Erin & Matt

A relaxed country wedding in the beautiful town of Daylesford calls for a celebration. Luckily the celebration is right here with Erin & Matt’s wedding! Country elegance to a tee!

The couple tell their story. “We met at school in 1998. Matt being a pre-teen terror was being sent to boarding school in the country where he found a sweet little out-of towner named Erin.

Erin was on the Student Representative Council, a model student and unbeknown at the time, the future school captain. Matt was the rebel city boy constantly on wash-up duty at the boarding house.

We both ended up in the same homeroom together and 14 years later we got married!”

Photographs today are by Xiss Photography. I love the easiness and beauty of these photographs!

Erin chose a Pronovias wedding gown. The accessories for the day were from Tilkah.

The couple chose Leonards Hill Community Hall in Leonards Hill for their wedding ceremony and added moss letters to the outside. Erin explains “Having seen them used elsewhere, we cut our own moss letters out of wood and covered them with synthetic moss we found on the internet. We ran this theme on to the tables by doing the same with the table numbers.”

Of their venue choice, Erin explains “Neither of us being religious, we looked around for a less traditional non denominational venue. We wanted a more down to earth and relaxed venue that would feel intimate and make our guests really feel a part of the ceremony. We noticed the hall driving home from Daylesford and called the number on the sign outside. We were looked after by the lovely Elsie who looks after the key and lives just around the corner. She told us that she had her wedding breakfast there many years ago and was thrilled that we had chosen the hall for our special day. Once we opened the doors to the hall, we were thrilled with what we found. It had the character we were after and with a little bit of elbow grease would be the perfect venue. An added bonus was finding the hall was full of old church pews which accommodated our guests perfectly on the day. We spent the day before the wedding cleaning and prettying up the little hall, being careful not to lose it’s natural charm.”

Erin notes “The groom is a graphic designer, so there was plenty of work for him with save the dates, invitations, menus, programs, place cards and lolly bags.”

Erin remembers “With the my love of Australian folk music, it was natural decision to have ‘The Wedding Song’ by Angus and Julia Stone. We found the sentiment and lyrics reflected our feeling perfectly.”

Erin’s bridesmaids wore champagne gowns from Review and Boleros from BHLDN.

Paul O’Donohue (0411 636 636) performed the ceremony. Erin recalls “We were lucky enough to have been recommended Paul O’Donohue, our celebrant, he brought a wonderful relaxed and joyous feeling to our ceremony and carried it out just how we had imagined. He involved our guests, had them cheering, clapping laughing and at times crying, groom included, who could barely hold himself together.”

Erin and Matt did a lot of DIY for the wedding, down to the confetti! Erin explains “Unable to find white confetti, which we were lucky enough to be able to throw, I spent many hours hole punching white and pearl paper with pastel pink and silver glitter paper to get the mix just right. This was placed in to glassine paper envelopes, sewn with a tag and placed on the pews at the hall.”

Cliffy’s Emporium Daylesford  catered afternoon tea for the guests. Erin explains, “We chose to stay at the hall and enjoy a toast and afternoon tea with our guests. Having been to and been involved in many weddings, we felt this was the best way to get around to all our guests rather than rushing off for photos straight after the ceremony. This also worked well with our choice of photographer, who mingled amongst the crowd and captured some great candid shots.”

The friendships were only deepened by the day. Erin explains, ” The bridesmaids were my sisters, while the groom’s sister read a very tearful poem that had the whole hall a little emotional. The groomsmen were high school friends and are still best mates today. Luckily, the best man’s beautiful partner is also a truly excellent make-up artist and offered her services for the day.”

Erin says “The wedding was everything we had hoped and planned for and perfectly reflected who we are and where we’ve come from together.”

Of their photographer, Erin says “We chose James as our photographer having seen his work online. His quirky style and non-traditional approach appealed to us as we are not much for posing. He took the time to get to know us and was there from first thing in the morning until we drove away from the reception.”

The flowers were purchased from Joe Leuzzi Flowers, Queen Victoria Market Melbourne,  Flowers Vasette and arranged by the bridal party and groom’s Aunty. Erin says “Although we had help from the Grooms Aunty with the arranging, we selected and sourced the flowers and added a sparkly brooch on the bride’s bouquet which matched the decoration on the croquembouche. We had no particular flowers in mind and simply picked what was in season and fit with our theme two days before the wedding. This works well to keep costs down.”

Erin and Matt held their wedding reception at Sault Daylesford. Erin notes “We got engaged in Daylesford, which made the choice for the wedding location quite easy.”

The reception, was above all, about family. Erin explains “Our MC was an old childhood friend of mine and a great friend of us both. Having originally booked the wedding for a day when our MC was a best man in another wedding, we did some shuffling and wound up with our wedding on St. Patrick’s day. This meant that the my grandma celebrated her 85th birthday on the day, being presented with a cake and a rendition of happy birthday.”

For their first dance, Erin says “We opted not to have dance lessons, which meant we engaged in something more resembling a sway. The music was a song we both chose by Colin Hay (waiting for my real life to begin), which we spent our entire dance singing to each other. We urged our bridal party not to wait too long before joining us and were glad once we were no longer the centre of attention.”

Erin and Matt hired Warren Smith – The Big Fish  to entertain guests at the reception. Ready for dancing, Erin changed into a tea length gown from Ouma. “At Sault, the staff were brilliant as was the food and luckily our band. We chose our band sight unseen from a few sound clips on the internet and were not disappointed. They took requests all night and had everyone on the dance floor.”

Congratulations Erin and Matt! Thank you for sharing your day with us! Thank you to James from Xiss Photography for sharing today’s photographs!