Annalouise & Adam’s Weekend Homestead Wedding

Annalouise & Adam

I love the idea of a wedding that spans the entire weekend. Annalouise and Adam chose a weekend homestead wedding for their big day. They started with a Friday night cocktail party, serving up Adam’s favourite gin & tonics, raspberry spritzers and Tasmanian Sparkling wine and continued with a Saturday afternoon garden party, the wedding ceremony, intimate sit down reception and ending with a winery tour around Tasmania’s gorgeous Tamar Valley before guests made their way home. They chose Lisa Pearl Photography to photograph their special day.

On how they met, Annalouise tells, “We met through a charity where I (Annalouise) worked and where Adam volunteered to raise money. I knew someone so committed to helping others in need was someone I wanted to be around. We decided on our first official date that we were going to get married and live happily ever after. We were right.”

Annalouise tells, “We wanted an adult version of Alice in Wonderland’s tea party. We started the weekend with a welcome cocktail party on the Friday night. Glorious canapés were served with Gin & Tonic’s (Adam’s drink of choice), Blackberry spritzers and Joseph Chromy Sparking for the Tamar Valley. We wanted everyone to get to know one another (if they had not already met, we had both interstate and international guests) before Saturday so we would keep the feel very relaxed.”

The couple chose Red Feather Inn  for their weekend of fun, explaining, “We spend so much time in Tasmania (it’s our favorite place in the world) that we knew that’s where we wanted to be married. We had stayed at the Red Feather Inn once before could not think of a more perfect venue for our big weekend. It is the most gorgeous French Provincial style old homestead just outside Launceston. With a barn, stables, formal and informal gardens we knew we could pull something really special off here. Lydia who owns the the Inn said to me “what ever you want to do, we can do it. The place is yours for the weekend, go wild”. She is my kind of lady!

There was also the major bonus of having most of our guests stay on site in the main house and the adjoining cottages (Murphetts Cottage and The Watch House). As we only had a 28 person wedding this was perfect. Everything everyone needed was right there.”

EmilyRose Hair & Beauty styled the bride’s and female guests’ hair and makeup, the bride noting, “They traveled to me and looked after all the female guests as well as making me feel my most beautiful.”

The bride tells, “We decided that as everyone was on site, we would host an afternoon tea party, with games such as badminton, boules, croquet etc set up, to entertain everyone on Saturday afternoon pre our wedding ceremony. Adam was meant to be hosting as I was getting ready, however I didn’t want to miss all the fun so surprised everyone by attending in what turned out to be the first of my three dresses (by Justin Alexander ) on the day. I only stayed for an hour and then went back inside to finish getting ready and change.”

Annalouise chose a gown by La Sposa for the marriage ceremony, remembering, “At 4pm I was itching to go, I could hardly wait to get down the aisle. Adam and I decided on no bridesmaids or groomsmen etc so Adam got ready with his dad and his dad’s long term partner and I was assisted by my friend come wedding coordinator for the weekend, Shafei.”

Annalouise walked down the aisle to Elle Goulding’s “How Long Will I Love You”. She notes, “My mum and dad both walked me down the aisle.”

“It was a glorious sunny day in Launceston, perfect weather actually, and we had provided hand made paper fans for the female guests, they looked gorgeous on the white chairs under the amazing tree we were married under.”

The couple’s own take on a traditional hand fasting ceremony was one of their favourite parts of the day. Annalouise explains, “Our ceremony was conducted by a Brisbane based very good friend of ours (Nonie Alyling) and it was everything we wanted it to be. Adam and I both come from Celtic backgrounds (I was born in Northern Ireland and Adam’s father is Scottish) so we wanted to incorporate that into our day. We decided on our version of a Celtic hand binding ceremony, however rather than the celebrant saying the blessing we had prepared a card with a wish and a coloured ribbon for each of our guests and asked them to bless us. We ended up with the most incredible coloured knot of love. We have kept this and are having it framed.”

“After the ceremony we had cocktails and canapes in the garden with our loved ones before heading off for our photographs.”

Of their photographer, Annalouise says, “I had worked with Lisa for a few years at the Charity I mentioned above and always stayed in touch. After she left to pursue her dream of photography I followed her work and when Adam and I got engaged in March 2014 I contacted her immediately. Her style is incredible and her personality just shines through in everything she does. We wanted a relaxed, non-wedding style of photo and she nailed it.”

Cachet Florist created the floral arrangements for the day, the bride remarking, “I wasn’t sure I wanted to carry flowers but in the end they were divine.”

Guests headed inside the Inn for a decadent dinner, the bride telling, “We returned to be ushered into our reception to the tune of “You are the sunshine of my life” by Stevie Wonder. Anyone who knows me that I have called Adam my sunshine since we met. He is exactly that.”

After dinner, the bride had one more gown change – this time into a mushroom pink gown by Elie Saab. She remembers, “I gave a welcome speech as soon as we were seated and then ducked off under the ruse of using the facilities to change into my Reception dress. It was quite a surprise for everyone.”

“We didn’t have a first dance or any dance for that matter. We wanted our wedding to be all about the food and drink. Tasmania has the most incredible produce and we wanted that to shine, so we had a 5 hour, 5 course, with matched wine degustation dinner  (catered by Red Feather Inn) party. NO dancing, no huge cake (just individual ones) and no speeches other than Adam and I.”

“The only pre weekend items we outsourced were our invitations. With a three day, destination wedding there was a lot to go into these so we used Pure Invites. Arlene was incredible. I created all the guest bags which included a bottle of Joseph Chromy wine, some starbursts, mints, chips, water, lemonade, Panadol, tissues and a copy of the weekend itinerary. I also sourced and individually wrapped each guest gift, the vintage books we used as props and hand cut all the coloured ribbons for the hand binding ceremony.” The male guests each received a pair of The Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland cufflinks , the female guests a copy of The Adventures Of Alice In Wonderland as well as the glass cloche dessert was served in as their wedding favors.

“We had decided very early on we wanted an “un-plugged wedding” We wanted everyone to be fully present with us for the weekend and experience the love not through a camera lenses or phone so we banned both. We did realise however that everyone loves a selfie so set up a selfie corner in the garden, complete with vintage frame and vintage inspired disposable cameras. They were a huge hit and provided us some hilarious candid shots of the following few hours.”

The icing on the cake (literally) were sweet pink cakes created by Tamar Valley Cake Studio , Annalouise telling, “Five  hours later, stuffed after a magnificent degustation we brought out the individual wedding cakes along with individual bottles of Pepik Sparking Rose. Each of these had an eat me and drink me tag, just like in Alice in Wonderland.”

“Adam was offered a job in the Middle East and we spent 6 moths of our 8 month engagement living on opposite sides of the world. We were only reunited 5 days before our wedding, so just being together was wonderful.”

“We ended the night with lots of crazy selfies and a final farewell to Happy by Pharrell Williams. The next morning we greeted our guests in the Red Feather Cooking School for a recovery breakfast before bussing everyone for a full day Tamar Valley winery tour. I think we all needed more Tassie wine.”

Congratulations Annalouise and Adam! Thank you for sharing your wedding day with us! Thank you also to Lisa Pearl Photography for sharing today’s wedding with us!