Rustic Lavender Farm Wedding - Polka Dot Wedding

Claire and Jeremy

Weddings at a lavender farm? Just a little bit magical don’t you think? Can you imagine that beautiful scent as you say your vows? Claire and Jeremy’s wedding is simply beautiful and full of individual unique touches as special as they are.

Claire tells their story. “My (Claire’s) sister-in-law Crystal and Jeremy’s sister Melanie set us up – the two girls have known each other since primary school and thought that we would make a great match. They also sneakily followed us on our first date!”

Red Hill Lavender Farm set the scene for the wedding, with Claire explaining, “The wedding was held on 27th October 2012 at Red Hill Lavender Farm – Kylie (who owns the farm) was so lovely…. she had her husband Brad out mowing the expansive lawns the day before so that each blade of grass was perfect! Brad and Kylie were just so welcoming and excited for us. We held the entire wedding at Red Hill Lavender Farm.

All of the bridesmaids and partners plus bride and groom stayed at the gorgeous accommodation there (sleeps 10-12), which was just a short walk to the ceremony. The ceremony was held at the ”hacienda” down at the bottom of the hill by the lake – very rustic and raw. We had a bus take the guests from the car park at the top of the hill to the ceremony location as the property is very large, however some chose to walk back to the restaurant at the conclusion of the ceremony once the weather cleared to admire the view.”

Peony Blooms styled the floral arrangements, Claire remarking, “Our florist Natalie from Peony Blooms did an excellent job.”

The invitations were handmade using seeded paper from Paper Go Round. Claire explains, “The theme of the wedding was lace (to match my wedding dress), lavender and rustic / raw (to match the location), and underwater (to match our love of the sea). The colours were white/ivory and green. All the decorations, outfits and accessories matched this theme.”

Claire’s bridesmaids wore various gowns in shades of emerald green.

Claire remembers “The ceremony started 30 minutes late because the bus took so many trips up and down. But I think it was a hit – everyone hopped on not knowing what they were in for….. ”

For her walk down the aisle, Claire says “We walked down the isle to ‘Bittersweet Symphony’ by The Verve – the song is very emotive. ”

Claire and Jeremy chose Jason Tuazon-McCheyne for their celebrant. Claire remarking “Our celebrant Jason Tuazon-McCheyne was a fabulous celebrant.”

And of course, Mother Nature shows her spirit. “The sun came out just as we were officially ‘married’ by the celebrant!”

Of their photographer, Claire says, “She is the most amazing photographer – her photos are so romantic and even have a slight antiquity about them. I asked her to be strict with us: tell us what to do and where to move, as I trusted her 100%. She even scoped out the venue prior to the wedding so that she had an idea of great locations to shoot. I am absolutely thrilled I chose to use our photographer (and I considered probably around 30 of Melbourne’s finest!).”

Guests received rosemary salt handmade by Claire as favors.

Claire notes, “We DIYed everything!! I am a Project Manager at the Bureau of Meteorology and I treated this wedding as a massive project (with much finer details than my usual infrastructure projects). So, I coordinated all of the vendors, suppliers, materials, crafts, decorations, food, family, friends and my husband-to-be by using excel spreadsheets and a very lengthy running sheet! Jeremy’s Uncle Bernard MC’ed the night which helped things run smoothly.

My bridesmaids and their partners and my parents and parents-in-law ran around the few days prior and on the morning of the wedding making sure vendors knew where to go at what time (although it turned out they were all very competent, but I do not like to take chances). I even bought and imported all of the cutlery, crockery and glassware from overseas for the occasion!”

A three tier wedding cake was made by the wedding caterers, Johnny Ripe.

For their first dance, Claire tells “We danced to ‘Moondance’ for our first dance. The band knew it was my favourite (Claire works with most of the band members). Jeremy is a great dancer once he has had a few;) The band from the BoM were brilliant I cannot thank them enough for providing the entertainment.”