Kirra & Geoff

I am always a little bit taken to dreamland when it comes to stunning fields of flowers and when Kirra and Geoff married in their elegant lavender field wedding – well, it was as amazingly beautiful as it sounds. With Joseph Willis behind the camera, the couple made the most of their surroundings, the simple colour palette of blush, white and plenty of greenery complementing the deep purple of the blooming lavender. And can we talk about the bride’s stunning gown? The gorgeous cape like tulle detail made for the most ethereal photos as the sun set, the crowning glory on what was a beautiful day.

With many years behind them (the couple met when they were 14 in high school!) the groom proposed on Kirra’s 25th birthday. She tells the story.  “It was my 25th birthday and Geoff had hinted that he had a really great gift for me, so I was pretty certain a proposal was coming! We were getting ready to go out for dinner and he gave me the gift, but it wasn’t a ring. (He was just trying to throw me off though!) After a lovely dinner at No. 35, we came home and Geoff called me into our lounge room. He had lit candles and spread rose petals on the floor and got down on one knee. It was very sweet and intimate and suited us perfectly.”

Janice Wu & Vanessa Barney styled the bride and bridesmaid’s hair and makeup looks for the day.

The bride found her stunning Pronovias gown at Fairytales Bridal Boutique adding a beaded hairpiece from All About Romance to complete her look. She tells “I wore ‘Maricel’ by Pronovias. I had seen an image of it early on in the planning process but after shopping around at seemingly every bridal store in Melbourne I couldn’t find it, nor could I find anything I was 100% happy with. I tried on over 50 dresses! Eventually, I found the dress in a bridal store interstate, so I decided I needed to fly up and try it on or I would never stop thinking about it. My maid of honour flew with me and we had a whirlwind day-trip trying on dresses. The trip paid off because once I tried on the Maricel, I knew it was my dress. I called Fairytales Bridal here in Melbourne and ordered it over the phone before flying home.

The dress was a mermaid style with a V neck, deep V back, long train and made from beautiful guipure lace. The dressmaker at Fairytales also created some custom lengths of tulle which were attached at the shoulders and could be detached for the reception. I didn’t want to wear a veil but still loved the flowing look of tulle over the dress so this was the perfect solution. As I didn’t have a veil, I wore a gorgeous headpiece by All About Romance.”

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Kirra remembers “My Dad walked me down the aisle to the José González cover of ‘Heartbeats’.”

Julia Doeven officiated the ceremony, the bride explaining “We wanted our ceremony to be intimate and romantic. So many of our friends and family have watched our relationship grow over 12 years so it was such a blissful feeling stepping into the barn knowing everyone there was so happy for us. Walking down I just looked straight at Geoff the whole time because I knew if I looked over at my Dad I would start crying! Our celebrant Julia wrote a perfect ceremony for us and did a great job of setting the tone and directing guests and the bridal party. We chose two secular readings: my bridesmaid Jacki read “To Love is Not to Possess” by James Kavanaugh and Geoff’s groomsman Jonathan read “Union” by Robert Fulghum. Geoff and I wrote our own vows which had everyone tearing up a little!”

Kirra and Geoff chose the beautiful lavender fields of Daylesford venue Sault to tie the knot, explaining “We were in Daylesford for a weekend away shortly after getting engaged and decided to check out Sault while we were there. The lovely Jodi showed us around and we just really fell in love with the place and got a great feeling for the venue. We also loved the idea of having a semi-destination wedding and spending the entire weekend with our friends and family.
Sault is a beautiful property with modern countryside charm; natural and elegant without being too rustic. The little barn is gorgeous but also practical in case of bad weather. The food was delicious and all our guests were raving about the incredible staff, the drinks were flowing all night!”

Kirra tells “I definitely couldn’t have planned the wedding without my mum and my bridesmaids, they all helped me find my dress and were always there to chat about ideas. My bridesmaids helped deliver props to the venue, package up our bonboniere cookies and prepare food for the picnic.”

Of their photographer, Kirra note “As a photographer myself, the imagery was the most important detail of the day. When I found Joseph Willis’ website, I fell in love with the photos right away! I really loved how he was able to capture beautiful, moody, editorial style shots of the bride and groom as well as fun images of the reception.”

Time together with family and friends was important to the newlyweds, who chose garden games for guests to play during cocktail hour, and even planned a recovery celebration for travelling guests. Kirra telling “We threw a big picnic in the Wombat Hill Gardens the next day with lots of homemade treats, lawn games from My Sweet Event and a coffee van from Blue Bean Love Cafe. We also had plenty of our delicious cake from Two Rams leftover! It was a great way to be able to chat properly with all our friends and family in a more relaxed setting.”

Flos Botanical styled the beautiful floral arrangements on the day. The bride noting “Flowers were very important to me and I wanted to have lots of them! When I met with Vivien from Flos Botanical Studio for coffee she had the same vision as me and had some great ideas for floral installations. I chose mostly pink and white flowers with lots of greenery and pops of burgundy. Vivien created an amazing floral frame for the window in the Sault barn as well a stunning hanging installation for the reception. We also had florals and greenery flowing down each table and beautiful, big bouquets.”

One of the favourite parts of the day were the formalities – the speeches a definite highlight says Kirra. “Both our dads gave a speech as well as Sam and Caitlin, they were all funny, heartfelt and included some great advice. Scott provided full video coverage of the speeches and we have watched them a few times over, and feel all warm and fuzzy every time!”

A romantic rumba was on the cards for the couple’s first dance, Kirra remembering “We decided to take dancing lessons as we didn’t want our first dance to just be 3 minutes of awkward swaying. I am not a dancer at all so they were a bit challenging but I’m glad we did them. We danced the rumba to ‘You Make it Easy’ by Air and managed to pull off a few twirls and lifts.”

 

In keeping with the elegant style of the day, Woolshed Imaging captured this beautiful film. Kirra remarked ” Scott from Woolshed Imaging worked so hard all day and created the most stunning wedding video for us, we’ve had so many compliments on it!”

A big thank you, Kirra and Geoff! Thank you for taking the time to share all the details of your day with us! Thank you also to Joseph Willis for sharing today’s beautiful images!