Laura & Kristian
There is a beautiful, easy feel to Laura and Kristian’s relaxed Tocal Homestead wedding, the bright flowers dotted everywhere, the incredible sunset, the 90’s megamix which got everyone on the dance floor. They chose Nicholas Joel Photography to capture their day.
Laura tells the story of how they met. “Kristian was good friends with my brother and I had never met him before. One night, I decided at the last minute to join my brother and go out to a club together for the first time with a group of his mates. Call it fate, but that was the first time we met. After being together for 8 years, Kristian popped the question on the beach at sunset in Hawaii.”
“My dress was “Trudy” designed by Maggie Sottero. It featured a Royal Satin ivory slip with a heavy lace overlay. I wanted to wear a dress that incorporated lace and had sleeves as I found this looked more elegant and was unique to many of the other wedding dresses I have seen. My favourite part of the dress was the illusion lace back. This dress was so comfortable and allowed me to dance with my guests all night.”
Laura and Kristian were married at Tocal Homestead, telling, “Our whole wedding day was at one location, Tocal Homestead. Our ceremony was performed under a grand fig tree out the front of the old homestead. Once the ceremony was complete, our guests moved into an old barn and had drinks and antipasto plates. After the cocktail hour, our guests then headed down the hill and past the sheep to the beautiful Heritage Hay Shed for our reception.”
Laura chose “The Walk” by Nikki Leonti for her walk down the aisle.
Of their ceremony, which was officiated by the bride’s uncle Neil Flower, Laura remembers, “We got married under the old fig tree surrounded by our closest friends and family seated in mismatched chairs. We chose to have a “unplugged” ceremony as we wanted everyone to be fully present in the moment and allow our amazing photographer to capture the special memories. We wanted our day to have more of a relaxed feel and believe this was reflected in our ceremony choice.”
Of their photographer, Laura tells, “The photographer we chose was Nicholas Joel Photography as we loved his style of shooting. Nick was so very professional and listened to exactly what we wanted from the photos. He was much more than a photographer and helped up both out throughout the day by calming my nerves and making sure everything ran on time for us. He understood how the day progresses and could let us know where we would need to be or what would be happening next.
All of our guests could not believe the quality of the photos Nick took – they constantly mentioned to us throughout the night, how nice he was and how he never interrupted their night with a lens in their face like some other photographers they have come across. Nick has a true eye for capturing moments and whenever we look back at our photos, we cannot believe the memories he has given us.”
The Wedding Designer styled the ceremony and reception for the couple, Laura remembering, “We did not want a bridal table at the reception as we wanted to sit and share our first meal as husband and wife with our guests, so we asked The Wedding Designers to ensure that long tables were set up for the reception. We wanted to feature pictures of our parents and grandparents on their wedding day and had these photos displayed on an old ladder at the reception. We had an abundance of flowers at the reception complete with a flower wrapping station for our guests so they could take home a small memory of the day. We chose not to DIY any part of our wedding and left it all to the professionals. The Wedding Designer designed every last detail from the flowers to the reception set up.”
“We can’t pick a favourite when it comes to our vendors. They were all equally amazing and we couldn’t have had such a perfect wedding without each of them. They made the whole process so easy and were worth every cent. Our favourite part of the wedding planning was trying to plan a day that our guests would love and have just as much fun as we would have.”
Of the first dance, the bride remembers, “Unbeknown to our friends, we had a quick dance lesson with a close family friend a few weeks out from the wedding to settle the nerves. I managed to convince Kristian to have their first dance to “A Thousand Years” by Christine Perri due to my secret love of the Twilight series.”
Music for the day came from XYDJ , the bride remembering “At the reception, during my speech with Kristian, the DJ heard of my love of 90s pop music, so he treated us to a 90s mega mix consisting of the Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears. He said to me that he has never filled a dance floor with 90s music before!”
Congratulations on your marriage Laura and Kristian! Thank you for sharing your wedding with us! Thank you also to Nicholas Joel Photography for sharing today’s celebration.
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