Lauren & Drew

If there is one place one can always find inspiration, it’s an art gallery, so what better way to start a new phase of life together than with a world of inspiration surrounding you? Lauren & Drew did just that. “We planned everything from London, which obviously poses many challenges, one of which is the venue location. We couldn’t visit sites and had to rely on past experiences and websites. Many of the typical wedding venues didn’t feel right for us and when we realised that you can book the Art Gallery for a wedding, we knew it would suit our style.” The beautiful, modern space of the art gallery just the beginning to what we fell in love with for Lauren & Drew’s day. The photography by Full Hearts Wedding Co. rounding out a story that we can’t wait to tell!

The pair met at a party in Wollongong when they were just 16. Lauren falling in love pretty instantly with Drew’s ability to make her laugh, the pair moving into together and then to Copenhagen 12 years later. It was in London that Drew made the big move to ask Lauren to marry him. She tells “We lived together in Copenhagen up until 2016 when we moved to London. In December 2016 we went back to Copenhagen to visit some friends and we got up early to cycle around the city. We came to this beautiful new bridge by Olafur Eliasson called the Cirkelboen and Drew wanted to get off the bike to take a pic. Unbeknownst to me, he really wanted to get down on one knee and propose. It was perfect, our friends were great actors in helping Drew to pull off the proposal and then we celebrated all afternoon.”

Lauren walked down the aisle with her father to Leviathan by Dylan Rippon. “The best part of the day was definitely having all of our friends and family together in one place, especially seeing those we haven’t seen since we left Australia. Walking down the aisle and seeing faces you haven’t been able to see for years made it even more special” tells Lauren.

Lauren and Drew chose a headland overlooking the sea for their ceremony, explaining “For the ceremony, we chose a park on a headland which overlooks Wollongong’s North Beach. This is a very special spot for us because when we lived in our apartment we would go to this park almost every weekend to sit, chat, laugh and drink a coffee, so it was a place with lots of lovely memories.”

Lorraine Lehman Jones performed the ceremony. “We wanted our ceremony to be relaxed and full of love and laughter. Luckily the weather was perfect and our celebrant did a wonderful job in keeping the ceremony personal and relaxed” tells Lauren.

Shares the bride “Our favourite photo is from the ceremony where Drew and I are holding hands and having a big laugh because Drew misheard then misrepeated the vows the celebrant told him. In the background, you can see all of our friends and family laughing too.”

The bride made sure to honour her grandmother on the day, telling “My grandma was too ill to attend the wedding, which was obviously very upsetting for me but my aunt kindly let me borrow my grandma’s special gold bangles for the wedding. Ever since I was born my grandma has worn these bangles every day and this was such a thoughtful touch and made me feel like my grandma was with me on the day.”

The bridal party and ceremony flowers were styled by Wildflower Florist with bold natives. Lauren says “All of the bouquets, boutonnieres, large arbour piece and flower crowns were all by a local Wollongong florist called Wildflower. I arranged all of this from London and they were so helpful and easy to work with.”

“We had all of our siblings in the wedding party, which was really important to us. Drew had his brother and two best friends and I had my sister, my best friend and Drew’s sister. My super cute nieces were our flower girls and my brother-in-law was our fantastic MC.”

 

Of their photographer, Lauren tells “Laura from Full Hearts Wedding Co. is incredibly talented. She was always so professional, responsive and accommodating to our wishes and planning it from London was such a breeze with her. On the day she was so calm and friendly and when we got the photos back we were absolutely thrilled with her natural style of photography.”

The bride found her gown in London at Ghost London. She remembers “As we live in London I needed to purchase something over here as I was only arriving in Australia one week before the wedding – a little crazy I know! I really wanted something simple, but had given myself a very tight budget. I found a boutique in Chelsea called ‘Ghost’ and as soon as I tried it on I loved the dress and purchased it then and there. Luckily, it travelled really well as it is a slim dress.”

Lauren and Drew celebrated with their guests at Wollongong Art Gallery. Lauren telling “The space turned out to be perfect for our needs and we loved the fact that it was a unique space. On the night we had guests tell us that they had lived in Wollongong all their lives, but had never been to that space before.”

Each guest was gifted by a special note from the couple, tells the bride. “We made personalised name tags for our guests and wrote individual messages to each person. Often we included a mutual joke and these were fun to write.”

Lauren and Drew made the most of the space and decorated it themselves. “The Art Gallery was really a blank canvas (pardon the pun) so we decorated the entire space which was lots of fun. My sister helped us get all the table flowers from the Sydney Flower Market on the day before the wedding and we had a team of friends and family help us transform the empty space into the reception area.”

Guests enjoyed a table of decadent desserts, inspired by a friend. Lauren sharing “Last year we went to a friend’s wedding in Norway and it is a Norwegian tradition to have a dessert table where close family members make cakes and bring them to the wedding. We really wanted to adopt this tradition and so my sister made our wedding cake (she used to be a chef, so it was delicious), my mother made her famous raspberry slice and Drew’s mum also brought a cake. It was a really nice touch and they all went down very nicely with our guests.”

The newlyweds hosted a sit-down feast catered by Bill and James Catering. Lauren sharing “Laura our photographer and our caterer Aaron were both such wonderful people to work with and made planning a wedding from the other side of the world a fun experience. Our graphic designer, Luke, is great fun and we worked through the designs here in London. Drew’s cousin Tobi from CMG AV brought a lot of creative energy to make a great atmosphere.”

Lauren and Drew paid homage to their London home with their choice of first dance song. “We love Rudimental, which is a London-based band and so we chose their song ‘I Will for Love’ (acoustic version) as we felt it represented us as a couple” tells Lauren.

A big congratulations on your marriage Lauren & Drew! Thank you for sharing your beautiful day with us. Thank you also to Full Hearts Wedding Co. for sharing today’s beautiful day with us!