Angie & Joel's Wedding At Bells Killcare

Joel and Angie

We met at our friends’ wedding 6 years ago. Angie was a bridesmaid, and Joel was mates with the groom. The groom’s mum set us up! We chose to have our wedding at Bells Killcare on the Central Coast. We wanted our wedding to be all about beautiful food and wine; we had eaten at the restaurant before and the food is incredible, and we love the Hamptons-style look of the venue. We didn’t want to get married in a church, so the stunning landscaped gardens were perfect for our ceremony.

I bought my very simple, classic Lisa Ho dress when I first got engaged. I loved it, I never wanted a really “bridie” dress. Three days before the wedding, my mum was looking in Marry Me in Mosman for a shrug for me….I met her there and saw a dress hanging out on its own. I instantly fell in love with it, and it fit perfectly! It was like it was made for me. I went from not wanting anything too bridie to having this amazing over the top bridal gown! I still loved the Lisa Ho, and I changed in to that during the reception.

I am a control freak and wanted to do everything myself. I planned all the styling and hired everything on my own, but my mum was worried how it would all come together on the day. She convinced me to get a stylist, and she found Anna Dawson from Luxe Events. She was amazing and took all the stress off me on the day. I have no idea what we would have done if she wasn’t there on the day. You just can’t do it all yourself!

You are never going to please everyone, so just do what you want to do! Give kids a specific job so they feel important and take pride in it. We also used presents as ‘bribes’ for good behaviour! That, and a free trip to the lolly bar after the ceremony worked brilliantly.

The pageboys, flowergirls and bridesmaids walked down the aisle to First Day of my Life (Bright Eyes), I walked down the aisle to Annie’s Song by John Denver.

Kym Campbell was a singer from Manly who I found on the net. She was absolutely amazing. She learned about 8 songs that we loved, and was so accommodating and talented. I always wanted acoustic music at the ceremony, and she was perfect, such an amazing voice.

We have 9 nieces and nephews between us – all aged between 2 and 8 years old! We wanted them to be a big part of our day, so we asked them all to be flowergirls and pageboys. We got their outfits from J Crew in America, they all looked so adorable. They each had special jobs – tossing petals, blowing bubbles, carrying rings etc – and they all took it very seriously and were so cute.

Our photographer was our dear friend who generously offered to do our photography as our wedding gift. We are so lucky! He brought his assistant along too for the whole day and night, and he was also a guest at the wedding. They set up an amazing outdoor “photobooth” in the courtyard with a separate camera, which was a big hit with our guests.

For favors, guests received mini bottles of limoncello with name tags. I bought some colourful “love” prints from Etsy, and framed them all in big white frames to hang around the conservatory where we had our reception. I found these cute questionnaires on Etsy instead of a guestbook which I printed on recycled card – guests filled out answers to funny questions about us, and had the chance to offer us advice for a long happy marriage.

I never really wanted to do a traditional first dance, its just not us. We changed our song about 5 times, did dance lessons, and then a few days before decided to scrap it all and go with our very first choice, Islands in the Stream by Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers. We just winged it for a minute and then made our bridal party and guests get on the dance floor with us.