it on. So delicate and precious I am forever thankful to Christie for creating me something so special and unique! 

- I wore a simple Tony Bianco nude heel and Christie Nicolaides earings.

- Both flower girls, Ellie and Olive wore dresses from Tu-Tu-De Monde.

BRIDESMAIDS: 

Our whole wedding didn’t really have a theme, or even a dress code to be honest so I had NO idea what to do regarding Bridesmaids.  

Two out of three of them were living in London at the time which was also minorly inconvenient so we just used Whatsapp to go back and forth with ideas.

I knew from horror stories however what I DIDN’T want; uncomfortable, unhappy bridesmaids. I had heard horror stories of girls feeling squeezed into dresses that don’t fit, dresses that are so elaborate they can’t dance or enjoy themselves. 

Also one of the girls is almost 6ft where the other barely touches 5ft so keeping this in mind I thought the same style might not compliment each girl quite the same.  

We decided on a summery, floral print from Zimmerman which was super in theme with a Secret Garden location and I told the girls to simply chose whichever style they preferred, two opting for a short flutter dress and another for a jumpsuit from the same fabric. I also got the girls matching Christie Nicolaides clip on earings as suprisingly no one but one of us has their ears peirced.

I honestly absolutely adored the way the girls looked and complimented eachother and thought the print was a refreshing twist on the basic bridesmaid dress. 

The boys: 

The boys all got their own outfits sorted themselves, tailored linen suits from MJ Bale and Valley Eyewear sunglasses. 

 Photography: Milenko Weddings 

THE RECOVERY: 

Aidan would go on record saying this was the happiest day of his life and not actually the previous day. 

A giant TeePee set up on a cliff overlooking nothing but Bellongil Beach, DJ, Dance floor, BBQ, unlimited drinks.  

We used a private residence for this epic party (THANKYOU Kurto) and it exceeded any recovery party dreams I could imagine. Somehow we pulled this off the day before the wedding, and I actually had no idea what Aidan had been organising until I made my way over the sand dune and saw the giant Tee Pee for the first time rocking upto the party myself!

EPIC. 

The vibe started off very hungover, lounging around on pillows and cushions, and hugging a 3 Tonne rose quartz crystal hoping to get some energy back into our souls.

But a few sausage sandwiches, Sam Miranda wines, and Balter beers quickly got the party going again. The DJ was only booked until after lunch but he cancelled his job on the Gold Coast and said he was having too much fun and stayed and turned it into one of the

most amazing parties ever! 

My Mum was dancing at the bottom of the cliff in the water to the music, and everyone was just embracing what is so good about Byron Bay and no rules.

There were body shots and mosh pits by the end of the day, and I wouldn’t have it any other way!