Stirling and Caitlin

Stirling and I got married on a nine degree, rainy and misty day in the Blue Mountains last Spring. Certainly not the weather we had expected at that time of the year and it prevented the outdoor ceremony at Yester Grange in Wentworth Falls we had hoped for. This could have been a source of disappointment, but the rainy, misty, atmospheric weather – while not what we anticipated – ended up being such a feature that many of our guests said it really enhanced the day for them. The lovely people at Yester Grange quickly set up an indoor ceremony in font of the roaring fires and the tea and scones they had arranged for afternoon tea hit the spot to ward off the chilly afternoon air.

The ceremony was very relaxed, as we wanted it to be (complete with a bit of traditional Scottish whiskey drinking) and was conducted by the truly amazing Graham Long from the Wayside Chapel who travelled up from Kings Cross to join us.

I bought my wedding dress on sale from Myer for about a hundred dollars and my vintage 1930s wedding shoes (never worn!) were bought on Ebay and shipped over from New York. My elderly neighbor gave me the fur stole.

The only flowers were those in my bouquet by Erica Blossoms.

We were also very lucky to have the lovely Janine Kaye taking our photographs as she really made the most of the conditions and managed to produce some beautiful images.  She was also lots of fun to have around.  In the end we felt like she was a guest, which was especially good as I hate having my photo taken.

We hadn’t deliberately chosen a vintage theme for our wedding.  The vintage feel just developed naturally given the venues and our personal interests.  My grandparents had married in Scotland during WWII and they had a dinner dance at the their wedding (Glenn Miller had originally agreed to play!) and when we found the wonderful Bakelite Dance Band we decided we wanted to do something similar.  The intimate ballroom at The Carrington Hotel in Katoomba was the perfect venue and just the right size for our small party of fifty.

We love travelling together and the vintage postcard style invitation a good friend had designed for us led to vintage Penguin book cover postcards being put out for each guests to write us messages on.  They provided lots of entertainment!  The tables were named after some of the places we have travelled together.

The helpful people at Lindt made a very small and very delicious cake for us to cut, which was served for dessert with some Lindt Delices and some handmade marshmallows from Sweetness donated by a friend.  All the other details were taken care of by the wonderful Caroline at The Carrington who made the room look so beautiful for us and who was such a pleasure to have there on the night.

We managed to do all of this on a small budget by focusing on what was important to us and not bowing to pressure to have all the traditional bells and whistles.

Photography by Janine Kaye

 

Ms Gingham says: Sometimes the weather gods know best! And sometimes they are just having a laugh. On this occasion though they were so right! I love these beautiful photos which could never have been the same if the weather was bright and sunny. Thank you Caitlin and Stirling for sharing them with us.

Caitlin says: “I am a Sydney-based archaeologist who, after nine years adventuring around with my best friend (also an archaeologist), finally decided to get married to him in October 2010. The adventure is still continuing.”