Country Garden Party Wedding - Polka Dot Wedding

Michelle & Mwaba

I love the amazing colour in today’s country garden party wedding. The bride adores flowers and made sure that the wedding included plenty of them in all of their beautiful bright tones and that was just the start of it! Michelle and Mwaba worked with photographer Ebony Sugg Photographer to capture their wedding day.

Michelle tells the story of how they came to be. “Mwaba and I actually met at a night club! I was out with my sister and we noticed a group of people dancing together in sync, almost as if rehearsed. And in this group there was one guy that really caught my eye. He had crazy energy and had talent unlike any I had seen before. He later asked me to dance, invited me to his dance classes, and a week later we had our first date!”

Michele’s bridesmaids wore different gowns from ASOS and My Sister’s Boudoir.

Harriette Gordon designed Michelle’s gown, the bride noting, “My dress was designed by a beautiful designer friend of mine, Harriette Gordon. I have loved her work for years and was so privileged to share my ideas with her and watch my dress evolve. I knew I wanted to incorporate gold into my dress as I didn’t want the traditional white gown. I also knew that, as much as I love the drama of a train, I would be stressing about it becoming dirty or ripped, especially considering the wedding was situated outdoors.

Harriette sourced the most stunning french beaded lace in an antique gold shade and gave me sketches of styles and cuts to play with before I settled on the final design. My dress was above and beyond what I had dreamed and I enjoyed every luxurious second I spent wearing it.”

The bride’s mother arranged the bouquets, she explains, “I love flowers and I love colour. We decided to keep the dresses and suits more muted so that the flowers would pop! My Mum and her clever friends sourced a huge variety of flowers of all shades, sizes and textures and I still swoon when I look back on photos of the day.”

“I was surprisingly quite relaxed on the day. I enjoyed a glorious early morning walk on the beach with my sisters and best friend who were my bridesmaids. We all chilled together and enjoyed a lazy brunch as we had our hair and makeup done. I then remember feeling the adrenaline as I rode excitedly in the car with my parents and then we were there! And all of a sudden my Dad was proudly walking me down the aisle and my husband-to-be was weeping like a baby. I will never forget that moment.”

For the processional, Michelle remembers, “We chose an African song called Bwana Ni Mchungaji Wangu (The Lord is My Shepherd) which is actually sung in Swahili.”

Michelle and Mwaba married on a friend’s farm, noting, “Both venues belong to wonderful family friends who worked so hard to prepare the space for us. The ceremony was situated on a peninsula surrounded by bush, with a creek running past and a rocky outcrop behind. An old dear friend of ours made a bunch of wooden benches and another farmer friend of ours lent us some hay bales for guests to sit on.”

Pastor John Power officiated the ceremony, Michelle telling, “Our ceremony was a happy celebration. We wanted it to reflect our love for God and each other and we wanted it to highlight the beauty of God’s creation. Our wedding also embraced an African party vibe and when we walked together down the aisle as the newly married couple there was plenty of cheering, whistling and dancing!”

“We had a tonne of help from friends and family! My sister and a friend made a crescent moon piñata, a girlfriend baked and decorated our naked cake, and my Mum and some of her friends arranged all the flowers, many of which were donated from their gardens. Another friend made the wooden signs guiding people to our venues. My other sister and I had collected rugs, tablecloths, and gold rimmed glasses from local op shops. The food was all prepared cooked and catered by friends of the family. We were also driven around all day in gorgeous vintage cars belonging to some of my Dad’s mates. We are so blessed to be connected with so many talented and generous people!”

Another family friend’s farm hosted the reception, the bride noting, “The reception was situated under a massive overhang of leaves from an oak tree and hundreds of fairy lights we had strung up. It was very understated and simple.”

The couple chose a festive style first dance, noting “Music and dancing is so important to Mwaba so he organised the playlists and song choices. The song he chose for our first dance was Saida Karoli by Maria Salome. It was really special just to be together in the moment before the party got started! Some of Mwaba’s friends who attend his dance classes surprised us with an awesome dance choreography and we all partied late into the night.”