Today we are very excited to be sharing a glass of bubbles with one of our favourite bloggers – the lovely Bele from Blah Blah Magazine. Blah Blah Magazine is a place that boasts simple living. From cooking and fashion to the home, it invites you to live simply. It was so nice to spend some time with Bele as she shared her memories about her magical day.
Tell us about you and your business/blog?
I’m Cybele Masterman, but everyone calls me Bele. I trained as a beauty therapist, aromatherapist and journalist. After working as them all at some stage, including fun jaunts around the world as a travel writer, I found myself on a quest for a beautiful life that doesn’t cost the earth and wanted to share my adventures and discoveries online.
Blah Blah Magazine is a simple living blog about creating a beautiful life that doesn’t cost the earth. It’s a place to share and explore ideas to simplify your food, beauty, home, life and the occasional bad joke, because life is too important to take too seriously (as big daddy Oscar W. used to say).
Tell us about your wedding?
Gordon and I had so much fun. It was magical to share the day with our family and loved ones. We were really lucky to have a lot of friends and family help out and save our bacon. It was like one big collaboration party.
We had the ceremony and reception in the garden of our Sydney home. We were ridiculously lucky with the weather. It’d been torrential rain for the week leading up to the big do. I’d even bought fancy new gum boots, which I thought went swimmingly with my dress. Don’t tell anyone, but I’m a bit sad I didn’t have an excuse to wear them.
Having a garden wedding made it more complicated in some ways, because everything needed to be brought in, but it gave us a lot of freedom, plus our reception was next to the vegetable patch, with kids and dogs running everywhere. In terms of practicalities, having it at home meant we could set up the marquee, dance floor, lights, chairs, rope ‘aisle’ and fabric wedding arch in the days prior, leaving only the flowers and food to do on the day.
For the flowers, I ordered a lot of white Singapore orchids from an online supplier and stored them in our bath tub for a day or two before the big shebang. My lovely friends foraged foliage from the garden, wrapped columns and railings with vine and made table arrangements that were topped with the orchids. They did such a beautiful job.
We dressed in our neighbour’s house, while our friend Claire Gill played cello to keep the guests entertained, because corralling lots of flower girls is quite a job. Yes, I invited practically every little girl I knew, because I wanted them to be a part of it, but hadn’t quite thought out the logistics.
For the reception, we served South American food, cocktail style, because it was Gordon’s talk of Chile and Brazil that had won my heart in the first place. Gordon and my brother brewed a special craft beer for the day and we bought amazing wine and bubbles online from sites like Vinomofo and Grays Online, which saved us bucket loads. We cut the cake my brother made and danced the night away to some awesome funk Sani DJ’d for us.
My dress is a replica of a 1920’s dress to go with the headpiece and veil Sandie Bizys made. I loved the dress so much, I’ve been meaning to see if I can have it dyed so I can keep wearing it.
What was your most memorable moment (or moments!)?
It’s so hard to choose, but I think three stand out. The ‘I do’ moment, when our eighteen-month-old son giggled after realising it was me under the veil and wanted to play peek-a-boo and planting an orange tree during the ceremony has given us a living reminder of the day. Oh, and one more… giving everyone a hug after the ceremony! I think I even hugged the waiters.
If you could change one thing, what would it be?
The make up. Unfortunately, the lady I wanted wasn’t available. Against everything I’d been told, I just went with someone close by and didn’t do a trial. The lady was of the very heavy-handed variety and although I asked for something light, it was just a bit too much for me, who doesn’t wear a lot of make up and now makes her own cosmetics.
We tried to wash a lot of it off and re-do it, which meant it would’ve been easier to do it ourselves. It worked out fine and wasn’t a big deal, but was a bit of a waste of time and money.
Who are your favourite vendors?
Janet and Nelson at Bloomeys who made the bridal and flower girls’ bouquets. They’re just ridiculously talented and have worked on so many amazing events they get a sense of the perfect arrangement, within budget, very quickly.
Piquant catering went out of their way to make it work. They were amazing. They also helped us cut costs by letting us serve platters of seafood we had pre-ordered from the fish markets.
We were lucky with our celebrant, the lovely Taylor Owynns. She helped us with all the paperwork and gave really beautiful suggestions for making the ceremony special for us. She let people know the significance of the all the choices we made, like my aunt lighting a candle for my late father.
Who was your photographer?
Alex Craig, a photographer friend of ours was very generous and gave the photos to us as a wedding gift. His fiancé suggested the photo booth and we charged headlong at the idea. We cut out props from foam core, bought a canvas drop sheet from the hardware shop and hung it up with a pole clipped to stands (not our soundest construction ever, ahem).
We had so much fun with the photo booth, it helped people like me who hate having their photo taken relax. They’re some of our favourite photos of the wedding, especially the ones where the dog knocked over the backdrop. They remind me of how much we laughed when it happened.
Images by Alex Craig
What advice do you have for others planning their wedding?
Remember to take a moment or two or three or four with your new husband to stop and take it all in. Someone told me this before our wedding and I’m so glad I heeded the advice, because it’s easy for the whole day to whizz by without sharing a moment together to say, ‘Wow, we’re married!’
Ms Chinoiserie Says: Thanks Bele for sharing the fun and laughter of your wedding with us – the story about the dog knocking over the backdrop is priceless! If you love being surrounded by beauty and the simple things in life, head over to Blah Blah Magazine – it will make you so happy!
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