Stables At Stones of The Yarra Valley Wedding

Vanessa & Hamish

There is a beautiful elegance about today’s Stables at Stones Of The Yarra Valley wedding. Vineyards always cast an elegant feel to a wedding day, but this celebration, captured by Jonathan Ong, pulls together a sense of occasion with a sense of warmth, love and a wonderful love story to tell.

Vanessa and Hamish tell the story of how they met. “We met through mutual friends and workmates. Our first date was at a cafe (as it was closing) and the small talk was pretty excruciating. Fortunately, the nerves wore off, and we gave it a second chance. The rest is history!”

Vanessa chose a wedding gown by designer Leanne Marshall, noting, “After being a bit underwhelmed by the in-store dress shopping experience in Sydney and Melbourne, I purchased my dress online from designer Leanne Marshall – winner of Season 5 Project Runway.”

Avital from Cherrybomb styled the bride’s hair while Melonie Santos styled her makeup.

The couple chose to meet before the ceremony, captured by their photographer, of whom they note, “We’d long admired Jon Ong’s work and he was always our first preference for photographer. We’d seen many weddings he’d shot at Stones and knew his style and eye was exactly how we wanted to document our big day. He was a fantastic creative presence to have around – professional, friendly, calm and discreet, and the photos he produced perfectly capture the joy of the day.”

Vanessa and Hamish were married at Stones Of The Yarra Valley, explaining, “We always wanted a wedding in a location special to us outside of the city. We looked a few venues in the Yarra Valley but knew as soon as we pulled into the driveway to Stones that we’d found our location. It was the complete package for us – stunning grounds, fantastic food and an impeccable events team who made the planning and execution just flawless.”

For the processional, Hamish remembers, “A live string quartet (Kendall String Quartet) played ‘Canon in D’ as Vanessa walked down the aisle. We opted for a few modern music choices throughout the ceremony (Can’t Help Falling in Love – Elvis, God Only Knows – Beach Boys), but there was something so moving and beautiful about that traditional music as the chapel door swung open that it was our favourite of the ceremony.”

Dan Stephens officiated the ceremony, the bride and groom telling, “Along with our decision to chose no bridal parties, we opted for a fairly brief, but thoughtfully constructed, ceremony which we wrote together with our celebrant. Again we felt no pressure to conform to tradition – we wanted our ceremony to be short, sharp and meaningful. Instead of readings, we chose to make a joint declaration to our friends and family, before we spoke vows to each other which we had written together.”

Canapes and cocktails were served in the courtyard of The Stables.

Be Always Blooming Studio created the floral arrangements for the day, the bride remembering, “Our florist, Tara from Be Always Blooming Studio was an incredible find. She was a friend of a friend, who had not long graduated from floristry school. We met her a couple of times, talking through pictures of styles we liked, and seasonal flowers we could substitute. She had never been to Stones before, but she took our vision, and absolutely nailed it. The detail and set up was impeccable, and it was so wonderful to have such a talented young florist working with us.”

“We called our own skills and those of our friends to design a website and invitations, but we handpicked a talented team of professionals to take care of the rest. Each one carefully considered our vision, and delivered a perfect celebration with our style all over it, without us lifting a finger.”

Vanessa and Hamish remark, “As we had many friends and family flying in from overseas, we structured our wedding around a long weekend of events, maximising the time we could spend with everyone. We wanted the wedding itself to be relaxed and intimate, reflecting our love of our friends and family, food and wine, as well as each other.

We wanted to give our guests an experience that rewarded the efforts they had gone to to be there. And we never felt tied to tradition – we just structured the day as we wished; we shared a bed the night before, we had photos together before the ceremony and we chose no bridal parties. For entertainment, we trusted our friends to provide hilarious speeches, and curated playlists which packed the dance floor.”

The speeches were one of the best parts of the night, the bride and groom remarking “We’re lucky enough to have a very talented and hilarious group of friends, and I think the speeches during the reception were undoubtedly a highlight. They walked the perfect line of hilarious and touching, and I think our photographs show how much happiness and laughter filled the room.”

After cake cutting (a single tier of delicious crafted by Cherrytree Bakehouse) dancing continued late into the night, the bride and groom telling, “We chose not to do a first dance, but we invited some of our friends to construct playlists for the evening, which accompanied dinner and had everyone from on the dancefloor by the end of the night. The highlight was having Nan shouting the chorus to Nelly’s ‘Ride Wit Me’ in unison with the crowd.”