Terri Anne & Jonathan

Terri Anne and Jonathan (or TA and JJ as they are lovingly known by friends) threw the most splendid celebration for their marriage – a relaxed, natural wedding with plenty of inspiration from their favourite movie – “The Princess Bride”. A gorgeous day filled with quirky touches and personal details – my kind of wedding!

TA and JJ filled out our questions together (yay!) and tell how they met. “We met at high school, 14 years later we decided we should probably make it official!”

Merge Photography captured today’s wedding with breathtaking, beautiful photography.

TA and JJ married at a private property in Margaret River, they explain. “JJ’s parents own a beautiful and secluded property in Margaret River, in fact the river is at the bottom of the property and was the backdrop for the whole ceremony. It was the perfect setting, a place that we love to visit, and were married on the very spot JJ proposed a year earlier. Both of us are very fond of wine and cheese, so the Margaret River wine region was our ideal setting. The wooden arbour we were married under, the natural wood chairs and the whole ceremony set up created the relaxed feel to the wedding that we wanted, and complemented the natural beauty of the outdoor setting. Miriam from Chic Rustique really made the whole setting come to life, gave great advice when choosing flowers, produced beautiful bouquets & buttonholes, and made it all hassle free by setting up and packing down the ceremony.”

“Our wedding car was a beautiful vintage car owned by a close family friend, who being wonderful also drove us around for the day & home from the reception. The car complimented the wedding theme and looks stunning in the pictures.”

TA walked down the aisle to the theme song of the Princess Bride “A Story Book Story” by Mark Knopfler.  The couple note, “We have some very talented groomsmen and two of them played an acoustic rendition of the song for us as TA walked down the aisle, it was amazing! We changed it up a bit by having two of the groomsmen accompany the bridesmaids down the aisle and then they gave JJ a big hug when they got to end it was so nice and everyone was laughing and smiling. It was the exact relaxed feel we were after.”

“Our celebrant, Jennifer Burrows, was amazing. She was funny, relaxed and perfect.”

Of their photographers, the newlyweds remark, “Our photographers were the lovely ladies from Merge Photography; Jodie and Karolina. We wanted candid photo’s of the ceremony and reception, with minimal posed shots. They nailed it! They were so lovely, accommodating, and made us feel very comfortable. They captured the heart and vibe of the day perfectly.”

TA wore a Henry Roth gown from Samantha Wynne where she also purchased her DeCavalier &  Mariana Hardwick accessories. TA notes, “I loved my wedding dress, I felt like Marilyn Monroe all day!” Alannah Hill My beautiful life clip gowns were worn by the bridesmaids.

TA describes the wedding as, “Our wedding was fun, full of laughter and dancing, it was laid back, natural, quirky with a few thematic ideas from one of our favourite movies The Princess Bride – guests kept saying it was very ‘us’.”

The groom and groomsmen were dressed by Politix. “We didn’t want suits; we wanted things to be relaxed. Stuffy suits went out the door! We wanted the clothes to be fashionable and re-usable, so after looking around we were expertly looked after by Paige from Politix in Perth CBD. She understood what we were looking for and dressed JJ & the boys up perfectly.”

Xanadu Winery Margaret River hosted the reception. “We bussed our guests to Xanadu Winery, which is a beautiful winery just out of the Margaret River town site. The building is quite striking, with soaring high ceilings and the beautiful texture of stone and wood inside giving the room a warm and inviting feeling. The room is centred around a large stone fireplace which was the perfect backdrop to our reception. The food, service and of course, wine were all amazing. If you’re ever down that way, pop in and try their lamb! The function manager Sarah was a huge help, nothing was too difficult, and the evening ran flawlessly. TA also made the “Wishing Well” out of an old suitcase that was her Grandad’s using little tags, twine, scrap book stickers and some material to make the inside look neat. A very low cost approach which complemented our theme.”

TA’s own stationery business Sweetie  created the invitations and stationery for the day. “We did a huge amount DIY, mostly because TA is a graphic designer and has an invitation business called Sweetie , so she was able to design and produce a lot of the materials: Wedding invitations and stationery, order of service, reception menus, directional signage for the ceremony, custom designed tea towels, terrariums, a lectern poster, and custom rubber stamp for invitation envelopes and the cake bags.”

Edible Art created the wedding cake, TA and JJ explaining, “We went for a traditional 3 tier cake instead of cupcakes and a very simple rustic looking icing with baby’s breath flowers and rosemary around it. We purchased a whimsical cake topper from Melabo Wed on Etsy. It’s a play on the traditional bride and groom at the top of a wedding cake, with the brides’ head a rabbit and the groom’s a bear. All together it was quirky and right up our alley.”

“TA and her sisters / bridesmaids made all table settings which were little succulents in jars to create terrariums. TA with the help of her swap meet savvy dad sourced jars from swap-meets & op shops to make the terrariums and got crystal / textured ones for candles to go in, on the tables. It was a low cost option and we got lots of bang for our buck! TA’s sister still has them all lining her balcony and they look great.”

“TA designed tea towels as wedding favours for our wedding guests. We thought tea towels were a great gift for guests which was in keeping with theme, reminded them of the good times, and is also functional! The tea towels thanked guests for being part of our celebration, and included one of our favourite quotes from The Princess Bride, again tying back in with our wedding theme.”

“TA in essence designed a ‘logo’ as the thematic key to tie the whole wedding together, centred on the use of the humorous phrase, “Mawage” from our favourite film The Princess Bride. TA used the logo on everything!”

“Rather than the traditional way of having the bridal table set up out the front of the guest tables, we arranged with Xanadu to have the bridal table set up amongst the other tables. This was fabulous as we didn’t feel like everyone was watching us eat the whole time and it meant everyone was up and mingling between courses.”

“The speeches were all hilarious, and some of the photos perfectly capture the reactions of us and guests to some of the stories being told. There is a great one in there of TA & here sister with their heads in their hands.”

For the first dance, they tell, “Our first dance was to the song “Beyond the sea” the version by Robbie Williams from the Swing When You’re Winning Album; it’s such a lovely upbeat song with a brass band and a whole lot of pizazz. We had a lot of dancing lessons for the first dance as JJ was not a dancer; in the end he was far better than me!”

Anthony Grier from Western Sounds turned the tunes for the night. “Our DJ, Anthony from Western Sounds, did an awesome job of getting (and keeping) everyone on the dance floor. Highly recommended!”

There was one final sweet treat for guests, TA and JJ explaining “We served popsicles from Delish Ice. We wanted something different for dessert, and popsicles can be consumed whilst carving it up on the dance floor! We wanted guests having minimal time sitting at tables, and maximum time up mingling, dancing and having fun. Katie from Delish Ice set up a Popsicle cart and umbrella and served the popsicles herself, it looked amazing! The popsicles were a great alternative, the flavours were really interesting and they were all seriously tasty!”

Congratulations on your marriage TA and JJ! Thanks for sharing your day with us! Thank you also to Merge Photography for sharing today’s wedding with us!