Iain and Carla

Iain and I met two years ago and as much as we both hate the cliche, it really was love at first sight. Our first date was meant to be “just a coffee” but the place we arranged was closed so we ended up having a really expensive dinner neither of us could secretly afford which was good because we talked for absolutely hours. We even discovered we had the same birthday, in the same year, but I was born in the UK and Iain in Australia – we had to get our drivers licences out to prove it to each other! That night I went home and told my best friend I had met “the one”.

Shortly after, we moved in together and although it was very fast, we knew it was right. Just over a year later, on a very cold rainy Sydney day, Iain conned me out of my warm bed and told me he was taking me for hot chocolate but really he took me to a jeweller to design my engagement ring! After waiting another 3 months (of me bugging him if he had seen the finished product yet) he asked me to be his wife.

Living in Sydney at the time, commuting for hours a day, started to take it’s toll on us so we moved up to Brisbane for a year. I basically planned a whole wedding interstate so stress levels were at an all time high. I could not have asked for more of the suppliers – every single one was at my beck and call and replying to my emails at silly hours.

We decided we wanted to have our wedding in the Hunter Valley, it was a place we used to sneak off to for little trips to pick up some wines and cheeses every now and then. It has this magical light in the afternoon and our photographer, Ben Adams, managed to capture it all on our wedding day.

Ben Adams was with us from when we got up until we left the reception – I couldn’t find many photographers with that kind of dedication! From photos of the girls making bouquets and setting up the room in our dressing gowns, from the boys playing some early morning tennis, the whole day is captured in one big beautiful story.

It was dubbed the “wedding weekend” which was not the plan. We stayed in separate houses on site at Peppers Creek, the ceremony was to be held in the Chapel and guests walked down to the Barrel Room for the reception after.

We had 61 guests at the wedding, 95% of those came from out of town and we were so blessed that everyone could be there. We had fresh lavender pots all around the reception so I gave those to people to take home which was a special gift they could grow – we will be planting our’s when we buy a house!

My dress came from the Karen Willis Holmes store in Brisbane. I was terrified because I never wear white or dresses much – finding this dress on my second visit was not what I expected and fit so well.

The cake was made by Patricia from Yummy Cupcakes and Cakes – after a PDB post about ombre cakes, I decided that was what I wanted. 10 minutes with Pat and my mind was changed into her Vera cake, it complemented the ruffle on my dress.

Image by XYDJ

The wedding went way too fast, then we had the rest of the weekend to drink wine, eat cheese and laze around wineries with our families, it couldn’t have been more perfect.

We then made the trek back to Brisbane, packed the house for a week and moved to Sydney – hoping to take our honeymoon for our joint birthday/1st wedding anniversary in August!

Photography by Ben Adams

 Ms Gingham says: A beautiful wedding shot with such skill by Ben Adams! I love Carla’s bouquet!!

Carla says: “I was born in the UK and moved here when I was a teenager. Studied Hotel Management, years later met Iain (groom) and discovered we have the same birthday, in the same year (and are not related!) – then had an awesome wedding in the hunter valley with our closest people. I like walking our sausage dog, shopping for art and homewares and listening to music while spending time with my new husband :)”