Jade & Scott

Jade and Scott went all out for their country hall wedding and the results are nothing short of spectacular – amazing Australian native arrangements, refurbished chairs, disco balls and plenty of dancing. I love every part of today’s handmade country hall wedding captured by Richard Grainger Photography.

The couple kick it off with their story “We met at Easterfeat, a music festival in Toowoomba, through mutual friends. We connected again two years later when Jade started going to the church Scott attended.”

The handmade elements of the day kicked off with the floral arrangements, Jade explaining, “My mother and I made all the bouquets, button holes and decorative bunches of flowers. We used Australian native flowers because they are tough and I love the rustic beauty they add. We purchased them wholesale at the flower markets and arranged them together in my living room a few days before the wedding.

One special detail was the gifts I gave my bridesmaids, mother and mother-in-law. I gave them bright floral robes to wear on the morning of the wedding. It made us all feel very girly getting ready. I bought the robes off Etsy.”

Maid of honour Anna styled the bridal party’s hair and makeup, Jade remembering, “It was very special to me to spend the morning with my bridesmaids. I wasn’t stressed at all. My maid of honour, Anna is a hair and makeup artist. She was in charge of getting us all ready on the morning. She was so wonderful. She kept the stress off me and I had the most relaxed morning ever! I have so much appreciation and love for her for everything she did over the year that I was planning the wedding.”

Jade chose a gown by Eileen Kirby. She wore a birdcage veil from Kouture.

The couple held their ceremony and reception at sweet country hall – Montville Village Hall. Jade explaining, “We had the ceremony and reception at the Montville Village Hall. It was a perfect blank canvas for the style of wedding we had. We were looking for somewhere that had room for a little outdoor entertainment as well as inside. The hall is well maintained but has a vintage feel to it.”

The hall decor was created by the couple and their families, Jade explaining, “We painted jars and tins collected by family members, made rustic fabric bunting, chalk boards from old photo frames and collected blankets and cushions from thrift shops.”

“Practically everything was DIY. Wherever possible, I made sure that if something could be done by me, I would take the opportunity to do so. This definitely helped to cut the cost back, and make each part of our wedding, one of a kind.  Scott and I sewed about 70 chair covers from vintage fabric found at thrift shops.”

Scott’s mother made the three tier blue wedding cake.

Jade walked down the aisle to ” ‘Everything’ by Lifehouse, performed by our talented friends, Julie and Josh.”

” A funny moment was when we had gotten onto the stage at the ceremony, I had walked down the aisle, Scott turned to his groomsmen and gave them all low fives. It added a funny edge to an otherwise serious tradition.”

“We were married by the Pastor of our church, Lex Akers. Lex is a close friend and mentor to us both and it was very meaningful to have him perform the ceremony.”

“Aside for actually getting married, the best thing for both of us was having all the people who matter the most to us, all in one place joining us in celebrating. We were overwhelmed by the love and support We were shown by our family and friends. We hear a lot of people say that they have a heap of “obligatory invitations” sent to people who they don’t really want at their wedding, but we didn’t feel like this at all. Everyone at our wedding was there because they are valuable to us in an amazing way. It was a wonderful feeling.”

Jade’s bridesmaids wore frocks from Cue.

Of their photographer, Jade remarks, “Richie is full of surprises. Good surprises. He thinks about things and looks at things in a way that I wouldn’t think of. He is very much about “capturing the moment” rather than posing people for photos. There is no “say cheese” involved with Richie’s photos, he will catch you smiling at a particular moment of joy. I loved that. I hate corny stuff and so does he. He was there from start to finish. He didn’t want to miss a moment of the day. You can tell he has a passion for what he does it shows on the day and in the photos he takes.”

The hall was flipped to become the reception space, Jade saying, “I made the invitations, favour packaging and programs myself and punched thousands of pieces of confetti by hand. We even took it upon ourselves to restore 11 old dining chairs and they became a wonderful feature because of their bright colors scattered around the hall.”

“We used At Your Service Gourmet Catering to provide the dinner for the night. They were good. The oven at the hall wouldn’t light to begin with so they were pressed for time getting food out, but I wouldn’t have known if I hadn’t been told. They did a good job and were a joy to plan with before the big day.”

“The sound and lighting was done by Ash at Brisbane Concert Lighting. Wonderful job done by them. We also had Anthony Kenny of Anthony Kenny Photography taking photos in our photobooth. We were very pleased with the photos and he really got people getting crazy I front of the camera. Well done! ”

For their first dance, Jade remembers, “We danced to “Sweet baby” by Macy Gray. We chose this song because we developed a strange love for Macy Gray while we were dating. We have fond memories of dancing to this song in the kitchen at Scott’s parents house.”

“After the ceremony, the hall had to be switched around to be seating for the reception. We had asked a few people to help do this while we were away having location photos. We were told later that more people than were needed stayed to help. The same happened at the end of the night packing up. This really filled us with joy that so many of our friends wanted to help make the load lighter on the few people who were asked. This was very special to us because it made us feel so loved by our friends and family.”

Congratulations Jade and Scott. Thank you for sharing your wedding with us! Thank you to Richard Grainger Photography for sharing today’s beautiful images!