Annie and Ash

“Towards the end of 2008 I met Ash through a mutual friend of ours Ben Cotton. During this time Ash was working for Defence at the RAAF Base in Newcastle. I had recently moved to Newcastle. There’s not a whole lot to do in Newcastle – it’s very much a place where you have to make your ‘own’ fun!”

Annie tells the story of how they came to be. “Ash one day decided to go out and purchase a giant plasma Tv and surround system so he could host movie nights at his house where he was living at in Maryville near Carrington. It just so happened that I attended one of the movie nights that Ash had organised. Ash thought I was pretty good company so he got my number.

Out of the blue I received a text message from Ash asking if I would like to catch up for a coffee. I agreed and so began our friendship. Ash was not looking for anything more than friendship during this time; however he was struck at how easily we connected. We remained close friends and regularly spent time together. We very quickly became close friends even though we had not discussed our feelings or intentions of how we felt towards each other.

After a whirlwind six months in Newcastle, Ash moved to Melbourne for work. This was really difficult for me, as it was around this time I realised I had feelings for Ash!”

Photos today are by Jake Thomas. I love Jake’s rustic, earthy captures of the celebration today.

Annie wore lace covered shoes from Glitzy N Glamorous .

Annie wore the “Margaret” gown by Henry Roth from The Bridal Co. She recalls “I ordered my dress from The Bridal Co, they were the only store that stocked a sample of my dress, “ Margaret”. The owner Janine was sensational along with all her staff. Would highly recommend!!”

Annie and Ash hired Teagan Cronin TLC Design & Events to pull their wedding look together. Annie explains, “I didn’t really have a theme for our wedding, I still don’t know how you would describe it! But the day was a complete fairytale wedding. Teagan was with me every step of the planning process, her patience and creativeness blew me away. When I came down the stairs after hair and make up, to see everything set up it took my breath away. I also added my own touch to our wedding and sourced a lot of the decorations online from Etsy and Ebay.”

Annie and Ash were married at Capers Guest House Wollombi. Annie recalls “Ash and I looked at a lot of different venues in the Hunter Valley. Finding our perfect venue was done by trial and error! I stumbled across Caper’s website one evening looking through their photo’s. I didn’t want to get my hopes up so I made appointment with Jane and Michael Young, the owners of Capers and drove out to view the venue. Friends of ours Trinity and Ben Doyle had married in Wollombi the previous year, and my husband and I loved the low key reception and ceremony. When it came to planning our wedding this was a huge influence for us.

When I arrived at Capers and stepped out onto the balcony I knew instantly that I had found our venue!. It took me all of about 10 minutes to convince Ash to have our wedding at Capers!”

One of the most powerful moments of the day for Annie was “Walking down the aisle and seeing Ash standing at the altar was one of the greatest moments of my life it was incredibly emotional for me. We’ve been through a lot together and getting married was such a wonderful commitment to make in front of the people that we love the most.” Annie walked down the aisle to  “I will love you” by Fisher . Much of the music on the wedding day was performed live by Anna Weatherup . Annie explains “Anna Weatherup is a good friend of mine and has the most stunning voice, she did vocals and played the guitar acoustically which suited our venue beautifully. ”

The ceremony was performed by Patricia Anne Norris (02) 4351 3636 . Annie remarks “Amazing! Trish was beautiful to work with, Ash and I both formed a very close relationship with Trish and her husband Reg through-out the planning of the ceremony.”

Of their photographer, Annie says “Amazing couldn’t praise Jake Thomas and his staff more! Jake really went above and beyond we are blown away with our wedding photos, they are amazing.

When we met Jake in the studio, I was struck by how easy going he was, which I liked, Ash and I are pretty laid back!  Jake had also photographed some friends of mine and their wedding. Which was another tick in my box!. Most of all I’m creative myself and just loved the photographs that were in the studio.”

Of their vendor choices, Annie notes, “It was really important for me to have people on board that were bubbly and most of all easy going who I could click with. I spent a lot of time researching and trying different suppliers out. The people that I chose were so incredibly talented and inspiring they really helped to make our wedding day so beautiful and relaxed. For me I really wanted to build a personal rapport with the people working on our wedding.

It really helps to take the stress out of the day! When our wedding day arrived, and everyone started coming in to set up and say their hello’s they weren’t strangers, they were friends.  It was so very special for me to see everyone on the day and marvel at the atmosphere and celebrate with all our dear friends and family.”

Favors were hessian bags decorated with chalk labels. Annie remarks “I bought the favour bags from etsy and filled them with heart chocolates and got my mum and bridesmaids to help me as there were so many!”

Congratulations Annie & Ash! Thank you for sharing your day with us! Thank you also to Jake Thomas for sharing today’s images.