Otway Ranges Wedding - Polka Dot Wedding

Kate & Rick

Australia provides some of the most spectacular backdrops, and I love when couples choose a location that’s a little out of the way but so stunning that it really sets the scene. The Otway Ranges are magical and today’s wedding shows them off in all of their glory.

Kate tells how she and Rick met. “We met at Uni whilst working on a group assignment and have been together for the last 10 years so we know each other very well!”

Photos today are by Kate Paneros of Urban Safari Photography. I love Kate’s gentle, unobtrusive beauty to her photographs!

King Parrot Cottages hosted the wedding, with Kate explaining, “We held both the ceremony and the reception at King Parrot Cottages in the Otways and couldn’t have asked for a more naturally beautiful location. Both of us love the outdoors and love animals and this venue offered both of these things.”

The bright and bold floral arrangements were styled by Blossoms of Tweed, Kate’s cousin. Kate remarks “My beautiful cousin Lyn did the most AMAZING flowers.”

Kate chose a gown by Tanya Didenko Couture from Eternal Weddings.

Kate walked down the aisle to Phillip Phillips – Home.

Kate recalls, “We wrote our own vows to each other which we kept secret – it was the most beautiful part of the whole day and there were lots of tears! We had four friends do readings at our wedding which were a surprise, it was so lovely to see what they chose to read for us and beautiful that they had gone to so much effort – also nice to have a surprise considering we’d planned just about everything else!”

One of the more hilarious stories of the day involved the property’s animals and their unexpected hunger. Kate recalls, “One of the donkeys tried to eat my wedding dress, quite amusing trying to get the dress out of it’s mouth!”

“One of Kate’s cousins hid all of the bridesmaids shoes in one of the trees on the property while the bridal party was having photo’s in their gumboots – took quite a long time to find them and quite funny when we finally did – a great shot of bridesmaid Peta laughing when she found them.”

Of their photographer, Kate says “Kate from Urban Safari was absolutely awesome, she captured the whole story of the day so well and as we had hoped really obtained photo’s that were ‘in the moment’ and showed raw emotion rather than capturing a lot of posed photos.”

“Being a ‘marquee’ wedding we had to DIY quite a few things! As a present to our guests we created a double CD with our favourite songs, a write up on why they were important to us, and some photos of our 10 years together. We also had to organise the equipment and catering etc ourselves, as well as most of our guests accommodation… a big job!”

“Maid of honour, Megan’s speech was a major highlight of the day. She did a rap to the tune of ‘Ice Ice Baby’ by Vanilla Ice which was by far the funniest wedding speech we have ever seen.”

For their first dance, Kate remembers “Well, we hadn’t practiced our dance at all so completely winged it and fair to say we (well Kate!) was a bit nervous. We pulled it off though and the photo’s made it look a lot more rehearsed than what it was!! ”