Lia & Derek’s Peach & Apricot Garden Wedding

There is so much to fall in love with at Lia and Derek’s peach  & apricot garden wedding. Beautiful blooms set the scene for their garden wedding – their fun additions of an ice cream cart, food truck and gorgeous styling only complementing Lia’s infectious smile as she and Derek tied the know The couple chose Georgia Wiggs to photograph their day.

Lia and Derek tell the story of how they came to be. “We met at a party about 10 years ago, we were friends with a lot of the same people, but it was a few years before we started dating.”

Lia wore a white sequin wedding gown by Karen Willis Holmes, noting, “My dress was from Karen Willis Holmes and was simply stunning. I was very lucky with dress shopping, I tried on a few dresses to find the style that I was after but as soon as I tried on the dress I knew it was the one. It was the first dress where I could actually see myself. It made me feel confident, beautiful and a little sexy. Plus it was incredibly comfortable which made such a difference on the day. I was then lucky enough to have Anna from Elysian Creations design me a one off headpiece and earrings set which really set the dress off and they looked amazing together.”

The day was planned and styled by Miss Mooi with flowers by Floretta by Grace . “Our stylist, Stacey from Miss Mooi, assisted in making sure no detail was forgotten, made sure everything on the day looked perfect and provided the beautiful timber arch for the ceremony and the pallet wall at the reception, both custom made for the event. Floretta by Grace did a truly amazing job on the flowers and arrangements.”

The couple chose Maranoa Gardens for their reception, noting,  “We had always planned on having an intimate outdoor wedding, so were lucky to stumble across Maranoa Gardens. As soon as we saw it we knew it was perfect! It was everything we had been looking for, native flora, private with a large clearing in the middle where we could have the ceremony under the shade of a huge native tree, just beautiful.”

Lia walked down the aisle to “Rise” by Eddie Vedder.

Of the ceremony, officiated by Wendy McRae, Lia and Derek remember, “We wanted it to be fun, casual and relaxed yet beautiful and full of love. We had a timber arch and a small bar set up, but the beauty of the gardens did the rest. Our celebrant, Wendy McRae, did an incredible job of capturing the vibe of the day, she kept it upbeat and fun, full of smiles and laughs. We had live music performed by Mark Vandenboom, which also helped create the mood, performing some of our favourite songs including Rise, the aisle song. We had only one reading, the lyrics to Forever by Ben Harper, read by Wendy as we exchanged our rings.”

Of their photographer, the newlyweds remark, “She was excellent and captured the day as we wanted with less posed photographs and more of the spontaneous moments of the day. She was also the loveliest person to have around on the day, full of smiles!”

“Leading up the wedding when we told people we were getting married they would often reply with, “It’ll be the best day of your life”. Funnily enough, we always thought it was just something people said to be nice, but the truth is they were right. It was the best day of our lives, we enjoyed every minute of it and were having so much fun that we were still dancing at 4 am!”

Reception celebrations continued at Derek’s family home, the newlyweds remarking, “We decided to have the reception at Derek’s family home in Ivanhoe. The backyard was the perfect venue for us as Derek’s house is quite sentimental to his family plus it has these beautiful gardens and gum trees that matched the ceremony location and theme. We wanted a reception where we could have all of our favourite things (good food, live music, ice cream, cheese, lots of laughs and endless possibilities). After many months gardening, measuring and planning and a lot of hard work we got the backyard looking amazing! With a 6x15m marquee, seats for 60 people we had room for everything we needed!!”

The reception was full of fun – music by Baker Boys Band , drink by Beer Gypsies , food by Digging for Fire BBQ  and Harper and Blohm  and of course gelato by Bianco Latte.”For us, it was about having our favourite things included in the day. Obviously, friends and family foremost but it was our love for things like music and food that we wanted to include. The cheese table, provided by Harper and Blohm and the ice cream cart by Bianco Latte are two examples. Also having a live band, The Baker Boys performing, was amazing and of course the delicious catering by Digging for Fire BBQ.”

The newlyweds chose “Forever Young” by Bob Dylan for their first dance. “We always knew we wanted to use this song on the day, it is one of our favourite songs and it perfectly captures our joint outlook on life, love and commitment. We believe we chose perfectly. The song was performed by Derek’s cousin’s wife, Hayley, which was a beautiful and personal touch. We danced together for a minute before calling everyone else up to join us.”

Congratulations on your marriage Lia and Derek! Thank you for sharing your stories with us! Thank you also to Georgia Wiggs for sharing today’s celebration!