Samantha and Stephen’s Elegant Autumn Wedding

Samantha & Stephen

Well folks, it’s officially Autumn and one of my favourite seasons of the year. So with that delightful thought in mind – Samantha and Stephen’s elegant Autumn wedding seemed just the ticket to share with you this Autumn day with it’s hues of deep raisin red, orange and saffron yellow. Instead of walking into a Winterland, this one is an Autumnal feast of colour and texture captured by Cavanagh Photography.

The event was designed by Form Over Function who drew inspiration from the invitation suite designed by Alannah Rose Stationery Boutique. Alicia of Form Over Function notes, “We custom made table runners that matched the stationery Samantha had selected before booking us, exactly; and as you can tell, given a brief purely to run with autumnal colours, we poured a lot of love into the flowers, proof of what is possible when a client trusts us to choose what goes into a bouquet!”

Missy Jacobs Millinery created a custom hairpiece for Samantha, who tells, “I chose not to wear a veil and instead had a custom headpiece made. It was inspired by the headpiece my Mum wore on her wedding day. Missy Jacobs made a beautiful piece with three silk flowers, the flower centres were filled with pearls and diamantes to correspond with my sash, and the netting was a fine aubergine colour, corresponding to the autumnal colours of the flowers and my bridesmaids dresses.”

Samantha chose a strapless gown by Rosa Clara, her bridesmaids in deep burgundy dresses from Cue.

Form Over Function styled the flowers for the day, Samantha telling ” The flowers, wow! I was so happy to meet Alicia from Form Over Function. My brief to her was to create a beautiful, rich, bright, autumnal feel. She absolutely nailed it…. I loved all of our bouquets, the boys’ button holes and the amazing arrangements at the church and reception. The colours were exactly what I had envisioned. When an unusually hot and humid day was forecast for the wedding Alicia had the foresight to change some of the roses to ensure they would remain beautiful throughout the day.”

The couple chose to marry at St Mary’s Church, North Sydney. Samantha explains, “Our ceremony was held at St Mary’s Church in North Sydney. It is quite a large church but it still manages to feel warm and inviting. And being such a big church there is a long aisle to walk down and soak up that special moment!”

Samantha tells, “Although I missed this moment (I was standing outside the church about to walk up the aisle) our gorgeous little page boy, Kevin, and flower girl, Saoirse, experienced some performance anxiety and turned around before they made it up the aisle! A beautiful moment that made all our guests smile.”

Samantha remembers, “I chose to have both my Mum and Dad walk me up the aisle. A very special moment for all of us. When Steve and I met at the altar he just looked at me and said “Wow”. I just loved that.”

Samantha tells, “The only thing we did ourselves were the ceremony programs. A long night was spent with one of my bridesmaids hole punching and tying ribbons.”

Of their photographer choice, Samantha explains, “After doing quite a bit of research we decided to meet with Adam and Kim Cavanagh of Cavanagh Photography. They came to our house so we could meet and we all just clicked. It was very important to us that we had a good relationship with our photographer as they would be with us all day. Adam did a fantastic job of recording our day with his amazing pictures.”

The couple chose waterside venue Zest at the Spit for their reception. Samantha remembering, “As guests entered the reception we chose to have a teppanyaki barbeque out on the deck at Zest. A slightly different detail to the normal canapes on arrival – the food was delicious!

Our main criteria for the reception venue was that it should have water views. After viewing several venues, some seemed too small and uptight, and others too big and impersonal, so we were lucky enough to find one that was just right! Zest at the Spit ticked all the boxes for us. It was a short journey from our ceremony venue, it had beautiful water views over Seaforth and Clontarf, the food looked amazing and the event manager, Laura, was easy going and very flexible. All the staff were absolutely amazing and I honestly couldn’t fault a thing. The food was phenomenal and many of the guests commented on this after the wedding.”

Form Over Function carried the Autumn hues through to the reception styling, Samantha tells, “Along with all the flowers Alicia styled the reception room with beautiful rich hued table runners and plenty of candles. Everything came together beautifully from the flowers in the stairwell to the arrangements on all the guests tables. No detail was too small and I felt that Alicia cared about the day as much as we did. She even wrapped the table arrangements at the end of the night for guests to take home! Such a great idea. I have recommended Alicia to several people as I was so impressed with the level of service she provided and her ability to “make pretty” as she would say!”

A top a cake made by  Sweet Connoisseur sat a custom cake topper made by mudcards. Samantha explains, “One of our favourite details was the cake topper I had made. We have two gorgeous dogs who are a huge part of our life and it just didn’t seem right that they weren’t involved in our big day, so we had a special cake topper made of them standing with us.”

“The speeches were absolutely amazing! They were all incredibly heartfelt and so special. My beautiful maid of honour, Jackie, did a particularly memorable speech – what a blessing to have such wonderful friends!”

“Steve’s family traveled all the way from Ireland to share our special day. A big journey for 8 adults, 5 kids and a baby! It was the first time in over 6 years that they have all been together which was very special for them. The kids are all very vivacious and two of my favourite moments at the reception were their impromptu performances of a self written parody by Steve’s nephew Odhran and a beautiful rendition of “Little Talks” by Monsters and Men by Steve’s gorgeous niece Caoimhe.”

Of their first dance, Samantha tells, “We chose a Coldplay song for our first dance “Green Eyes”. We actually had lessons at Crows Nest Dance Centre for a few weeks. Our teacher choreographed a short dance for us and managed to teach two ballroom novices how to dance! It ended up being something really nice for us to do together in the lead up to the wedding – we both loved it!”

Impression DJs and their tune mixing was a highlight for the bride and groom who remember, “When planning our wedding I always kept our guests in mind – I wanted them to enjoy the day just as much as we did. It filled me with joy to see so many smiling faces at the reception. On the RSVP cards I included a space for guests to request a song for the reception. People got so excited when the DJ from Impression DJs played their request! ”

Congratulations on your marriage Samantha and Stephen! Thank you for sharing your day with us! Thank you also to Cavanagh Photography and Form Over Function for sharing today’s wedding with us.