Paul and Sarah

Our story is one which has stretched over 10 years and multiple continents. All resulting in us making a formal commitment in front of our friends and family at Banjo Paterson Park, in Orange, NSW. Where, as my best friend likes to call it, Paul and I began phase 2 of our journey together.

Paul and I met when we were both living in London 10 years ago.  We are both avid travellers and share a strong desire to live a life filled with love and laughter. From this shared passion we wanted to create a unique day that reflected these two things.

We knew we didn’t want to follow tradition for the sake of it. We made big decisions to ditch the church wedding, white dress, walking down the aisle, cutting of the cake and the first dance. Thankfully, all of which our family were very supportive of. We instead included rituals such as a ring warming ceremony, where our rings were passed around our guests to be blessed. Plus a tree watering ceremony, where Paul and I planted the tree, and our mothers watered it in support of our marriage.

We handcrafted the majority of our ceremony together, from the invitations, bouquets, programs, catering, to even the stage we stood on for the ceremony. Our friends and families were amazing on the day with helping out with the baking and setting up of everything.

After the ceremony we visited a family friend’s property and were fortunate to have the most amazing light to work with that afternoon.

We wanted to have fun with the photos and utilized props such as parasols, lounges and frames in the paddock. We were privileged to work with the very gifted photographer, Seth Buchanan who captured our day perfectly.

Our reception was held at Tonic in Millthorpe. Our menu focused on local produce and wine. Here, we continued the hand crafted touches and our passion for travel. Our tables weren’t numbered but instead named after our favourite cities, and included cultural sayings.

Paul crafted the placecard holders from wood remnants from his parent’s property, and I designed each centrepiece from collected bottles, doilies, books and jars from op shops.

We were never comfortable with the idea of a wishing well, so instead had fun with the idea and designed a suitcase of love. We used the opportunity to display photos and postcards of our travels. Following the wedding Paul and I were heading on a six month adventure in South-East Asia.

It was such a fun experience working with Paul to create our day and even more fun celebrating it together with our nearest and dearest.

My only advice is to make sure you do your wedding, your way. The idea is that you only get to do it once and make sure you both enjoy it; it really is such an amazing experience.

Photography by Seth Buchanan

Ms Gingham says: Truly gorgeous afternoon lighting to work with here and a very talented photographer to capture it to perfection. To top it all off a six month adventure in South-East Asia!

Sarah says: “Some extra special details of our day were that we greeted guests as they arrived at the ceremony and had afternoon tea and drinks beforehand with them!”