Elyshe and Brody

Elyshe and Brody’s rustic barn wedding captured by Merge Photography is not only the love story of two souls, but also of restoring something old, taking it and making it come alive again- which is exactly what they did, not only with their venue but with every piece of decor. The jars, the ladders, the wooden signs- all found on the property and forming part of the wedding.

The couple kick it off with their story. “We met through mutual friends and slowly got to know each other from then on before becoming official in early 2008. ”

Elyshe kicked off the handmade wedding touches with the invitations, remembering, “I designed the invitations and put them together (with the help of family) over a few long nights of tea dying, cutting, scoring, folding, sticking, punching holes, threading cord and tying on buttons. decoration of jars and painted signs as above.”

The bride and bridesmaids chose gowns by Anna Campbell,

Elyshe is a florist (Elyshe Designs) so created the bouquets herself, explaining, “The bases are made from paper bark (again from the area) embellished with tea dyed lace and pearls. The bridesmaid’s flowers all had a different type of flower each; Calla lilies, roses, and tulips and the bride a mixture of all three. The bouquets where all finished with a thread of pearls weaved through the flowers and jute twine and pearls on the stems to bind.”

“The wood for all of the hand painted signs where all remnants of an old shack found on the back of Elyshe’s parent’s property and they were painted by Elyshe and her Mum Rita.”

Elyshe and Brody were married in an old barn next door to Elyshe’s parent’s farm, the couple telling, “Elyshe first spotted the barn when she was Kayaking with her mum on the Australind estuary across the road from the property. Upon viewing the barn and property we found that it was extremely run down and just filled with every bit of junk that you could possibly think of. Despite all of this, for some reason it just felt right to get married there in that barn, in that area. The Leschenault area is a very special area to us. It was under a big fig tree nearby where Brody proposed.”

The couple found the decorations on the property- using old jars and ladders they found while cleaning out the barn. “We wanted the wedding to really reflect us and tried to incorporate this area in to the themeing as it held so many fond memories. A lot of the old jars used for the decorations were found buried on my parent’s property we decorated them all individually and all slightly different using lace, jute twine, ribbons, cord, wool and hessian.”

 

Elyse remembers of her walk down the aisle. “I walked down the aisle to “Be My Husband’ by Lisa Hannigan and Damien Rice (a cover of Nina Simmone’s Be My Husband). This song was edited by my dad and I with Brett walking in to the lyric “be my husband.”

“The backdrop at the ceremony was designed by Elyshe and Rita (Mum). On top of the flowing material we had water vials on twine which where all individually wrapped to match the jars (thanks to Elyshe’s mum spending many tedious nights decorating them). A couple of Elyshe’s floristry friends then slipped the fresh flowers into the water filled vials the day before the wedding.”

Of their photographers. Elyshe says, “We loved how easy going the Jodie and Karolina were. There attention to detail throughout the whole process was amazing. They made Elyshe feel at ease leading up to the ceremony and were just so great to deal with. We are so happy with the photos!”

Elyshe and Brody made jars of fig jam as gifts for their guests. The figs used to create the jam were picked from the same tree that Brody proposed to Elyshe under. The bride’s sister made the couple’s wedding cake.

Of their first dance, Elyshe remembers, “It was to Settle Down by City and Colour. An acoustic Triple J like a version cover of Kimbra’s “Settle Down” by Dallas Green, who turns it into a simple love song. It was a modern waltz with a bit of our own choreography!”

Congratulations on your marriage Elyshe and Brody! Thank you for sharing your day with us! Thank you Merge Photography for sharing your photographs with us!