Caitlin & Chris

There is a reason that elegance never goes out of style. For Caitlin and Chris, the beauty of their chosen country venue, just outside of Bowral set the scene for a family filled celebration to unfold. There were beautifully chosen details, there were beautiful settings, beautiful gowns and suits. But what never strayed far from their minds as they planned, was the presence of family and friends. Their son Heston, was always at the centre of their plans, their wedding party honoured with a couple of bottles of champagne and quality time, and their dance floor, full of magic despite the rain. It was just as it should be and thanks to beautiful imagery by Good Thanks Media we get to share it all with you today!

A Sydney night out led these two together. “We met in the line at SOHO night club in Kings Cross. Chris was out on a boys night and I was there for a friend’s birthday. Chris’ friend asked if they could line up with us and the rest is history.” Chris popped the question at home, aptly, with Heston present.

Caitlin knew which dress was the one long before she became engaged. She explains “My dress was the Carina Gown by Karen Willis Holmes. I found my dress on Pinterest years ago when my sister was getting married. I pinned it for myself and the moment we got engaged I already knew. I went into their Paddington store to try it on. There was 1 left in Australia and it was two sizes too big! I pretty much held my breath until the seamstress confirmed she would be able to take it in!”

Wearing a suit every day for work, Chris chose a tuxedo from MJ Bale for something a little different.

Caitlin and Chris held both their ceremony and reception at beautiful county venue Merribee.”We wanted everything to be on one site and we wanted to make a weekend of it. We had previously picked a venue in Sydney in the city but I found Merribee House on Instagram and we knew instantly that was the venue for our wedding!”

Lush floral arrangements were styled in greens and white by Moss Nest. “I had all the say in the flowers” tells the bride.  “I opted for just fresh white flowers with some greenery. For our decoration, we added a lot of green foliage to give it a whimsical feel.”

Caitlin walked down the aisle with her mother to John Mayer’s cover of “XO”. “Our son Heston stood down the end of the aisle with Chris, so walking down to my two favourite boys was a highlight. They’re best friends so seeing them share that moment together was beautiful,” remembers Caitlin.

It was important to the bride and groom that their ceremony be relaxed, and they enlisted Danielle Fleming to make it official, sharing “We just wanted something very easy and simple. We didn’t want anything too long and we wanted people to have a laugh with us as well. We didn’t do any readings but we did write our own vows. In that, we made one promise to each, stated one thing we love about the other and one thing we are grateful for about the other.”

And then? It was time to celebrate! “We made sure we had a good portion of time alone with the bridal party” explains the bride. “After the ceremony we took a few bottles of champagne up to the main house and had some canapés bought up to us and we hung out for about 40 minutes just the bridal party. We also put a time limit on photos so we were able to spend about 45 minutes after photos with all of our other guests before we sat down to dinner. Everyone travelled so far to be there so we really wanted to maximize our time with everyone.”

Caitlin and Chris loved their photographer. “Kat was amazing. We chose her because she was a photographer at a friend’s wedding and took a beautiful candid photo of us that we love. We didn’t want anything too staged and we just wanted to feel comfortable and natural. She was great with Heston as well when we visited her so it was such an easy choice for us.”

There could not be a more romantic first dance – under festoon lights as the rain poured down, Caitlin and Chris danced to an acoustic version of “Home” by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. The bride remembers “This is one of our favourite songs and we’ve always known that’s what it would be. It rained during our first dance and at one point we tossed up waiting for the rain to disappear before we did. We are so glad we didn’t because the photos are just so beautiful and so different from any other first dance photos. Our friend was the DJ so he somehow managed to mix in Shooting Stars by Bag Raiders to the end of our first dance and we kicked off the party from that.”

A day like this calls for plenty of storytelling, so the newlyweds enlisted Hunter Capture to capture this film of their day as it unfolded.

A big congratulations to you both Caitlin and Chris! Thank you for sharing your beautiful day with us. Thank you also to Good Thanks Media for today’s beautiful images!