Beccii & Nathaniel
I am a firm believer in doing your wedding your way – whether that is classic and traditional, whimsical and wild, or in a beautifully embroidered wedding dress with floral boots on the mistiest of days.
That utterly romantic concept is exactly what Beccii chose as she wed her love Nathaniel, with Lovelenscapes capturing the (cold and Wintery, our favourite!) moments on camera.
While these two met in high school, it was not until they’d matured a little more than their love blossomed. It was many years later that the groom popped the question, on a weekend away to the very area where they would soon decide to wed. Becci shares the story “He had first planned to take me to the Bunya Mountains for a birthday getaway, but when it came around, I had taken a long-distance graduate job and we had to cancel the trip. He improvised from the romantic getaway proposal he had planned, to propose to me at midnight on New Year’s Eve, while I was back home for the holidays. We then had 2 days of newly engaged bliss before I went back to work and we started planning our wedding while in a long-distance relationship, 2000km apart for over 8 months, which really shaped our guest list and priorities. It felt so right to plan the wedding to be at Bunya, and we booked the planned proposal accommodation as our honeymoon accommodation!”
Beccii found her embroidered wedding gown on ASOS Curve telling “I had been looking around at fairly traditional white dresses online but nothing stood out to me. As soon as I spotted my dress on ASOS I just knew that’s what I wanted to get married in. The details were beautiful and suited my floral obsession as well as the vibe of the day. I wouldn’t usually go for that style or cut but it fit like a dream. It was the only dress I bought or even tried on. I absolutely loved wearing it and had so many compliments that it was ‘me’.”
The couple met before their ceremony for photographs and a first look. Beccii highlights the moment as one of her favourites. “I was so excited for our first look and I still didn’t expect it to be as emotional as it was. We loved being able to have this time to ourselves, away from the aisle, but also have our moment captured forever. It didn’t take away the aisle moment either, he still cried like a baby when he saw me again.”
The severe rain on the day dampened any plan of their outdoor ceremony at Poppies on the Hill, Beccii remembering “It absolutely poured with rain all morning, so we had to cancel our long awaited horse and cart arrival and outdoor ceremony and improvise our wedding inside the reception venue.”
After she walked down the aisle with her father to Matt Corby’s “Resolution” Beccii and Nathaniel were married by Ross Brown. “We wanted to share our feelings about the commitment we’ve already made to each other, and invite our family and friends to celebrate and remind them they’ve all contributed to our lives leading to this beautiful occasion” remembers the bride. “We asked our bridal party and family if anyone wanted to do a reading and my cousin/bridesmaid Sabrina put her hand up, and decided to surprise us with her choice of reading (below) It was a really nice touch for us to hear it for the first time as she read it during our ceremony. We had our Mums sign as witnesses which was important to us to recognise it was about a union of two.”
“When the one whose hand you’re holding
Is the one one who holds your heart
When the one whose eyes you gaze into
Gives your hopes and dreams their start,
When the one you think of first and last
Is the one who holds you tight,
And the things you plan together
Make the whole world seem just right,
When the one whom you believe in
puts their faith and trust in you,
You’ve found the one and only love
You’ll share your whole life through
(anonymous)”
Poppies on the Hill hosted both the ceremony and reception. “We browsed a couple of venues online while we decided whether we wanted to elope or have a wedding, but our decision was quickly obvious. Bunya Mountains was the first place we had a getaway together and a favourite to go back to each year (and almost our proposal backdrop). Once we realised there was a venue that we could easily host the kind of wedding we wanted we booked it within the first month of being engaged.”
“As much as the rain changed so many of our plans, Bunya was the greenest and magical we’ve ever seen it, and it was a beautiful time to share our favourite place with our guests. Our backup ceremony meant we got married by the fireplace which was really romantic, and we ended up getting some really dreamy photos in the mist as the rain cleared for us.”
The couple used smoke bombs for a little added colour in their photographs. “We always laugh when we think about the smoke bombs, we had 4 but only used 2 because they were so much more intense than we expected! Our groomsmen lit them before jumping off to the side and ended up smothered in smoke, there was so much laughing and coughing and running around trying to make the most of the 4 minutes of bright smoke. I think the shots were worth it though!”
The bride found her bouquets on Etsy store La Plume De Fleur, she remarks “I adored all our florals. They were exactly what I wanted and looked perfect against my dress – even though I had purchased my bouquet first. I bought all the bouquets, buttonholes and cake florals from the same supplier and it really tied everything and everyone together.”
Beccii notes “I really cannot say enough good things about Tina and Doruk from Lovelenscapes Photography. They were by our side for the whole journey, planning timelines and logistics to not just capture every moment but keep our day running smoothly. They kept me calm as the rain washed away most of our plans for photos, herded the bridal party together to run out when there was a break in the rain and were able to find stunning locations.”
Beccii handmade many of the wedding details herself, she did her own makeup, her photographer made the flower crown and her mum styled her hair. “Doing all the planning and styling ourselves was a big project. I spent so many months planning and sourcing all the different details and accessories myself. We even made our own scented candles as wedding favours. I’m so sentimental and smells can take me right back to a memory so making our own scented candles was a beautiful touch. We loved making them together and then had them scattered across the venue to allow the smell to fill the room. We had two scents and colours, so guests could fight over their fave. I also designed the signs and wedding programs with floral clip-art purchased on Etsy.
The bride’s parents surprised the newlyweds with live music. “My parents organised for a family friend do a surprise acoustic cover set as we had dinner and we really felt the love. All the guests were singing along to songs like Wonderwall and it was a really memorable moment.”
The couple took a different approach to speeches. “Rather than sticking to a list of who ‘should’ give speeches, we asked who wanted to and were surprised when in the end all six members of our bridal party and both our fathers gave heartfelt and hilarious speeches. We were even surprised with Nat getting passed on a family heirloom pocket watch.”
“We had a very non-traditional wedding, there was nothing that stood out to us that we needed to include so we made it up as we went. One thing I loved doing to include both sides of the family is having all the parents involved during the father-daughter dance. While I danced with my father, Nat danced with his mother. Then I eventually asked his father to dance, and Nat danced with my mother. It felt like a sweet way to focus on the union of two families.”
Of their first dance, Beccii tells “We danced to This Old Love by Lior which was the perfect way to slow down such a big day. We knew we would get a chance to have a relaxed dance later in the night, so for the first dance we just held each other and danced slowly, taking in the day by the same fireplace we said ‘I do’.”
I could not love Beccii’s approach to planning the wedding more. “If there was anything I didn’t look forward to planning, I just skipped/excluded it from the wedding. I focused on our priorities so that we had the time to plan everything we wanted really well. I especially loved the styling decisions and purchases, which are now also influencing some of my decisions for our home renovations and decoration.”
Congratulations Beccii and Nathan! Thank you for sharing the stories of your beautiful day with us! Thank you also to Lovelenscapes for sharing today’s celebration with us!
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