Fun Farm Wedding - Polka Dot Wedding

Renee & Jacob

I love the quirky, relaxed feeling of Renee and Jacob’s wedding fun farm wedding. The couple chose one venue for their day, customising every element they could to ensure the day was truly a reflection of their love – not only for each other but of the things they love about their daily life. Their dear friend Tess Follett came along for the ride to capture their day.

Renee kicks off the wedding with the story of how she and Jacob met. “We met in May 2010 online. As the cold Melbourne winter was fast approaching, a work colleague and I decided we were in need of ‘Winter Boyfriends’ and created online dating profiles for ourselves. Jacob and I are now about to approach our sixth winter together.”

Renee wore the “Lottie” gown from designer Jane Hill. She remembers, “I wanted a dress that was unique. As soon as I described our wedding theme to Jane she showed me Lottie straight away. Unfortunately Jane passed away before I picked up my dress but I feel really lucky to have met with her a number of times. I really appreciated her patience and honest opinions.”

The groom chose a three piece navy suit from Calibre. The groomsmen chose their own attire wearing everything from waistcoats to braces.

Gum Gully Farm set the scene for the mountain farm wedding. Renee tells, “Our ceremony and reception were both held at Gum Gully Farm. As we pulled into the driveway on our first visit, two baby goats meandered across the road in front of us and I turned to Jacob and said ‘This is the one!’ Our ceremony was held in a beautiful wooden chapel on the property and the reception was in their large barn. Our guests spent most of the evening chatting on the lovely big deck that wraps around the outside of the barn with a drink in hand.”

“Our two beautiful nephews were our page boys and Ethan (the youngest) had an absolute tantrum and refused to walk down the aisle with my sister (who was one of my bridesmaids). Eventually my mum had to help my sister carry him down the aisle. In the moments prior to Ethan’s meltdown both Jacob and I were starting to feel pretty nervous and rather emotional, but we (along with all of our guests) ended up in hysterics and it really helped to lighten the mood.”

Renee walked down the aisle to, “A slow version of ‘I’ve Just Seen a Face’ by the Beatles, performed live by The April Maze.”

Erin Rollason officiated the ceremony, Renee noting “It was really important to us that the ceremony wasn’t something we rushed through to get to the reception, but instead was really meaningful. We spent a lot of time planning the ceremony, from the music and readings, to writing our own vows. We also wanted everyone to be truly present with us whilst we were married so we decided to have an ‘unplugged’ ceremony (no cameras or mobile phones).

For the first reading of the ceremony, Jacob’s cousin read a quote about love from Louis de Bernières’ book ‘Captain Corelli’s Mandolin’. Our second reading was a light-hearted one called ‘A Lovely Love Story’ by Edward Monkton and was performed by one of our groomsmen who did an exceptional job and had all of our guests laughing out aloud.”

Bianco Latte snuck up during the ceremony to give guests a post wedding treat. “Our guests were served ice cream from an ice cream cart after the ceremony. The cart was set up whilst everyone was in the chapel which made it a nice surprise after the ceremony was over.”

“The April Maze (the same band that played during our ceremony) continued to play music over the course of the afternoon whilst our guests sipped Pimms and played Finska and cards.”

“During the bridal party photo shoot Jacob discovered a heap of old tricycles and scooters in a shed on the property, all the groomsmen grabbed themselves one each and rode them out of the shed much to the amusement of my bridesmaids and I. Our photographer Tess captured this moment and it’s one of our favourite pictures from the day.”

Guests received cookies in a jar as wedding favors, Renee telling, “We pretty much made everything ourselves. From the invitations to the 100 metres of bunting (I had to teach myself to sew after having not touched a sewing machine since Home Economics class in high school!) the boutonnieres, bombonniere, wooden direction signs to direct guests to the venue and the planter boxes for the reception tables… just to name a few. It was ‘craft weekends’ at our house for 18 months prior to the wedding and we loved every minute of it.”

Of their photographer, Renee tells, “Tess is a friend of ours so we not only knew that she was a super cool chick but also that her work was of a very high standard – it really was a no brainer to hire her to be our photographer. We didn’t want a whole lot of ‘posed’ shots, more documentary style and this is exactly what Tess was able to capture for us. We are so happy with the photos of our day and look back on them regularly.”

“Sue and the team at Gum Gully Farm definitely stood out. Not only is the venue absolutely divine, it is also incredibly professionally run. Everything ran like clockwork and we didn’t have to worry about a thing on the day. I really enjoyed working together with Jacob in creating our special day. We spent months brainstorming and dreaming up ideas of how we could make our day unique and memorable, not only for us but for all of our guests too. It was really lovely that Jacob was actively involved in the planning and it meant that the day really reflected ‘us’.”

The first dance was a favourite choice of the bride and groom, even if it got a little more attention then they hoped. Renee explains, “We chose ‘The Wedding Song’ by Angus and Julia Stone. We are big Angus and Julia Stone fans and the words of this song sum up exactly the way we feel about each other.

Initially we weren’t going to have a first dance but were convinced by a friend that we should, as our guests would watch us for all of 30 seconds before returning to their conversations. Unfortunately this wasn’t the case and everyone stared at us for the entire 3 minute duration. Whilst it probably looked like we were whispering sweet nothings to each other, what we were really saying was “are they still looking?” “why are they still looking?” whilst we swayed back and forth.”

“One of the things that made the day super special for us was how we were able to have all of our family and friends in the one place at the same time. I’m originally from WA and Jacob is from Far North QLD and we have absolutely no family living here in VIC with us, so it was pretty incredible having everyone here in OUR state celebrating the day with us.

After all the hard work we had put in planning our wedding day we really wanted to make sure we enjoyed some down time with our family and bridal party. On the day before our wedding the men played golf and enjoying lunch at White Rabbit brewery whilst us girls enjoyed our own lunch in the Dandenong Ranges followed by a few glasses of champagne at the lodge we had booked for our wedding party.”

“We also organised ‘Mustered Courage’ a bluegrass band to play during our reception as we felt they really suited the feel of our wedding. The dance floor was never empty and a unique version of Beyonce’s ‘Put a Ring on It’ was a real hit with our guests.”