Danielle and Marc

Perhaps it was the cold afternoon I spent writing up today’s wedding, but the purely personal details had me somewhat teary. There was no fuss for Danielle and Marc, they chose elements of a wedding they loved and they went with it. The bride wore a soft pink knee length gown, the couple’s dog attended, they used an instagram hashtag so absent guests could join in and well, it was intimate, beautiful and everything I love about a wedding.

Johanna Macdonald captured the beautiful moments of today’s wedding in such a graceful way.

Danielle chose a gown from Alannah Hill My beautiful life clip with shoes from Modcloth for her wedding day look.

For her walk down the aisle, Danielle chose Bright Eyes – First Day Of My Life.

“A lot of our friends and family live overseas and were unable to make it, so we set up an instagram hashtag for people to use during the day – everyone could see in “real time” what was happening and join in celebrating with us. We released 5 balloons as part of our ceremony to remember some special family members that have passed away, and I think that was the most emotional part of the ceremony.”

“Our dog Rosie is a sweetheart, and we wanted her to be included…. She (briefly) wore a tutu for the ceremony, and then followed us around the farm as we had our photos taken with Jo. She ended up in all of our favourite photos!”

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Danielle and Marc were able to use a friend’s farm for their wedding. “We were excited to be able to use the farm as the venue for our wedding, as it is such a gorgeous outdoor setting, and it was important to us to have the ceremony and reception in the same place. Marc is a chef, and the farm is where a lot of produce is grown for his restaurant kitchen. Food and wine were a big focus of the day, we decided early on that we did not want to spend a lot of money (having just purchased our first house last year) but we would splurge on good food, local beer, wine and the best champagne. We drank wine which was produced from this vineyard, and food was prepared by the chefs using produce from the greenhouse and orchards.

We intended to have an outdoor garden party, but it ended up raining that afternoon so the tables were set up inside instead. The upside was that the sun came out as we were having our photos taken, and the gardens sparkled, which was quite magical.”

“My bouquet was tied with ribbon and a beautiful vintage brooch which belonged to my beloved great grandmother, who I was very close to.”

“The flowers were all picked from the gardens at the farm, we used hydrangeas in the table settings in big glass jars and my best friends helped to put together the bouquets while we were getting ready in the afternoon before the ceremony. Our save the dates, invitations, and other paper goods were designed by my gorgeous friend Lisa (Custom Crafted)- who lives on the other side of the world in the USA.”

“The most special thing to us, was how much time, effort, and expertise was offered by our friends and family in order to make the day happen. From being offered the farm as a venue, to people who created the invitations, decorated the garden, set tables, picked flowers for the bouquets, prepared the meal, poured the champagne… Marc’s parents travelled all the way to NZ from the Isle of Man, and my family from Queensland, Australia. We feel truly blessed to have the love and support of all these people.”

“We had planned to forgo a lot of the regular wedding traditions, so our first dance was spur of the moment (insisted upon by our family and friends) and extremely unrehearsed. We danced to “All You Need Is Love” by The Beatles.”

Johanna Macdonald, thank you for sharing today’s images! Congratulations on your marriage and thank you also to Danielle and Marc for sharing your day with us!