Lauren and Leigh’s Party In The Garden Wedding

Lauren and Leigh

Lauren and Leigh chose to celebrate their wedding with a party in the garden – Lauren’s grandmother’s garden to be exact, right under a Magnolia Tree planted when she was born. Guests celebrated under the star lit sky, feasted on paella and pizza and danced the night away. Party in the garden? I think so!

As for how they met, you’ll have to read on for another hint! But Lauren starts with, “Everyone who knows it is sworn to secrecy…..Haa Haa. It may or may not have been at 3:00am…… Let’s just say it was a set up by a friend that didn’t go entirely to plan. But everything worked out perfectly in the end.”

Photographs today are by Todd Hunter Mcgaw– who shot such rad photographs filled with joy, love and a little quirk!

Leigh and his groomsmen wore suits from The Cloakroom.

Peace Love & Letterpress created the wedding invitations for the couple.

Lauren and her bridesmaids wore gowns by Anna Campbell.

Lauren and Leigh met before the ceremony. Lauren remembering, “We loved having all the photos and our “first look” moment captured before the ceremony worked so well for us. We were so relaxed at the ceremony and it was nice to hang around and celebrate with everyone after we said “I do!” rather than have to leave.”

Of their photographers, Lauren remarks,  “Todd & Alyda are amazing! What else can we say really! As soon as we met we were in love. They understood us & what we were looking for right away. On the day they were incredible. I can barely remember them being there and when we got the photos we kept thinking “how did they get that photo?!” Oh, and on the day a few girls fell in love with Todd & somehow captured him in one of his own photos.”

Natalie from Our Love In October styled the wedding. Lauren tells, ” Natalie help me through the entire process. She really helped me organise all my crazy ideas and keep to a plan. On the day she took the stress out of my morning and helped finalise the last set up details that have to be done on the morning of. This allowed me to just relax in the morning and focus on being pampered!

One of our favourite decorations was a wall of flowers in bottles, tied together with string. The same concept was used outside with clusters of hanging flowers in bottles spotted along the balcony.”

When asked what she walked down the aisle to, Lauren remarks, “Nothing – Just the sound of my heart going a million miles an hour….its a bit of a blur really. I just wanted to run down the aisle to Leigh as quickly as I could.”

Lauren and Leigh married in a backyard in Buderim. The couple remark, “The ceremony & reception was in the garden of the house that Lauren’s grandparents lived in when they were still with us. We were married under a Magnolia tree that Lauren’s grandparents planted when she was born.”

“We had 2 close friends Rebecca & Michael do readings during the ceremony. They had free reign to write whatever they liked. It was such a lovely surprise to hear what they came up with. Weddings really show you how much love is out there for you and how so many people are there to support you.”

The decor at the wedding was very personal and representative of Lauren & Leigh. Lauren tells, “Leigh and I both LOVE to share a bottle of wine. Even better if we can share it with friends. Over the years we have collected the empty wine bottles from nights shared with friends. Each bottle has a note about the night, the date and the people we shared it with. All these bottles were used as part of the wedding decorations along with crystal jugs & cups made into candles by my mum & I, antique books, countless glass bottles & jars, my collection of Owls (this is a hint to how we met…it may or may not have been at a Night Owl…a set up by friends gone off course). All surrounded by bouquets of flowers, carefully put together by myself & my amazing group of girlfriends.”

“We have a incredible family and group of friends. Without them we could have never pulled off the wedding that we did. Everyone got together and helped us with everything from cleaning up the garden before to setting up all for the reception to cleaning up the day after. Lauren & a few girlfriends went to the flower markets a few days before and picked out all the bunches of flowers. They then spent hours putting all the arrangements together for the reception. It was so much fun being elbow deep in flowers laughing and chatting with the girls.” As favors, guests received frames for their photobooth strips from My One Sweet Day.

“Mum & I also collected all the timber chairs at the wedding. Over the months before the wedding we searched high and low through garage sales and op shops, haggled on Etsy & Gumtree and finally collected around 70 vintage timber chairs. There were many jokes that all the guests would get to take a chair home with them.”

Food was a major part of the reception with catering by Spoon Fed Catering,  Senor Paella , The Woodfired Pizza King & Bottle Fed. Lauren remarks, “Good food & drink are really important to us. We wanted our guests to enjoy tasty drinks & yummy relaxed food. So we decided to have more market style food with multiple vendors. There was a woodfired pizza stall, a Paella stall, salad table and  of course a bar. Everyone could just mingle and eat at their own pace, but still get plenty of food.”

The Rush Band entertained guests during the reception.

“I surprised Leigh by doing a sneaky dress change half way through the reception. I popped into a cute yellow summery dress which is his favourite on me. When I emerged for the first time in the new dress everyone was caught by surprise and it was just a beautiful moment.”

Congratulations Lauren & Leigh on your marriage! Thank you for sharing your story wit us today! Thank you also to Todd Hunter Mcgaw – for sharing today’s rad wedding!