Megan & Danny

Megan and Danny’s South Australian wedding is nothing short of charming. It’s charming for its sweet little farm setting. It’s charming because of the bright yellow sunflowers, the donut wall and the show-stealing flower girl and ring bearer. It’s charming because Megan and Danny made it completely theirs. This is a day that will warm the cockles of your heart and thanks to Cast in Colour’s photographs, we get to share each and every moment with you!

They met through netball. Says Megan, “I was a regular on my sister’s mixed netball team and we needed a fill-in so she posted on Facebook for someone to play. Danny and Lauren (my sister) went to the same school and also had mutual friends on the team so he helped fill in and we hit it off straight away!”

It was New Year’s Eve and a Harry Potter marathon that led Danny to finally pop the question. Megan sharing, “We had been re-watching the Harry Potter movies one by one (we are fans of the movies and books) and on New Year’s Eve we were up to number 6. As we were watching the movie and it got closer to midnight, Danny paused the movie and said we should watch the fireworks. He went into the bedroom (I thought he was going to the loo) and comes out with the number 6 novel, the Half-Blood Prince. I was a bit confused but then he got on one knee, opened the book to the chapter ‘The Unbreakable Vow’ and he had cut out the pages to hold a ring on some ribbon. He asked me to marry him and I was completely shocked as I wasn’t expecting it but of course, I said ‘yes!'”

The bride visited Adelaide Bridal Emporium to find her gown. She explains, “I have never really had a picture of what my wedding day would be like prior to it but I knew what style of dress I wanted. My only hope was that the style actually suited me so I went dress shopping with my mum, my mum in law, my husband’s nanna, my bridesmaids and sister. My dress was a vintage style, full lace gown with an open back and buttons down the long train. I also added on three-quarter sleeves. The moment I put it on I just knew it was the one and everyone started crying so that confirmed it! The ladies at Adelaide Bridal Emporium were amazing and I would highly recommend them for dresses as well as alterations.”

It was important for Megan to honour members of her family, so she did something wonderfully traditional. “I did the ‘something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue’. New – my dress. Borrowed and blue was my mum’s sapphire earrings. Old – my mum and my mum-in-law took a bit off of their wedding dresses and sewed it to the inside of my dress.”

The day was set at the sweet country venue of Al Ru Farm. “We used Al Ru for everything! I stayed there the night before with one of my bridesmaids and we then used that room for everyone to get ready in and get our hair and makeup done for the day. We then used the white rose garden for the ceremony, the lily pond lawns for the family photos, the main lawns for our cocktail hour and the barn for our reception. We also used the hay shed with the fireplace set up and some vintage couches as an outdoor, undercover area for guests to mingle if they wanted to get away from the music inside. Inside the barn, we had the dance floor with some high tables as well as some low tables and chairs for guests to sit down. Everyone loved the use of the different spaces!”

Although the day was about Megan and Danny, there were two little shining stars who took all the attention. Megan explains, “One [moment] that I love; my nephew Ethan and Lilah the flower girl stole the show. Everyone loved them so much and they looked adorable walking down the aisle together. They both danced the night away with all of us and were up til 11pm! When I asked Ethan and Lilah on the night what happened that day they said that Danny and I got married and then they also got married as well. Even now Ethan thinks that they are still married!”

Megan chose ‘Here Comes The Sun’ by The Beatles to play as she walked down the aisle with her father.

Megan and Danny were married by Victoria Edwards. “We had quite a low key ceremony that went for 15 minutes. We had the amazing Vic Edwards as our celebrant who made us both feel so comfortable on the day.”

Being far away during their planning, Megan and Danny enlisted stylist Minty Mary Pea to pull their day together. “Shout out to Laura from Minty Mary Pea who pretty much-decorated everything for the day from the ceremony to the reception,” cheers Megan. “I loved the little touches of the decorations that Laura put together. As we had since moved to Melbourne and I was planning a wedding in Adelaide it was too hard for me to do DIY! I ended up using a couple of amazing vendors and they were a dream to work with. They brought my vision to life and made it so much better then I could have imagined.”

The bride worked with Bud & Berry to create bouquets of her very favourite flower. “I chose sunflowers as they are my favourite! I love that they make the wedding photos pop with colour and compliment my dress and the rest of the bridal party’s outfits so well.”

Roaming around the farm for photos was one of Megan’s favourite parts of the day. “Claire and Martin were just amazing. They made us both feel so comfortable as they knew we both didn’t like getting photos taken. We had so much fun with them and they produced the most amazing photos. Their service was amazing, and the day after the wedding we got our sneak peek photos which I expected maybe five photos but I think we got at least 30! I would highly recommend and they are worth every cent!”

After dark, guests gathered inside the barn for a cocktail reception – topped off with doughnuts! Tells Megan, “I wouldn’t say we had anywhere near a traditional wedding. We had a very short ceremony, and we did very little formalities for the reception. We went straight into the first dance, followed by the speeches and then it was just a huge party of drinking, eating and dancing! I wanted it to be casual and we loved the idea of maximising the entire property of Al Ru and using the different areas. We also loved having a cocktail wedding as it was a lot more casual for us and we loved that we could mingle and spend time with all of our guests.”

Guests were entertained with a live caricature artist.

Megan and Danny took to the dance floor to a favourite tune, noting, “We chose John Mayer’s cover of ‘XO’. He was the first concert we saw together and loved the acoustic version that he sang. We wanted to keep the dance low key and get it out of the way (we both don’t like being the centre of attention) so we started the reception with us going straight into the first dance.”

Megan and Danny kept the guest list small. “50 guests including us and the wedding party. Pretty much all family except half of the wedding party and their partners. Made it so intimate and we could honestly say that every single person there, we wanted there.”

A big congratulations to you both Megan and Danny! Thank you for sharing your beautiful day with us. Thank you also to Cast in Colour for sharing today’s beautiful celebration.