Somerset Dam Wedding - Polka Dot Wedding

Ali & Lachlan

Ali and Lachlan wanted a personal feeling for their Somerset Dam wedding. They chose a friend’s private property to say their vows before they celebrated in the nearby Coronation Hall – making sure it had enough space for them to dance the night away! They chose Samantha Shannon Photography to photograph their wedding.

As for how they met, the story is an age old classic. “Lachlan literally came knocking on Ali’s door, making her the girl next door. The newly weds met through living as next door as neighbours. ” The proposal was not at all girl next door though! Photographer Samantha recounts, “Lachlan had been living and working on Macquarie Island as part of the long-term conservation efforts there (for those whose geography is a little rusty, it’s halfway between New Zealand and Antarctica). It’s a World Heritage site that is renowned for its flora and fauna, including Southern Elephant Seals and King Penguins. It’s also very isolated and Ali and Lachlan were separated for months at a time. So late last year, when Ali came to the island for a visit, Lachlan decided it was time to pop the question. So where did he choose to propose? On a beach full of thousands of penguins! Isn’t that brilliant?!”

Ali chose a gown from Rachel Gilbert, Badgley Mischka shoes and jewels from Samantha Wills and Anna Campbell.

Ali notes, “We didn’t have a wedding party. We decided that we wanted to focus the day on celebrating us and not worry about other friends. We had so many close friends we wanted to still be involved so we gave them special roles for the day. It was really special to just have the two of us standing in front of all of our family and friends.”

There was much work to be done with the bride and groom hand making a lot of the decor items for the day. “We spend a lot of time handcrafting and building a lot of the details for the day. Lachlan spent months building a lot of the furniture and items, it was well and truly worth it! For our ceremony Lachlan built the bench seats for the invitees and the arbour we got married on. We bought an old wheelbarrow which we stripped, painted and stenciled to make it into a drinks cart.”

The bride arrived in an FJ Holden, meeting her groom.

For the processional, Ali tells “We walked down together to Unchained Melody – The Righteous Brothers.”

Ali tells “We had our wedding ceremony at our friends property in Hazeldean (in between Kilcoy and Somerset Village) about an hour and a half outside of Brisbane. We got married looking over the water on a beautiful sunny day.”

Post ceremony, guests celebrated with champagne. “We had a champagne toast on the property and then the guests were bused down to the reception.”

Of their photographer, Ali notes, “We had heard of Samantha after she photographed a friend’s wedding of ours. We had a fantastic time at our wedding capturing the moments and special parts of our day. Samantha did an amazing job! We love all the photos she took, especially the photos from the farm. These are our favourites from the day!”

The couple chose Coronation Hall, Somerset Village for their reception, noting, “The reception was held at Coronation Hall in Somerset Village. It is a big old iron clad hall that used to be a picture theatre. It was big enough to hold 110 guests and have a large dance floor to dance away into the night to the live band (who said it was the best venue they have ever played at!).”

Ali says, “At the reception, we handmade decor details like the candle holders, place cards, and menu cards, MR & MRS signs, menu/bar frames…pretty much everything was created for the day! We had a lot of help from very creative friends who were generous with their time helping with design, materials and putting it all together.”

“We both spoke at out wedding. It was really nice to be able to both speak and express our love on the day. We also had beautiful speeches from our family and friends. Some of the best memories of the day!”

Ali and Lachlan chose Martin Party for their music, noting of their first dance, “We had a friend’s band play at our reception. Our friend Toby in the band sang Coldplay’s Green Eyes. That was the song we danced to, it was really special to have a friend sing to us while we danced. Our family and friends joined us after, and the dance floor went off well into the night.”