Sara and Dave

There is nothing like a winter wedding at a winery- the bare vines, the sound of red wine being poured into glasses, crackling fires and the misty scenery. The wedding of Sara and David is a splendid winter winery celebration with all the winter luxuries (long gloves and fur stoles included!) to create a cozy old Hollywood romance style for their wedding day.

Sara recalls the love story of her and David. “When we were in high school David and I were really good friends. He was dating one of my closest friends, and I was dating one of his closest friends. Across the years those relationships didn’t work out but we had stayed really close friends, getting each other through the hard times and the numerous breakups. At the end of 2009 David’s family convinced me to audition for a musical that David was staring in, and I decided to give it a shot. Upon return from a holiday to Africa at the beginning of 2010, I found out that I had successfully made it into the musical and I was cast as his pregnant wife!  It was a case of life imitating art. It was hard because I unfortunately lost my friend in the process, but at the same time gained my soul mate – that missing piece. Sometimes the universe sends us in strange directions all over the world, only to finally set us back down where it all started, where we truly belong. Our relationship blossomed in beautiful Kyoto, Japan, where David proposed on a stone bridge across a lake in the imperial gardens on my birthday.”

Photography is by Lara Hotz. I love the sense of drama Lara captured from today’s wedding – with the heavy, luscious colours and the dark wintery tones, Lara captured it beautifully while bringing in the cozy, romantic atmosphere of the wedding day. Sara and David hired Kevin Sarkin Videography for their wedding day film.

As a special gift to the groomsmen, Sara says “David gave all his groomsmen different cufflinks that represented each of them.” The groom and groomsmen wore suits from Spurling.

Sara wore a gown from Halo Bridal with red shoes from Wanted. The floral arrangements were styled by Peonies Floral Designs.

Sara’s bridesmaids wore mismatched bridesmaid’s gowns. Sara explains “David and I had worked hard to make the wedding represent us and be an event where everyone felt the love we felt. With that in mind I let the bridesmaids pick their own dresses (including Chic in Paddington, George at Chatswood, and Bridesmaids Only in Double Bay) so that they felt beautiful in whatever they were wearing. All they were asked was to make it a deep wine red. To bring it all together I gave them satin gloves and faux fur shrugs which also helped give it that vintage feel.”

Sara describes the wedding as “A magical vintage Hollywood romance.”

Sara and David held their wedding day celebrations at Wyndham Estate, Dalwood.

Sara walked down the aisle to “My Love” by Sia, edited by David.

Sara remarks, ” I think the most important special detail of the day was that David’s father married us. He was the officiating Rabbi and was helped by David’s Uncle who sang the various religious songs throughout the ceremony. It was a truly beautiful experience.”

While the bridal party was having their photos taken the rest of the guests had olives, cheese and wine on the veranda enjoying the afternoon sun. The cellar was open so that guests could also taste the wines and enjoy themselves.

Guests entered a barrel room for the reception. Sara says “We had a signature cocktail called a Planter’s Punch which was from the 1940s and was a burgundy colour to match the colours of the wedding – burgundy and gold. These colours were picked as they are the colours of David’s basketball team the Cleveland Cavaliers.

The room the reception was in had sandstone walls, wine barrels and open fire places giving it a wonderful rustic feeling. It also had a separate area for guests who wanted to relax on couches and didn’t want to be near the music during the later part of the evening.”

There were a few lovely handmade elements to the wedding day, including many from family. Sara remarks, “My mother is incredible at making sugar craft flowers. She and I handmade the bonbonniere for all the ladies at the wedding creating deep red sugar craft roses with satin white ribbon and a name card attached. We also made our invitations piecing all the vintage lace and satin ribbon to each pocket style invitation sealing them with a wax seal. David and I also had made a guestbook table filled with vintage things that represented important aspects of our lives including magazines and newspapers from the 1940s, a typewriter, vintage lunch boxes, old books and I even edited pictures of each of our parents on their wedding days and placed them into an old gold frame. We also had the lyrics of the song I walked down the aisle to pegged to ivy that was wrapped down the pillars within the venue room which connected to wine barrels and flowers. For these we had burnt the edges of each to make them look old and rustic.” The three tier wedding cake was made by Sugar Rush.

The first dance was choreographed! Sara recalls “David and I had some dance lessons from his godmother who had requested to choreograph our first dance for us as she was an ex-ballroom dancer. We danced the American Foxtrot to “Under My Skin” sung by Michael Buble to keep the evening lively and with a vintage swing feel. Just after a lift (like in Dirty Dancing) David and I broke apart and went to our mother and father respectively to dance with them . Our siblings also joined us to dance with our remaining parents. They had one lesson before the night, but everyone was enjoying themselves too much to follow the steps by that point. It was so lovely being able to dance with both my husband and father!”

The Baker Boys provided the music for the evening, but there were also a few extra musical surprises. Sara explains “David’s family is extremely musical and his parents with two family friends surprised us and sang a beautiful four part harmony song. Continuing with the musical theme, as part of his speech David surprised me with a song that he wrote called “Till the End” which was the story of our love. He surprised everyone at the wedding who didn’t know that he is an extremely talented hip-hop artist. ”

Congratulations Sara and David! Thank you for sharing your wedding day with us! Thank you also to  Lara Hotz for sharing today’s photographs with us!

Photos by Lara Hotz