Kate & Scott's Ruby Red Outdoor Wedding

Kate & Scott

The wedding of Kate and Scott is filled with passion. Rich ruby red is accented with black and white and gosh is there love, so much love. I am so delighted to share this beautiful wedding held at Tumbling Waters Retreat, Stanwell Tops with you today.

Kate tells their story. “We met in early 2006 at the insistence of our dear friend (and subsequent maid of honour), Ali Payne, who tried her hardest to conceal the very obvious ploy to set up her two single mates.

Our first year was completely manic – we were madly in love but had to separate when I decided not to cancel my post-university gap year to Canada and left Scott waiting patiently behind! Despite our own doubts about what would happen to our relationship, thankfully being on the other side of the world wasn’t much of a deterrent.

Since then, we’ve had an amazing journey together. At our own admission we aren’t the world’s most romantic couple but we always have so much fun.

We said to each other very early on that we were partners in crime – we’re best mates, completely smitten and the happiest place for us to be is with each other.”

Photographs today are by John Benavente who adds a certain kind of passion of his own to his photographs. Beautiful pieces of art with so much feeling to them.

Kate and Scott chose a rich colour palette for their day, Kate explaining, “While many cultures vary their symbolism of the colour red, for me it means love. Not to mention Scott has always been very forthcoming with compliments whenever I wear red, in particular, red lipstick! I wanted to see the very same expression on his face walking down the aisle that I see when I wear red, so using it so liberally throughout our wedding was a very easy decision. In the end I think the contrast of the ivory, black and red colour scheme turned out beautifully on the day and in our photos.” The flowers were styled by Always Flowers Kiama.

Kate and Scott hired wedding stylist She Designs Events to help pull together the day. Kate admits “I’m really, truly lacking the creativity gene. When we first became engaged, my mum bought me two issues of a wedding magazine where I sourced about 95% of my ideas. The rest really happened by good luck paired with an open mind. My criteria was simple, if the vendor had a good website that showcased their work, and they were nice to me, they were in. At the eleventh hour, I met with Sheree of She Designs in Wollongong, who put the finishing touches to the day and without sounding too corny, really transformed our wedding into something truly special.”

Of their decision to marry at Tumbling Waters Retreat, Kate remarks “We decided to get married and have the reception at the same venue so our guests didn’t have to fill the time in between, and could enjoy the spectacular view. Scott grew up in the area and the venue overlooked the beach where he first learned to surf. As a child, my family would meet for picnics on the very same beach. Now that we live nearby, we really wanted to incorporate the venue with a place very close to our hearts.”

Kate walked down the aisle to Lior’s ‘This Old Love’. She remembers “It’s a beautiful tune with a very appropriate chorus of growing old together. Scott and I somehow always knew we wanted this to be played at our wedding. For anyone wanting to use this song, proceed with caution! We were both on the verge of tears.”

Kate wore a gown from Ella Bridal with Badgely Mischka shoes and jewels by Tejani. Kate’s bridesmaids wore floor length black gowns by After Six from Exclusively Bridesmaids. Scott wore a Hugo Boss suit while his groomsmen wore suits from Zenetti.

Of their photographer Kate says “Upon my maid of honour’s very wise recommendation, we chose John Benavente. We really connected with his style of capturing real and often hidden moments. Given how unobtrusive he was, the shots he took are nothing short of amazing.”

The photographs were beautiful, Kate says “The highlight however, was just how ‘rustic’ the location was. I walked over a cattle grid that completely wrecked my shoes, the sticks on the ground tore the tulle of my dress and goodness knows just how many species of animal ‘leavings’ were on my train! Scott and I both found these incidents hilarious; however the best was yet to come. At the end of our shoot, a few very sweet and curious llamas, cows and ponies joined in to wish us well! These unexpected surprises have given us rather entertaining memories to say the least.”

The couple chose a tiered white chocolate cake with white chocolate buttercream icing which was baked by Allison Aylward of The Sweetest Things, and decorated by Always Flowers. As wedding favors, Kate and Scott gave Orange Blossom plantings wrapped in ivory hessian with a ‘Love Grows’ label fastened with ivory ribbon from Flourish Bomboniere,

For their first dance, Kate recalls “We danced to Frank Sinatra’s ‘Fly Me to the Moon’. I’ve always thought the words were both romantic and fun, without the ‘ick’ factor of a lot of traditional love songs. We practiced our waltz for a good six weeks, only to have the DJ forget that we wanted to waltz for the entire song. He invited our wedding party onto the dance floor after about 45 seconds…oops! Nevertheless, we both believe in happy accidents so we soldiered on with our dance that ended with a very ‘Hollywood’ kiss. I think we could waltz to Frankie in our sleep from here on in!”