Libby and Scott’s Sweet Southern Highlands Wedding

Libby & Scott

Today’s wedding is simply stunning. It’s not through grand floral arrangements, or incredible decor. It is instead through faces, heartfelt moments, emotion and grace. Sometimes, we need a wedding like today’s to ground us. Put our feet on the ground and get to the core of what it really is all about.

Libby tells the story of their relationship. “Our story is an interesting one. In many ways you could say we are similar to ‘high-school sweethearts’, however some things are a bit different. Scott was the spunky leader at the local youth group, which I started going to in year 7. I was instantly smitten, but he was a few years older than me and I was far too shy to act on it – plus Scott would have never even considered dating one of the girls he was leading! I slowly gave up on the idea after a while, but just after I’d finished high school Scott pulled me aside one day to say that he liked me – I was not expecting it in the slightest!

After 2 years of dating, Scott proposed in an extravagant way – taking me to a lookout in our hometown, with a beautiful view of the Australian bush and The Hawkesbury River. He had woken up at 3am to set up balloons on the water to spell out ‘marry me’ – to which I obviously said yes! He’s a web designer, so he also set up a custom Google home-page replica for me on my laptop to celebrate! Very nerdy, but very cute!”

Photos today are by Jeremy Beasley who has captured this wedding in such a stunning way. Lumps in my throat and plenty of happy sighs occurred as I poured over the images and let today’s story unfold. The beautiful captures tell the story in a very real way.

Scott and his groomsmen wore suits from Roger David.

Libby wore a Wendy Makin gown and paired it with shoes from Tony Bianco. She added a bracelet from Oroton and hairpiece from Love.Honor.Upcycle.

The couple made the wedding as eco friendly as possible. Libby explains “Scott and I are fairly conscious people when it comes to the environmental and social ethics behind the purchases we make. While it was not easy to incorporate this across every choice we made, there were some successes. The bridesmaid dresses were from Cue, who are certified with Ethical Clothing Australia, guaranteeing that the majority of their stock has been ethically produced within Australia. We also chose recycled paper for the stationary, used World Vision gift cards as favors and our rings were made with recycled metals and an ethically mined diamond. I also wore a re-purposed vintage brooch as a hair clip that I purchased through Etsy.”

Libby says “The whole day was so special – we couldn’t have asked for things to have gone better, (even when they didn’t go to our original plan!). Preparing with the girls was a lot of fun and truly a highlight as our hair and make-up teams were lovely people. As the photos show there was a moment of tears as we were praying together before the ceremony – it just hit me that I was about to marry the boy I fell in love with so many years ago and I felt so lucky to have had my childhood dream come true. It sounds silly in some ways but I still can hardly believe my luck to be married to such a wonderful man!” Megan Pine from Visionary Hair styled the girls hair while Ethix styled the makeup.

Libby and Scott held their ceremony and reception at Peppers Manor House. Libby explains, “We decided to have the whole day in the one venue for a few reasons. It was extremely convenient, the Peppers Manor House was absolutely beautiful and suited the plans we had, and it also helped save money by not needing to hire cars. We initially had planned to get married in one of the beautiful gardens but the weather was not quite good enough so we moved inside to the Great Hall. We were initially concerned that this may have been a bit to small to fit all of our guests but we found the ceremony actually became very intimate and had a wonderful sense of closeness. It was also great fun to enter via the beautiful staircase! The staff were really lovely and were also really happy to help us be creative and make the day our own.”

The bridesmaids walked down the aisle to ‘The Book of Love’ by Peter Gabriele. Libby remarks ” I still can’t listen to it without getting so emotional!.”

Libby says “Our ceremony had a beautiful intimate feel. Many of our guests still say it was one of the most wonderful wedding ceremonies to be a part of. It truly is a wonderful feeling to be surrounded by loved ones as you marry the person you love!”

Scott’s mother played a special role in the ceremony. Libby explains “Scott’s mum is a professional singer and has a beautiful and powerful voice. She sang two songs for us, one of which was Amazing Grace sung entirely A Capella as a worship song with the guests. It was a powerful and very spiritual moment. The staff at the venue told us later they stopped everything when the song began and listened because it was so moving.” The couple were married by the minister from their home church Bil Ghali.

Libby notes “As we grew up together, many of our mentors through our teen years knew us both separately and were overjoyed to see us get married. In particular, our old youth pastor and his wife, Tim and Donna, spoke words of blessing right after our vows. It was really quite a special moment for us and we really treasured it.”

Libby says “What we wanted was a very intimate day which was fun and relaxed, and celebrated our faith and our joy.”

Immediately following the reception, Libby and Scott held an afternoon tea. Libby says “I was so glad that by the end of the ceremony the weather held off enough to still have our lawn games! The food was lovely and it was important to us to still have a lot of time with all of our guests who came down from Sydney for the ceremony but were not staying on for the reception. I clearly had a lot of fun trying (but failing) to play Croquet!

Libby says “We did what felt like a lot of DIY! We designed all of our stationary which was a bit trying at times but did save us a lot, as well as most of the decorations such as the aisle ribbons. I loved our games instructions cards and the swing tag seating arrangements that we designed – especially with ‘Alice in Wonderland’ playing croquet!”

The Potager created the beautiful floral arrangements.

Of their photographer, Libby says “We both agree that our best decision for the wedding was choosing Jeremy Beasley to be our photographer. We struggled to find someone with such a short engagement but we are now so glad because it forced us to look outside Sydney. I was so excited to see Jeremy’s photojournalist style and could barely bring myself to read his reply to my enquiry as I was so nervous he’d say he was already booked! I was so relieved when he said he was available to be our photographer!

Not only was he very professional and clearly very talented at capturing the stories of the day, but he is incredibly friendly and lovely, and was such a joy to have with us through the course of such a special day. I think it’s really important to like the person as well as their work, because they spend so much intimate time with you on this important day. We loved having Jeremy there and looking back he really became a special part of the day too. We couldn’t have been more pleased with our experience of working with him from start to finish.”

Libby and Scott made the seat cards themselves. Libby says ” We wanted our whole wedding to feel intimate and full of love, and that continued into the reception. All of our guests sat at one long U shaped table, which we loved. ”

Their wedding date coincided with another special date Libby explains “Our wedding date was actually the 21^st Birthday of one of my beautiful bridesmaids, Jess. She is a great friend and was really happy for us to choose this date as it was the only one that worked for our venue. She kept saying, “This year my birthday is the following day!” but to make sure we kept her day special too, I had the venue decorate her place at the table – she was really touched and loved the small surprise of it.”