Laura & Anthony
There is nothing like a gorgeous garden wedding and when you combine a stunning garden with the beauty of a winery like Laura and Anthony did for their Yarra Valley garden wedding you’re sure to have a day that is full of beauty. But what makes it extra special? Laura and Anthony’s story of course! All captured by Michael Briggs Photography.
Laura tells the story of how she and Anthony met. “Anthony and I met in Primary school back in ’95 when we were 10. He was actually ‘going out’ with one of my best friends at the time and it wasn’t until six years later, in high school, that he asked me out. Our older brothers were good mates throughout school, so we had always known each other, we kind of grew up together! It’s been a hell of a ride and 14 years later we’re still going strong! It’s nice to be married to one of your best mates.”
Hair and Make up Artistry by Carmel Urbano and Chantelle Vallay Make Up Artist styled the bride and bridesmaid’s hair and makeup, Laura remembering, “All of our vendors were absolutely amazing!! My hairdresser, Carmel, was so great to work with. Having already had a great relationship with her, it was very easy for her to understand exactly what I wanted, as she knew my personal style. Chantelle Vallay my make up artist was spectacular! She recreated exactly what I had envisioned for our make up and I was so happy with it! My favourite part of the planning would have to have been the ease of it all. I had a lot of time to plan, did a lot of things myself and tried to keep it simple yet beautiful. All of my vendors were so easy to deal with, it took a lot of stress out of the planning!”
Laura chose a gown from Anna Campbell and added a very special touch, she remembers, “I knew all along that I wanted something different, really simple, yet elegant and that’s exactly what I found at Anna Campbell. A friend of mine had shown me some of her designs and I instantly fell in love! It was the first boutique I went to and found my dress almost straight away! I went in with another dress in mind but when I tried it on I didn’t get ‘that feeling’, the assistant came over with another dress that I wouldn’t have picked out myself so I decided to try it on and as soon as I did I instantly knew it was the one! It was a beautiful slim line lace dress with little capped sleeves and a beautiful lace train. One of the main reasons I loved it so much was because it was so comfortable, easy to move in and it wasn’t traditional. It was an amazing experience & the staff were so helpful.
I knew all along that I was going to wear my Mum’s veil. Unfortunately her wedding dress was a 70’s dress that just wasn’t quite my style and I really wanted to incorporate something she wore on her wedding day, so we had her cathedral length veil cut and the same lace that was on my dress added to it so it would match.”
Laura and Anthony chose Alowyn Gardens for their ceremony, noting, “Our ceremony was held at the beautiful Alowyn Gardens in Yarra Glen. I attended a wedding here a couple of years ago, as soon as I stepped foot in the gardens I knew it was where I wanted to get married! Its so peaceful there and they have this amazing wisteria archway which is what we were married under. It’s a very unique place which suited what we were looking for. It was great to be able to have such a beautiful backdrop and there was so much colour it helped make our photos absolutely stunning!”
Laura chose Matt Corby’s “Resolution” for the processional. She tells, “Dad unfortunately passed a few years ago, so when my brother walked me down the aisle he wore my Dad’s favourite cuff links, was such a beautiful touch. I also had my Dad, my Nana & my Pa’s wedding rings all tied onto my bouquet so they were all there with us on the day as they too had passed away.”
Meg of Raise Your Glass Ceremonies officiated the ceremony, the bride remembering, “We wanted our ceremony to be really relaxed and carefree. We wanted to make sure all of the important people in our lives were included. Anthony had his two best mates and two brothers as his groomsman, I had my sister, cousin and two best friends as my maids and we had both our mums as our witnesses. My brother walked me down the aisle which was really special and one of my cousins read a poem for us ‘On your wedding day’. We also did a hand fasting. Although neither of us are of Scottish descent, we just really loved the idea of us both tying the ribbons to represent our love for one another as we started this new chapter on our lives.”
The bride remembers, “Straight after the ceremony we mingled with our guests for about 40 minutes over an awesome cheese table my Aunties put together for us before we went off and had photos, it was really important to us to have this time with our guests as so many had traveled so far to be with us.”
Of their photographer, the bride remarks “Our photographer Michael, was awesome! He was exactly everything we were hoping for. Really fun to be around and super genuine. Didn’t make us pose, but rather captured us in the moment and he was such a pleasure. He made us extremely comfortable. Mike has such a great eye knew exactly where we needed to go for a great shot! I remember him always smiling and joking around with the guests, he fit right in!”
Celebrations continued at Vines Restaurant @ Helen’s Hill Estate. Laura remarks, “Our reception was held at Vines Restaurant @ Helen’s Hill Estate. It actually wasn’t on our list of venues to look at, we kind of stumbled across it and we fell in love instantly! It has such a wonderful, cosy, rustic yet modern feeling to it and it suited us perfectly! It has floor to ceiling windows that provided the most amazing view and along with a beautiful curved stone wall, we didn’t have to do too much to decorate! With both of us being foodies, food was extremely important to us and it was absolutely beautiful! They really delivered.”
“We were fortunate to have a lot of time to plan our wedding so were able to do a lot ourselves. We had our invitations professionally printed and cut, but I assembled them all with the help of my maids. Many hours spent sticking and tying twine! For our centrepieces I made the lace wrapped jars for candles to sit in and Anthony and his Dad made all the wooden boxes that the flowers sat in. My Aunty made all of the little paper boxes for the wedding favours to sit in too. It was a very crafty few months of preparing, but a lot of fun and we were very fortunate to have a lot of help!”
Laura tells, “We wanted to make our wedding fun from the get go. When our bridal party were being introduced, they all came in to a different song that was chosen by us to suit them, then Anthony & I were introduced to a really fun upbeat song on the dance floor that encouraged all of our guests to have a boogie before we sat down, to set the party scene! This was really important as we wanted everyone to be interactive and not sit down the whole time.”
Of their first dance, Laura recalls, “We chose to dance to ‘Hold back the river’ by James Bay. We both really love this song and it resonated really well with the both if us. Neither of us have been blessed with great dance moves so our first dance was a little awkward, probably due to the fact that we never practiced!! It was great just to spend those few moments together where it felt like it was only us two in the room, bliss!”
Congratulations Laura and Anthony! Thank you for sharing the story of your day with us! Thank you also to Michael Briggs Photography for sharing today’s wedding!
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