Carina and Nick’s White Tie Teepee Country Wedding

Carina & Nick

I love a country wedding. I love dressing up and I love dancing amongst the sparkling chandeliers – so it makes sense that the beautiful white tie teepee county wedding of Carina and Nick captured by Matt Teague of Feather & Birch Wedding Co  is right up my alley and I sense it just might be your kind of love too!

The newlyweds tell the tale of how they met. “It was 4:00 am, eight years ago that the pair had their first encounter on the sandstone steps at Sydney Uni. Carina was diligently returning from the pub for hockey training and Nick was marking the team role. Being the coach of the Carina’s hockey team, Nick was discreet in his immediate affections for her and it’s fair to say that Carina spent less time on the bench than was probably deserved. Carina then flew to Chile to live for a year and the couple skyped until their hearts hurt.”

The groom and groomsmen wore tails from Peppers, Double Bay.

Despite the blistering hot day, the bride chose a long sleeve gown made by Ziolkowski Evening and Bridal. Her bridesmaids choosing different Rachel Gilbert gowns. Carina and Nick both accessorised with family heirlooms, the bride noting, “We don’t have any grandparents alive anymore and we wanted to subtly include them. Nick wore a set of cufflinks that I gave him as a wedding present that were my maternal grandfathers. I had my paternal grandfather’s cufflinks made into earrings which I wore. Nick gave me as a wedding present his grandmother’s sapphire ring which I wore too.”

A little white church – St Aidens Anglican Church, Blackville was chosen for the ceremony, Carina notes, “We both live in the city but are partial to wide open spaces, starlit night skies and natural white noise. We chose the tiny white wooden church at Blackville, NSW where I was christened, for our ceremony.”

Carina walked down the aisle to Wedding March by Felix Mendelssohn.

Of their photographer, Carina notes, “Matt was my house mate back when I was still studying he he was starting out. We became good mates and have worked together with some wedding clients of his who were looking for design services. He was the first photographer I approached to shoot our wedding and even though he had to travel six hours to our wedding on his birthday he still accepted the job. We absolutely love his work and watching his business grow.”

“The coach that transported all our guests from local towns to the service and then to the reception got stuck in a deep (thankfully empty) creek 200mtrs from the reception. My dad in his white tie tails had to pull the coach out with his tractor while about 15 other farmers shouted advice from the creek banks.”

Carina and Nick held their reception at Carina’s family farm, the bride explaining, “We managed to create our dream venue in the middle of no where on my family’s farm. We danced until 4am. It was so hot and we were all so inappropriately dressed (I had sleeves and Nick wore tails!), as much as we wiped our brows we couldn’t wipe the smiles from our faces. All our family was involved. The speeches were great.”

“The beauty about a farm wedding is that there’s no curfew and you’ll never have a noise complaint or gate crashers. We hired three giant teepees from Katalane which sat in the middle of a paddock, magically surrounded by open space, a cobble stone creek bed and blue green mountain ranges of the Coolah Tops.”

She Designs styled the reception, working off the couple’s desire for a white tie country celebration with shimmering lights, greenery and plenty of magic. STEM The Art Of Flowers – Camilla Wylie  created the greenery garlands in the teepee as well as all the floral arrangements for the day.

A custom made chopping board from Eco Chopping Boards guided guests to their chairs. A cake by the bride’s mother sat atop a wrought iron table.

Carina notes, “We did loads! The whole venue was practically DIY and at first it was very confronting because we even had to carve our own steps down to the tepees to get across the creek. However we drew up a plan, delegated the jobs that we could do between family and friends and hired the right people to make some magic happen.” Relish Catering catered a delicious dinner worthy of its teepee venue.

Of their first dance, Carina says ,”I will never ever forget it. We refused dancing lessons and I was a little dubious about our skills so the night before the wedding we secretly went down to the tepees after setting up and practiced, humming the tune together for music. The following night, while we were on the dance floor with what felt like 1000 eyes watching us, all I could see was us in our work clothes alone happily swirling alone.”

To top off a spectacular day, Light Noise Films created this movie of the day.

Congratulations Carina and Nick! Thank you for sharing all of the details of your day with us! Thank you also to Matt Teague of Feather & Birch Wedding Co for sharing today’s wedding!