Jayne and Zeke’s Relaxed Farm Wedding

Jayne & Zeke

There is nothing more jealousy inducing than a family farm wedding. The place that you ran around as children, the place where you spend long weekends, escape to the country, becomes the place you say the most important vows of your life, celebrate with your most important people and make a page in your personal history books. Jayne and Zeke celebrated on Jayne’s parent’s farm with a beautiful celebration that paid homage to the stunning country setting. Luke Lornie Photography was there to capture the farm festivities.

Jayne delves into the tale of how they came to be. “We met whilst both working on a site in central Queensland. Since then we have moved around to Brisbane and Perth, and we now find ourselves back in central Queensland where it all began!”

Jayne chose a gown by Loui Col Designs.

It was just Jayne and Zeke on the day – no bridesmaids, no groomsmen! Jayne remarks, “We decided not to have a wedding party. We don’t regret this decision, as it meant that we could keep the day about ‘us’ and also let our close friends enjoy themselves without having to worry about being a groomsman and bridesmaid. Although, my brother and Mum could probably have done with an extra set of hands in getting my dress done up!”

Jayne remembers, “The ceremony and reception were both held at the my parent’s property. We would have not chosen anywhere else to get married, the farm was a perfect setting and means a lot to us both.”

Jayne walked down the aisle to Sweet Thing by Van Morrison, remarking, “This is the only detail of a wedding that I had pre-planned before actually getting engaged. When I saw that Zeke had ‘Sweet Thing’ on his ipod early on in our relationship, I knew he was the right guy!”

Jayne loved, “Walking down the aisle with my Dad, who wore our family tartan kilt, was one of the most special moments of our wedding day. The smile on my groom Zeke’s face and our dog Cheech looking up at me as I walked towards them is something that I will always remember.”

“We wanted our wedding to be relaxed and for the farm scenery to be the ‘wow’ factor. Therefore we did not have too much decoration at our ceremony, just the pews which he hired from the local hall and some beautiful floral arrangements in milk tins to highlight where we were saying our ‘I do’s’.”

There was a very special attendee at the day, Jayne tells, ” We flew our rescue dog Cheech over from Perth with us to be our ring bearer on the day. 4 months before the wedding, Cheech was diagnosed with cancer and given 2 weeks to live – we had very little hope that he would ever make it to our wedding, however he held out to fulfill his duties and be a part of our day. Sadly he passed away a week after, and he now rests peacefully under our wedding tree which we planted.”

Bobbi Wolffenbuttel performed the ceremony, Jayne noting, “Before starting the wedding planning process, I had an opinion of celebrants, that they were judgmental and would make us say things during our ceremony that didn’t sound like us at all. My opinion changed when we met Bobbi, who has such a great personality and was open to any ideas we had about our ceremony. She made us feel comfortable throughout the whole thing, and helped us to get our thoughts out into something that sounded like it came from us and not from Google!”

One of the best parts about marrying on a family property is the ability to leave lasting mementos – like a tree! Jayne remembers “After our ceremony we planted a tree, as a constant reminder of our wedding day and to hopefully share with our great grand kids one day!”

Of their photographer, Jayne tells, “We found our photographer Luke after our original choice of photographer pulled out fairly close to our wedding date. Luckily Luke was still available on our wedding date, and as it turns out he was a much better choice for us. Luke and his assistant were fantastic on the day – taking photos from the getting ready stage all the way up until we left the reception. A mammoth effort!

We loved having them at our reception to take photos of everyone letting loose and having fun on the dance floor. Luke and his assistant made us feel so relaxed when it came to our professional photos – the whole experience was actually really fun and did not feel embarrassing or forced at all.”

“Of course having a farm wedding, we wanted our professional photos to be taken outside in the paddocks. As soon as I got out of the car, I was attacked by grasshoppers and we spent most of our time between photos trying to get them out of the layers of tulle in my dress. Luke our photographer assured me that he could photoshop them out of the photos, so from then we decided to let the grasshoppers hang out in the tulle if that’s where they wanted to be!”

Of course a tractor was used to transport the bride and groom to their reception and awaiting guests!

The Creative Type planned and created the wedding concept with  Etc Event Styling working on the day to execute the vision and Pollen & Patina? Well they created the most incredible floral arrangements! Jayne remembers, “After enjoying cocktails and canapes at the ceremony location, our guests entered our reception which was held in a clear marquee in a paddock (carefully cleared of cow poop!) Pollen & Patina (florists) did such a great job in decorating our marquee, bringing the outside in with our hanging branches, flower chandelier and table arrangements.”

Guests were welcomed by a unique seating chart! Jayne tells, “Being known as crazy dog people, we decided to name our tables after all the foster dogs we’d looked after over the years (well our favourite ones). So upon entering, guests had to find which dog’s table they were sitting at, and we had a photo of each dog to identify their table in the marquee.”

Jayne and Zeke has a clear vision for their day and nothing stopped them! Jayne telling, “Having a farm wedding, there were a lot of details that we had to make ourselves – mainly because it was so hard to find suppliers in an area that is not that close to a capital city. We really wanted wooden tables, as I thought they would be more farm/rustic looking than just plain tables with a white table cloth. We looked high and low for wooden tables, and were going to have to get them sent up from Melbourne, until my Dad and Zeke stepped in and made all the tables themselves!” Guests received locally made gourmet sauces for the favors with name tags tied to white dogs.

The handmade details continued to the napkins! Jayne remembering, “I had my Mum sew 90 gingham napkins for all our guests as well as sew together a heap of doilies to make table runners. Our whole family got involved with making things and putting things together on the day, which turned it into a bit of fun. Now does anyone know what to do with all these napkins and tables!?”

Having planners and stylists helped Jayne take what was in her head and turn it into a wedding, noting, “Caroline from The Creative Type was a great help in putting all our ideas and pins on Pinterest together to make something that looked like it was meant to be. Without her I would still be trying to figure out how I can fit every single idea and detail into one wedding day! Etc Event Styling who helped us set up on the day. They were so efficient and before we knew it all the ‘little things’ had been set up, table names taken care of and everything in place – without us having to worry about too much the morning of.”

Jacqui’s Catering served up the wedding feast, Jayne noting, “Guests were served food on share plates scattered around the long tables. We wanted everything to be relaxed and simple, and we thought share plates would help capture this vibe.”

Jemma- Louise Cakes  created a dessert buffet and wedding cake for guests to enjoy, Jayne remembering, “We had a dessert table supplied by Jemma-Louise cakes, and a Krispy Kreme donut tower, which had long been a tacky dream of mine that I was insistent on having!”

The first dance was much rehearsed, with the bride making a costume change! “Although no one would know it looking at our dance, we actually attended A LOT of dance lessons. We are both hopeless dancers – so really needed someone to help us learn a few moves. We danced to ‘Horses’ by Daryl Braithwaite – the crowd got so into it that we had to keep them off the dance floor so that we could finish all our dance moves that we had tried so hard to remember! We are both not the type of people that like too much attention, however our first dance in front of everyone was definitely a highlight for us and a bit of a laugh for everyone else!” DJ Bruce Harrison kept the guests on the dance floor long after.

The rain came tumbling down leaving guests barefoot, Jayne remembering, “We were so lucky to have perfect weather for the ceremony and then once everyone entered the reception marquee the skies opened up and we had a storm for the rest of the night! At that stage we didn’t care, and it made for a more authentic farm experience when our guests had to trample through mud at the end of the night to get to our buses! “

Congratulations Jayne and Zeke! Thank you for sharing your fay with us! Thank you also to Luke Lornie Photography for sharing today’s wedding with us!