Victoria and Paul’s Formal Country Estate Wedding

Victoria and Paul

Victoria and Paul’s formal country estate wedding, captured by Jonathan Ong is so utterly romantic. The couple married outside under the most incredible blooming wisteria tree and danced to the voices of their loved ones. Choosing the one venue meant they could celebrate with guests all day long without moving themselves from spot to spot.

Victoria tells the tale of how they met – which kicked off in  high school! “We met in high school. Paul was two years ahead of me and I remember seeing him once with an art project and thinking “Wow, that guy is super talented; and he’s not even up himself”. Then we skip to 4 years later when he dated my friend for two months – obviously that didn’t work out… but we’re all really good friends now and can laugh about it.”

Victoria and Paul chose Fernhill Estate for their wedding, telling, “Our ceremony and reception was held at a beautiful property, Fernhill Estate. Local to many of our friends and family. The property even shares a little history with Victoria’s father, dating back to the 90’s when he used to chop wood for the previous owners. Fast forward to today – the estate is newly owned and making business through venue and event hiring.

We were actually the first wedding to be held under the new ownership , so we benefited from a great amount of control with the overall use of the property. From location, styling to outsourcing we were able to tailor everything before they could make template packages for couples.”

Harbourside Event Decorators styled the wedding decor.

The morning started off rather early, the bride remembering, “In true bridezilla fashion, I changed makeup artists and hairdresser the week of the wedding. This resulted in my bridesmaids and I having to wake up at 4:00am to get our makeup and hair done. Hopefully you can’t tell in the pictures though – they did a great job at covering up the dark circles under my eyes! After we were done, we all went out to a fantastic breakfast at Henri Marc Cafe where I was treated like a queen. When we got to the venue we still had 5 hours to kill until the wedding (it was only 10:00am) so we watched a few TV shows, a movie (Easy A) and talked about how much I owed my bridesmaids for making them get up before the sun.”

Victoria walked down the aisle to Until We Get There – Lucius.

Victoria tells, “Our garden wedding meant that there was no church to “walk out of” at the end of the ceremony. So instead of making a grand exit, we wanted to finish the ceremony with thanking our family and friends. You can see these moments in all the photos of us hugging our closest family/friends after the ceremony.”

Victoria’s mum came to the rescue with a few minor dress issues! She recalls ,”You may notice that there aren’t that many photos of me getting ready/with my dress. There were some issues with the dress slipping down at the front and showing a little more than I felt comfortable with! Thankfully mum was there with her trusty sewing kit to save the day. She was sewing me into my dress half an hour before the wedding.”

“We have been fans of Melbourne based photographer Jonathan Ong even before we got engaged. His frequently reblogged work was hard to miss. We saw a trend in contemporary reportage wedding photography and many photographers doing it well. Although what drew us to Ong’s photography was his authentic, honest and sincere approach to story telling. From the look on Keith’s face (FOB) when he sees Victoria in her wedding dress to Paul wiping the tear of his face at the alter.”

Victoria explains, ” We had plenty of help from my mum and grandma making the adorable dresses for the flower girls and the delicious wedding cake.”

Their utterly romantic first dance was sung by loved ones. Victoria tells, “It was meant to be outside under the big jacaranda tree featured in many of our photos, but it was pouring down rain by that stage. So we had it in the hall where we had our reception – and it worked out beautifully. My bridesmaid, Eve, her sister and mother, and Paul’s best man/brother, John, did a rendition of Cicadas and Gulls by Feist. It was an amazing 3-part harmony and their voices echoed throughout the hall. Teamed with the ambient lighting, for a minute I wasn’t scared to dance in front of people – because it felt l like it was just Paul and I there.”

Congratulations on your marriage Victoria and Paul! Thank you for sharing your tales with us! Thank you also to Jonathan Ong for sharing today’s gorgeous photographs!