Sophie & Matt

Country weddings are so much fun. The wide open spaces, the twinkling fairy lights hung from unexpected places and the relaxed feeling. I love sharing country wedding stories and I’m thrilled to be able to share the Toowoomba wedding of Sophie and Matt with you today!

Sophie tells their story. “Matt and I met through my older brother about 10 years ago, as I was only 15 we were just friends for a long time (I secretly had a crush on him though!). It wasn’t until I was 18 and he was 22 that our relationship changed and we’ve been inseparable ever since!”

It’s lovely to have the photographs of Kath Scott Photography  on the blog! Her first wedding book and a beautiful, fun style to her photography!

Along with a gown from Valentine Bride, Sophie made sure to add sentimental pieces to her wedding day look. She recalls “I wore my Nan’s watch from the 1930’s, it was the very first gift my Grandad ever gave to nan when they were just courting so that was a special touch.”

Sophie walked down the aisle to “At Last” by Etta James.

Sophie and Matt married on Sophie’s grandparent’s property, Sophie explains. “We decided to hold our ceremony at my grandparent’s place which is in a beautiful little valley called Flagestone Creek just down the Toowoomba range. This is a special venue as my 18th, my brothers 21st and Nans 60th were all held here, not to mention countless family Christmas’s! My Nan is an absolute gem, she spent weeks and weeks preparing her garden for the wedding day and it was breathtakingly beautiful despite not having had any rain in the months leading up to the wedding!”

The ceremony had it’s moments. “As part of our ceremony we included a tree planting to symbolise our growing relationship. As this was Matt’s idea, I entrusted him with the job of organsing the tree to plant…. he forgot! So on the morning of the wedding I had my brother and his fiance searching Nan’s garden for a tree to dig up so we could plant it! Do you think we could find one? We ended up using a branch from a tree and hoped that nobody would notice! Of course everyone did and we all had a little giggle while we planted the “tree”!”

Of their photographer, Sophie says “I found our photographer Kath Scott, through Facebook and knew the instant I saw her work that I wanted her to photograph our day, I absolutely scored the jackpot with her! Having an engagement shoot with her prior to the wedding helped to ease Matt’s mind about having his photo taken, he was very reluctant to say the least! Kath had a special way of putting us at ease when taking our photos, she didn’t make us do silly poses or make us feel uncomfortable in anyway. She captured the essence of our day perfectly and has created a set of photos that we will absolutely treasure forever.”

The bridesmaids wore gowns from Olive Home. The bride chose flowers from Cabarlah Flower Farm and arranged them with her family and friends.

Matt’s friend provided the transport with his mustang.

Stockyard Creek Hall was the perfect backdrop for the handmade wedding, Sophie saying, “We had our reception in the Stockyard Creek Community hall which is just around the corner. This little hall is the perfect venue for a relaxed country style wedding and the ladies on the hall committee did a superb job with the catering!”

There were plenty of handmade details. “After hours of trawling DIY bridal blogs I had an extensive list of ideas of things to make and do. I had a lot of help from my family and friends but we made everything from the invites (my friend a graphic designer did a marvelous job of these) to our own bouquets, which my bridesmaids and I made the morning of the wedding and it was so much fun! I started collecting little jars and bottles for the flowers about 12 months before the wedding and had fun decorating them, I also made my own guestbook and cake topper! Mum and Nan made metres of bunting to hang around the ceremony and at the reception, Mum also made the table runners (the table cloths were painters dropsheets from Bunnings!). Another friend made our wedding cake, which was delicious!”

Sophie notes, “Having made most of the little details ourselves made everything so special and very personal. All the guests commented on how beautiful the hall looked and I was able to say it was all thanks to the massive amounts of help I received, especially from my Mum and Nan and my three beautiful bridesmaids!”

For their first dance, Sophie says “Our first dance was to ‘Annie’s Song’ by John Denver, we hadn’t practiced and so I was expecting to just stand and sway as Matt was a bit “shy” when it came to dancing in front of everyone. But oh no, he really got into it and was dipping and spinning me like a pro!”

Congratulations on your marriage Sophie and Matt! Thank you for sharing your day with us! Thank you to Kath Scott Photography for sharing today’s wedding with us!