Tasmanian Backyard Wedding With Marquee

Amy & Cameron

Tasmania has put on all kinds of shows for us this month. From intimate celebrations by mountains to something modern and glam and today? Amy and Cameron’s backyard bonanza is evidence of a State that knows how to throw a party. Firstly, let’s talk about Amy’s ah-mah-zing embroidered wedding gown (Needle & Thread for those of you playing at home). I think I want it just to wear it every day (while writing about weddings like this one, but of course!). The intimacy of this backyard celebration, the festivity of the gorgeous, foliage-filled marquee and the stunning imagery by Jon Gazzignato make this wedding an absolute show stopper.

And this day? It was very much Cameron and Amy. The pair wanted to make sure they planned the day together, they included only people and traditions that they loved, and this very pact started with their “proposal”. Amy explaining “Our proposal story is kind of like the story of how we met (at university when we became friends at college) – there wasn’t a specific moment or event. In the same way, we decided we wanted our friendship to become a relationship, we decided we wanted our relationship to become a marriage. We never really make decisions not as a team and so it was kind of unfathomable that one of us would be able to keep something like that a secret. I know that works for some people, it just didn’t suit us. The exciting surprise for us was then getting to tell people we were engaged – and we made a really big effort to do this in person for as many people as possible.” The bride’s engagement ring remade from a special ring of her grandmothers.

Although from Newcastle, Amy and Cameron chose Cameron’s grandmother’s garden for their wedding. “We had the wedding in Cameron’s maternal grandmother’s garden” shares the bride. “It is a beautiful garden on top of a hill in Hobart, which overlooks the city. We really wanted to have the ceremony and reception in the same place, so the ceremony was in the corner of the garden, overlooking the view, and the reception was mainly in a marquee at the other end of the yard.

A lot of people asked us why we chose Hobart when we live in Newcastle and neither of us grew up there. I have a very small family and Cameron has a very large family, but they are all spread out over the country (with some friends abroad), which meant we invited people from almost every state and territory. A lot of people were going to have to travel, regardless of location.

We both loved the idea of a wedding at a private property, where it could feel like a big dinner party and there was no curfew/end time. Neither of our parents’ properties were very convenient (Darwin and Gunnedah) or appropriate, nor was our own home in Newcastle. We also didn’t feel particularly strongly about it being in any of those places.

Trips to Hobart for Cameron, and later for Cameron and I, have always been very family focused. He has an incredibly kind and welcoming extended family who live there and his Grandmother’s house has always been the hub during visits there. Plus, it’s a beautiful location!”

Cameron and his best man chose navy suits at Rundle Tailoring (completely with polka dot ties!)

Amy walked down the aisle with both her mother and her father, she explains “I walked down the aisle to ‘Norwegian Wood’ by The Beatles, with both of my parents. Initially, I had figured it would only be my dad, but then as my brother was part of the ceremony, it left my mum as the only person in my family without a part, so I asked them both. She was stoked to do it.”

Amy and Cameron had a particular vibe in mind for their ceremony, choosing Danielle Stephens to officiate. “I think we probably felt the strongest about the ceremony being a certain way. We wanted it to be short and meaningful, with no lengthy readings. We found the idea of a stranger speaking intimately about us a couple very weird and initially had hoped to have a friend as the celebrant, but it’s a fairly expensive and involved process. We ended up finding our celebrant online, and she was absolutely perfect. We knew she was on the same page as us when her website said she specifically avoided the word ‘journey’ and talking about the couple as though she knew us better than our friends and family. She was excellent, and the ceremony was intimate, fun and not cliched at all. Short but sweet!”

Once the couple were married, Chef Paul Foreman served up Aperol Spritz cocktails and roving canapes. “Our chef, Paul, and his front of house, Jared, were great. We really wanted to celebrate the amazing food available in Tassie and we allotted the biggest part of our budget to food. The food was incredible – we have had many people say to us that it was the best food they’ve ever had at a wedding. The staff they had working on the day were also great.”

These two ditched the idea of a traditional wedding party. “Instead of a bridal party, we decided only to have a best man each. We both have one sibling, a younger brother, and so it was perfect to have them with us in the ceremony. It also made organising the bridal party very simple!”

Amy chose a stunning embroidered gown by Needle & Thread. She shares “I didn’t set out not wanting to wear a white dress, but I knew that I felt very intimidated by the process of fittings at a wedding dress store. I was looking at different brands online and completely fell in love with the dress that I chose. I knew I wanted something with beading/embroidery, and I love to wear colour, so the fact that the embroidery was colourful felt very me. Our next-door neighbour is a seamstress and so she did the alterations.”

Amy and Cameron highly recommend their photographer Jon. “Our photographer was a total legend. His style was exactly what we wanted. He also made us feel incredibly comfortable when taking the couple photos – which we were worried about. It was also really important to us that we had photos of our guests and of the dancing, as well as just us.”

Amy and Cameron decorated their marquee reception with fresh, native flowers from Just Flowers Tasmania. “We wanted largely native flowers, to complement the garden surroundings” explains the bride. “We were lucky to have a lot of people around the week before the wedding and so we ordered the flowers wholesale from Just Flowers Tasmania and arranged them ourselves. We also made the bouquet and boutonnières ourselves from these flowers. The hanging greenery was also homemade – my mum is an artist who works a lot with wire and she made the bases. The greenery was all from the bushland around the property and very kindly tied to the bases largely by Cameron’s aunt and cousin’s partner. We were very lucky to have so many people around to help and it was a nice (only sometimes stressful) time that we got to spend with family and friends before the day. It also meant a lot of people were able to be involved in the preparations for the wedding, which gave it a really lovely feel.”

Brown bottles from their favourite local Newcastle cold brew coffee shop and some of the groom’s favourite breweries were just the beginning of how Amy and Cameron infused their personality into the day. “We wanted the wedding to feel like a big (but intimate) dinner party that also happened to have a ceremony at the start. Neither of us felt particularly comfortable having all of the attention on us the entire day, so when planning it we focused on it being an opportunity to celebrate with people. We never chose a specific theme, but it was outdoors and so a lot of the décor reflected the beautiful garden we were in, with mainly wooden tables/chairs, natural colours, native/plant-based decorations and really simple everything else. Anything that wasn’t natural ended up being navy blue and white, but that was really more of a decision we made as everything came together, rather than a plan from the start.”

Not only did Cameron’s grandmother host the wedding, but she also made the wedding cake!

“We loved the fact that we didn’t include any traditions that we found impersonal, just because they were traditional, made it special” shares Amy. “We didn’t invite people we don’t have a relationship with, we didn’t have a lengthy ceremony, we took minimum amount of time for bridal party/couple photos possible, we didn’t have an introduction to the reception or a cake cutting. We maximised time with our family and friends, actually enjoying our party, and that made it feel very personalised to us.”

The first dance was one of the only nods to tradition for these two, tells the bride “Our first dance was to ‘Delete’ by the DMAs. It was one of the only attention-on-the-couple moment we chose to do (we didn’t do an introduction into the reception or cake cutting) and we felt super awkward. I asked people to come up and dance with us basically as soon as we started. The song is beautiful though!”

And that full dance floor? All thanks to live band Detour. “The band were perfect and I think the entire party was on the dance floor by the end,” remembers Amy.