Daylesford Destination Wedding

Jodie & Leigh

This destination Daylesford wedding was an easy choice for Jodie and Leigh who on a weekend trip to the delightful town spotted their venue lit up with lights and great music playing, The owner, seeing them watching from outside, invited them inside for a cocktail and their Melbourne CBD wedding quickly changed to a weekend away for their guests. Shannyn Higgins accompanied them and today, we get to share the story of their wedding!

Jodie tells their story. “Leigh and I met on Australia day eve. I was waiting at the bar of Flannigans Pub, having only been there for 10 minutes after work, waiting to drive a friend home. I sat there for a few minutes drinking water at the bar when I noticed Leigh dancing in the middle of a very crowded dance floor, quite intoxicated I might add, however his blue eyes and dimples seemed to blur this knowledge to some extent.

It turns out I was actually standing next to his friend who noticed me looking at him. He quickly started ‘raving’ about what an awesome guy Leigh was. I was impressed with his ultimate wingman skills yet I remained skeptical. Leigh saw us talking by this stage and staggered over to us. He offered to buy me a drink, not realizing he was spilling most of his over my shoes. We exchanged a few flirty words then he asked for my number. I left shortly after and he called me the following day offering apologies for his state. We spoke for a long time and realized were blown away but how much we had in common and how easy it felt to talk to each other.”

Jodie chose a lace v-neck gown by designer Jane Hill. Her bridesmaids wore their own dresses in shades of brown, taupe and latte.

The couple met before the ceremony for a first look.

The Posy Co created the floral arrangements for the day, adding to the many family and friends who were involved on the day. Jodie tells, “Leigh and I loved that our wedding was able to include so many of our friends and family in the planning process, as it was just our luck my sister was amazing and creative cake maker, our dear friend Shannyn an incredibly creative and unique wedding photographer, our beautiful friend Kristy an extremely talented make up artist and the hairdressers who have first been dear friends (one was my bridesmaid’s sister).

As you can see it was a very personal wedding. Even our beautiful florist Rachel was suggested by my sister who she had made friends with earlier in the year, who also showed unbelievable creativity and passion for her job. It was almost too good to be true that so many people we love could add their unique talents to our special day.”

The couple chose The Convent Gallery for their wedding, Jodie noting, “Leigh and I were away for our 3 year anniversary when we stumbled upon The Convent Gallery. We actually had just finished dinner at a restaurant down the hill in Daylesford, talking over dinner about where will we get married, as we thought we were set on a Melbourne CBD wedding. In fact we already had a tentative booking somewhere (whoops!). After dinner we heard music coming from the top of the hill, so we walked up the street to find the Convent lit up with fairy lights and an amazing band playing on their top terrace.

The owner of the Convent, Tina saw us looking on in their gardens and invited us in for a late night drink in the downstairs bar (separate from their wedding reception area). In was a beautiful balmy night as we sipped on our surprise late night cocktails and sneaking a free listen to an amazing wedding band. That is when we decided that it was the place we were going to get married. From that moment on everything fell into place so easily. Half of my family live in Ballarat, only 30 minutes from Daylesford and half of Leigh’s family lived in the western suburbs of Melbourne, so again not too fair. It seemed the perfect ‘half way’ location for our families and friends to unite.”

Jilly Martino officiated the marriage ceremony.

Of their photographer, Jodie tells, “We wanted images that had a raw feel and captured the true beauty of the surrounding and the love of our relationship. It’s hard to describe, which is why we wanted someone who truly saw photography as an art form, to create shots that gave real meaning. We knew we wanted some thing different, with an edge and Shannyn’s previous work spoke for itself. We still can’t believe how beautiful our shots turned out. Shannyn’s work has simply blown us away. She has told our story, through her passion of artistic expression and left us speechless.”

Of their proposal story, Jodie tells, “Leigh was flying out the next day to begin a job that would last a month. We decided to go out for a nice dinner and stay in town. Leigh said he booked a nice tapas place and all was set. On the way to the unknown tapas place, we passed an amazing restaurant called Vue Du Monde that I used to only dream of going too due to its price range. He stopped suddenly and said surprise, we’re going to have dinner here! It lived up to all our expectations and to top the night off we shared a bubbly out on the observation deck over looking the Melbourne city at night, (and) as the flames of the Crown Tower shot up and warmed our faces from afar, Leigh bent down on one knee…”