Eight Ideas To Make Your Wedding Aussie

Katie and Stephen’s Vivid Harbourside Wedding Photo by SugarLove Weddings

It’s the Australia day long weekend and I felt the need to do something a *little* Australian today as the country relaxes in the sunshine. While I adore Australian weddings for all kinds of reasons (read more about them here) if you need an extra kick of Aussie at your wedding, or perhaps want to send an Australian nod to your guests if you’re marrying internationally, then here’s a little inspiration to get your creative juices flowing!

Thi and James’ Relaxed Queensland Wedding Photo by Hannah Millerick Photography

1. Have an Australian inspired wedding cake

Oh the realm is wide for this idea. Milo flavoured? Tim Tam crushed filled, Violet Crumble topping or of course, the lamington. If you’re into a cake person than might I suggest the pavlova? I’m starting to get hungry just thinking about it!

2. Serve meat pies at midnight

Seriously, want your guests to party all night long? Forget mini burgers and fries at midnight and bring out the meat pies. Mini ones, hot, with that delicious meaty filling. Don’t forget the tomato sauce and please include the napkins (i.e. because if your guests are like me, they have no hope of not spilling it down their pretty dresses). While you’re at it, sausage rolls, custard slice and iced Vovos could all make an appearance (don’t forget the Tim Tams!)

3. Pour a great Australian drop

Australia has some of the best wines in the world, so serve your favourites from across the country – Shiraz from McLaren Vale, Sauvignon Blanc from Margaret River, Semillion from the Hunter Valley and Pinot Noir from the Yarra Valley.  Of course, one should do plenty of taste testing to ensure they like the wine they’re serving!

Whitney and Rick’s Australian Kentucky Wedding Photo by Jessica Fey

4. Give Australian style favours

Mini jars of Vegemite? Locally grown Australian honey? A box of your favourite tea (Melbourne Breakfast perhaps?) Yummy Australian marmalade or relish? Even think outside the square to Murray pink salt, Australian bush spices and nuts and bush delicacies! Handy at baking? Why not gift boxes of Anzac biscuits, coconut ice, melting moments and yoyos!

Liz and Dan – The Celebration Photo by You Can’t Be Serious Photography.

5. Ditch the sit down reception and have a BBQ instead.

You know the scene, it’s a Saturday afternoon, The drinks are in a wheelbarrow that last week carted weeds and this week holds ice. There’s potato salad, there’s coleslaw, there’s probably vegetarian burgers to the left, the real deal to the right, a table piled with tomato sauce and mustard and white bread. Turn your wedding reception into a gourmet BBQ and have some fun turning what we love as that perfect way to spend an afternoon with friends into the ultimate wedding celebration. I’d say throw a shrimp on the barbie, but Australian’s don’t ever call them shrimp, so maybe go gourmet with garlic prawns. (Or in Mr Polka’s words of how I make them, garlic, with added prawns).

Leah and Gerard Photo by Todd Hunter McGaw

6. Hold onto Australian blooms

So I know some of these blooms are actually South African, but plenty of them are ones we claim as our own and are always going to be recognisable for us as “Australian natives”. So why not include them in your floral arrangements? Flannel flowers, kangaroo paws, wattle, billy buttons, banksias and even gum leaves make for beautiful wedding bouquets.

7. Carry an Australian tune!

Don’t miss classic Australian tunes like “Land Downunder” by Men At Work,  “Great Southern Land” by Icehouse a bit of Cold Chisel, a few from The Whitlams, Midnight Oil, INXS, Boy & Bear, The Cat Empire, Bernard Fanning. You know how Australian you’re willing to get and there are so many tunes that are purely patriotic or just by a great Australian artist that you could use during your wedding and especially on the dancefloor!

Mythili and Lukasz’s Multicultural Sydney Wedding Photo by Wanderer Photography

8.  Have A Landmark View

Something particularly easy for couples marrying in Sydney is choosing a wedding venue with one of Australia’s iconic landmarks visible through the windows, cruising past the harbour bridge during cocktail hour or even celebrating in a marquee under the sails of the Opera House. Of course, Northern Territory couples get the backdrop of Uluru, Melbourne Brides have the Yarra, Queensland brides, the tropical landscape. Really, there are so many parts of Australia that are iconic to me, that infusing a little of it in the view for your guests? Purely magic and so Australian.