Roxanne and Brad

It’s always special when I get to share the wedding of  a reader and today’s photography delightfully shared how Roxanne had read Polka Dot Bride throughout her engagement. I loved seeing how Roxanne’s day came together – the rustic farm location, to the little touches like including nods to her grandparents in elements of her day. It makes it all such a beautiful day to share.

Roxanne tells the story of how she and Brad came to be. “We met online through a dating website. I never expected to actually find the person I’d end up marrying! As soon as we starting chatting to each other we got on really well. We continued to chat for a few weeks before we met each other. By that point, we knew so much about each other and our first meeting was so comfortable (once we got past our nerves of meeting for the first time!).”

Amelia Soegijono of (Pictures & Hearts) captured the wedding photos of Roxanne and Brad and lent such a cosy feeling to the winter celebration with classic, beautiful images.

Roxanne put her crafty touch to much of the day. She explains, “I love designing and craft so I knew from the beginning that most of our wedding would be a DIY extravaganza! From the invites through to the menus and guest cards were designed by myself and printed by a friend of mine. Then came all the decorative bits. The ceremony was left quite simple as the barn was enough on its own but we did get some giant balloons to tie on the post for guests to see their way and I had the words ‘our wedding”‘ tied on the barns doors which were wrapped in peach wool along with one that said ‘thank you’ that we used as a shot to put on our thank you cards to guests.”

Valley Fresh Flowers created the Autumn hued bouquets.

Roxanne wore a halterneck lace gown from Brides of Beecroft and shoes from Chloe.

Roxanne walked down the aisle to ‘The Wedding Song’ by Angus & Julia Stone. Even the date was special. “The date we chose for our wedding was actually the date that my grandparents were married back in 1950.”

The intimate nature of the wedding made it a longer celebration, Roxanne explains, “We had a very small wedding and most people stayed up in the area so it was really nice to have dinner with everyone the night before the wedding and then breakfast the morning after. It really felt like a celebration with our family and friends that everyone enjoyed.”

The Hunter Celebrant married Roxanne and Brad. Roxanne notes, “Anthony Burke was also a great find. He was our celebrant and from day 1 made us feel comfortable and at ease. He took on board everything we wanted and didn’t want in a celebrant and ceremony and we couldn’t have asked for anything better.”

Roxanne and Brad chose Tocal Homestead for their wedding celebrations. Roxanne explains, “When we thought about venues, we knew what we wanted – it was just a matter of finding it! We wanted somewhere that we could have everything in one place. We didn’t want our guests to have to travel from ceremony to reception and have that 3-4 hour gap in between with nothing to do! We also wanted somewhere a little remote and spacious as we love being out in the country and being surrounded by greenery, so we wanted that to be the setting for our wedding. When we found Tocal, it was everything we hoped for. We were able to have the ceremony in their beautiful barn and then guests had canapes around the homestead while we were off getting photos done. Then we moved down to their reception hall that has an amazing rustic feel to it that we couldn’t help but fall in love with. The other great thing about Tocal was that we could bring in whoever we wanted and decorate how we wanted. There weren’t really any restrictions other than our imagination.”

Of their photographer, Roxanne says, “We decided from the beginning that photography was a really important part of our wedding. We wanted to find someone who had an amazing eye, great quality and wouldn’t cost the earth! I spent quite a few weeks looking at so many different portfolios, getting a couple of quotes but never got to the point of wanting to meet anyone. I only had to see one photo from Amelia’s portfolio to know that was the person I wanted to shoot our wedding. We set up a time to go in and meet her and walked out of that meeting knowing we were going to book her as soon as we got home and completed the paperwork! Amelia was amazing. She made us feel so at ease and comfortable in front of the camera and made what we thought would be an uncomfortable thing into something that was fun and went by far too quickly! We\’re not keen on the staged, posed photos. We just wanted photos to look back on that showed our personality and the love we have for each other. I wanted a really soft, romantic feel to the photos that I think she pulled off beautifully. Her amazing eye captured some stunning photos that I am just so proud of.”

Roxanne’s crafting continued into the reception barn and included masses of delicately folded paper cranes against corrugated iron. Roxanne remembers “The reception had a backdrop of paper cranes hung up behind the dessert buffet and guest book area. There were 200 in total and many hours went into making them. A friend came over and spent the entire day on our lounge room floor stringing them together while I was busy sewing giant letters onto a banner to hang outside the reception hall that said Brad <3’s Roxanne. I love looking back on the photos and seeing how it all came off and am so proud that we did it ourselves. It means a lot more…though I still don’t know what to do with the 200 paper cranes sitting down in the basement!”

Hello Naomi created desserts and cake for the guests to feast on. Roxanne recalls “Naomi Henderson from Hello Naomi was such a great find! She is the most lovely person to deal with, so helpful and has an amazing talent. Everyone was raving about the desserts and they still do months after the wedding! I would highly recommend her to anyone looking for cakes and desserts.”

The special touches honouring Roxanne’s grandparents were dotted throughout the day. Roxanne explains “My grandparents are no longer with us, so I wanted to incorporate some things into the wedding to represent them. At the ceremony we had pillar candles lit while we exchanged our vows, I wore my grandmothers pearls around my wrist as a bracelet and we used their old crystal decanters as vases on the tables at the reception. It was nice to have these subtle things done that we knew what the meaning behind it was.”

Guests received handmade favors. Roxanne remembers “Doing all the DIY stuff for the wedding made it quite special. Having friends and family help was great. My brother in law made jams for everyone to take home. DIY stuff really does bring you together.”

When it came to cutting the cake, one minor thing was forgotten leading to one memorable moment! Roxanne tells the story. “We completely forgot to get a cake knife! We got to the point of getting up to cut the cake and our MC asked if we had a knife. My face just went completely blank as I realised we didn’t have one! Thankfully he was quite a quick thinker and ran down to the caterers just as they were packing up to ask for a knife we could cut the cake with. We did the initial cut with the knife but had to return it, so we were left to cut the rest of the cake up with a butter knife! It makes for a great story afterwards and something to laugh about.”

For their first dance, Roxanne remembers, “We were both a bit anxious about the thought of a ‘first dance’ as we have no idea how to waltz and are not generally the people that like to be the center of attention. It started out as more of a shuffle than a dance and unbeknown to Brad (thinking we could inject a bit of fun and hopefully relax) I instructed the DJ to do a mash up of songs, so when we started doing a lovely slow shuffle to Kate Miller-Heidke’s ‘Space They Cannot Touch’, that only lasted for two minutes until it changed over into her more upbeat tune of ‘Can’t Shake It’. That’s when I started to dance and shake it and have some fun. Poor Brad was left standing wondering what was going on…but not for long – the song finished up and we were able to escape the dance floor!”

Congratulations Roxanne and Brad! Thank you for sharing your wedding day with us! Thank you also to Amelia Soegijono of (Pictures & Hearts) for sharing today’s images!