Casey & Callum

I have such romantic imagery in my head of apple orchard weddings and Casey & Callum certainly didn’t stop my apple orchard dreams with their beautifully cosy, country orchard wedding. Not only did the pair honour their family (they used handcrafted by the bride’s grandfather, apple crates as reception decor!) but they also honoured their location, the bride even driving herself to the wedding on a tractor! I’m so thrilled Georgia Verrells was there to capture it in her beautiful way so we have the chance to share it with you today!

After meeting many moons ago in high school, it was on a camping trip that Callum popped the question. Casey shares “We love adventures and camping, so we decided to go camping one weekend in winter. Right now we live in the country so we headed for the beach. Callum decided that we should get some nice photographs of ourselves with his fancy camera, so as soon as we got there we headed to a beautiful break wall on the ocean. Unfortunately, there were fishermen everywhere, so I suggested that we go for a walk along the beach at sunrise instead and get photos then. So, at 5:30 am in the freezing cold, Callum dragged me out of my sleeping bag – and I whined about not wanting to put on makeup because it was too early, and couldn’t we just get photos later? He convinced me to put on my makeup in our ute’s rear-vision mirror, and off we went. He waited for the perfect time with the sun, set up his camera to a continuous burst, and got me to stand in front of it to get the settings right. When he was convinced it was the right time, he came over and dropped to one knee – he forgot everything that he had planned to say because he was so nervous, and somehow asked me to marry him! It was perfect for us, and I had no idea!”

The bride chose a strapless lace gown designed by Stella York. She shares “Stella York gown in the style 6385. I didn’t have an exact idea of what I wanted when it came to my dress – but I did know that I definitely wanted a dress that I could wear my cowboy boots with! I went to four shops in one day, and the last shop suggested I try on this dress. It looked stunning. As soon as I put it on I knew I would feel so comfortable and happy in it – it felt as though it was made to fit my body! It also fits our orchard scenery, and the fact that I wanted a huge, wild, native bouquet”

Casey and Callum chose apple orchard, Glenbernie Orchard,  for their big day. Casey says “The venue we chose is very special to us – it is my family’s 4th generation orchard. My great-grandfather moved his family there in 1939. Where we held the ceremony is one of mine (and my Dad’s) favourite parts of the orchard, and I used to play down there as a child. It was also where Callum and I went on one of our very first ‘dates’.”

My uncle is very talented at playing the didgeridoo, so we were very lucky to have him play for all the guests before the ceremony started. It was great, as where the ceremony was located is in a gully, and the didgeridoo echoed beautifully” shares the bride.

 

The bride arrived by tractor! Casey explains “For my entrance to the ceremony, instead of hiring fancy cars, I drove my grandfather’s prized old Grey Ferguson tractor. I also had my Dad drive my bridesmaids and flower girls in with a Ferguson Tractor too – they were being towed in apple bins! Everyone thought it was great that I drove myself – they were all expecting me to be driven in. The Ferguson tractors have been used by my family on the orchard since the 1950’s, so it was incredible to use them on our big day.”

Casey had chosen “Unless (Like We Used To)” by The McClymonts for her walk down the aisle, but things didn’t quite go as planned! She shares “On the day, it was so cold and wet that the P.A. system did not work, so my Dad walked me down the aisle to the sound of birds and rain. I did not care though – it was beautiful and there was something really nice about walking down to the sounds of nature.”

Casey & Callum were married by The Master of Ceremony – Adam Straney . “We chose him because we wanted our ceremony to be lighthearted and fun – which it was! We did not want it to be long, and we wanted it to reflect our personalities – which it did! Adam told the story of ‘us’. He had sent us both questions separately before the day to answer about each other, and read our (conflicting) answers for the first time during the ceremony which made everyone laugh! All of our guests thought he was actually a good friend of ours” tells the bride. The pair marrying under an arbour made by the couple themselves.

“My favourite part of wedding planning was probably sitting down with Callum and talking about how we wanted the day and night to happen!” shares the bride. “It was so exciting thinking that there was going to be a day just for us, celebrating us and that we could do exactly what we wanted, and how we wanted it.”

Despite a broken leg, Lily Pad Floral Design made floral magic for Casey & Callum – delivering on the bride’s dream of a lush wild bouquet. Casey shares “The flowers were one of my favourite parts of the day! All florals were done by Rochelle from Lily Pad Floral Design, and my goodness I cannot speak highly enough of her. I wanted a huge, wild, unstructured bouquet full of natives. I also wanted our arbour with huge floral arrangements, and our reception full of greenery – including gigantic hanging installations. Rochelle went above and beyond – not to mention completing it all with a broken leg! She helped us forage in the bush on our property for a lot of the greenery, which made it even more special. She even styled our whole reception for us with bits and pieces of farm items she found. We are still getting compliments on how spectacular the florals were – and I still cannot believe just how stunning they were. I have honestly never seen a bouquet so beautiful in my life!”

The bride tells of their photographer “Georgia Verrells is an incredible photographer. Her style is relaxed and candid – she tries to not get too many ‘posed’ shots, which is exactly what we were after! She has this magical ability to capture people beautifully – and has just the right amount of ‘sass’ to order people around when trying to get shots (this was important for us with a huge bridal party and a wedding with 250 people! Her photos are stunning, and they really tell a story. We couldn’t have asked for a more incredible photographer.”

The (working!) farm shed hosted the bush dance inspired reception, tells Casey. “The reception was held in our commercial packing shed. We cleared all of the machinery that we could out and lined the venue with huge apple bins to hide the machinery that was too big to take out. We couldn’t have imagined getting married anywhere else, it was very special.”

Casey’s sister in law made the beautiful, semi-naked, three-tier wedding cake, the day filled with family touches. “We also used small apple boxes to decorate our packing shed for the reception that was built by my great grandfather” shares Casey.

Although the speeches were a highlight for the reception for the newlyweds, it was the bush band, Swamp Dawkins that really holds her heart! She explains “As soon as we began planning the wedding, we knew we wanted to make it fun and different. We decided that we wanted to do a bush dance! I had a bush dance for my 21st birthday and the band we had (Swamp Dawkins) were incredible – so we decided to have them again for our wedding! It was the best decision we made. Everyone from the young children to grandparent-aged danced! It was such a great way for people to get to know each other, and they didn’t have to sit next to or talk to people they didn’t want to. It also meant that we had a great time dancing and laughing with everybody too! We are still receiving so many compliments, with everyone remarking that it was the best and most fun wedding they’ve ever been to.”

The McClymonts sung the newlyweds their first dance, Casey remembers “For our first dance we chose “Forever Begins Tonight” by The McClymonts. We danced to this song together at the Deni Ute Muster last year, and we knew it had to be our wedding song. Whenever I stop and listen to the lyrics I always cry!”

Casey and Callum’s stunning day was beautifully filmed by Adam Rozmus.

A big congratulations to Casey & Callum! Thank you so much for sharing your stories with us! Thank you also to Georgia Verrells for sharing today’s celebration!