Kate and Nick’s Gum Gully Farm Wedding

Kate & Nick

It’s not often I suppose in the world, where there is a job that makes you cry and you’re happy about it. But that’s honestly what I love about what I do – I get to soak up the joy and love of so many beautiful stories and immerse myself in each and every one. Kate and Nick – what a couple! They married at Gum Gully Farm and there’s a photo of Kate, her face filled with glee after she has put on her wedding dress. That kind of feeling is what I hold onto deep in my heart – how can anyone not fall in love with that? Each joyful moment skillfully captured by Laki Sideris.

Kate and Nick tell their story to kick us off. “We met when we were teenagers at work, we both worked at the checkout department at a local supermarket. We became great friends and stayed in touch, even when we changed work places and moved cities. Then five years after we met we decided it was worth risking our friendship and started dating, we haven’t looked back since.”

Nick and his groomsmen wore handmade bow ties.

Kate wore a gown custom made dress by Concesa, she had her veil made and additional hand applique lace detailing on the gown by friend Lisa Barbar.

Kate remembers, “The bridesmaids walked down the aisle to ‘Feel it all around’ by Washed Out and myself to ‘Anyone else but you’ by The Mouldy Peaches.”

The emotions started early, says Nick. “The biggest highlight for me was waiting for Kate to start walking down the aisle. The song started playing that I knew she would be walking down the aisle to, but Kate didn’t start walking and wasn’t in view. After standing there for a few moments, the excitement and anticipation began to change, just a little, to fear that she might have changed her mind. Fortunately, she soon appeared. Apparently she’d been busy trying to clean up her tears of happiness before coming into view. Her clean-up efforts were in vain, because both of our eyes were filled with tears by the time she reached the end of the aisle anyway.”

Kate and Nick chose Gum Gully Farm for their one stop wedding venue, explaining, “Both our ceremony and reception were at Gum Gully Farm. Gum Gully Farm is a beautiful venue in the Yarra Valley near Mt Dandenong, Victoria. The venue is stunning and has a rustic family feel. It has been built and is run by the Jones family – Sue, Simon, Colin and Kerry – who are all wonderful and kind-hearted people. They went out of their way to make sure our day was perfect and was carried out exactly the way we wanted.”

Of their photographer, Kate and Nick tell, “Laki Sideris is an extremely talented photographer. The images he captured at our wedding were beautiful. These special moments are immortalised perfectly for us to cherish forever. We were so grateful that we were lucky enough to have him shoot our day.”

Kate and Nick remember, “After the ceremony we sort-of lost track of time while thanking and taking photos with friends and family. Before we knew it, we only had 15 minutes before dinner to take photos of just the two of us, up on the hill with the beautiful large tree. It was a little stressful for us (and probably for Laki, our photographer, although he handled it brilliantly) to jam these photos in so quickly. We rushed back to dinner, ate it, and then decided to take a few more photos. This time, Simon (from Gum Gully Farm) took us to meet and feed their deer. Feeding the deer was such a lovely and relaxing experience. It completely calmed us down, after the rush of the ceremony and photos, and allowed us to share a special moment together.”

Kate and Nick wanted to make sure their wedding was full of handmade touches, Kate telling, “We DIYed most of the details. It was important to us that everything was either handmade by us, friends or family.

We made the favors together (handmade Oxford marmalade), the guest book, the advice cards and the bunting. I made the ribbon curtain behind the wedding table myself, along with the lace cones filled with bird seed for post ceremony throwing and table number cards , my dad made the stand for our bunting seating planner, friend Pete made us wooden table number holders, our friends Bec and Phil made us homemade ciders with personalised labels, my sister Elise made bunting and wedding props (including the Polaroid frame). Nick and his friends made the groom and groomsmen’s bow-ties and my bridesmaids Melissa, Mel, Hilary and Elise home baked our desserts for the dessert table the day before the wedding – all arranged on the day by Mel. Lastly our friend Sharon arranged all of our flowers.”

Of their first dance, Kate and Nick tell, “Our first dance was ‘I Adore You’ by Melpo Mene. We didn’t want to be the centre of attention for long, so we asked friends to step in about 20 seconds after the music started. By the end of our first dance we had everyone coupled up and dancing with us.”

The dance floor? It certainly wasn’t empty! Along with the groom, DJs DJ B.O.O.M.A & Djon musters kept the tunes cranking all night long.

Congratulations Kate and Nick! Thank you for sharing your day with us! Thank you also to Laki Sideris for sharing today’s celebration!