Jasmine & Toby

The elements couldn’t dampen the fun of this rustic and laidback affair celebrated at Sunnystones in Bacchus Marsh. With friends who came from around the country, Jasmine and Toby enjoyed heartfelt songs from friends and beautiful moments captured by Louisa Jones Photography. The chosen wedding colours stood out against the natural palette of the Australian bush. Bride Jasmine shares and details the day she and Toby said ‘I do’!

We met back in high school in 2004 in Regional Victoria. However, we didn’t start dating until 2010, when I moved away for university in Geelong. We have now been together for 9 and a half years!

My dress was from Essense of Australia, a vintage A-line gown that I purchased at Bridal House Geelong. The first time dress shopping was quite overwhelming, but thankfully I went with my bridesmaid Ashlee and had the expertise of Venessa at Bridal house!

Our bridal party was made up of:

Bride side Maid of Honour: Laura (Childhood best friend) Bridesmaid: Ashlee (Friend) Bridesman: Doug (Friend) Bridesmaid: Jessica (Friend)

Groom side Best man: Guy (Childhood best friend) Groomsman: Joel (Toby’s Brother) Groomsmaid: Sian (Toby’s Sister) Groomsman: Marshall (Friend)

On the day, the heirlooms I used were a few of my grandmothers things. Her jewellery box, mirror, bracelet and brooch of a tandem bike (Ironically the man has with a purple suit). I also really wanted peacock chairs (mostly because I love them) but I wanted to recreate a photo of me from when I was little.

I knew I wanted deep burgundy boho flowers with long flowing ribbons, my bridesmaid Jessica started a wedding hire business making amazing artificial flower arrangements. She created a bouquet that I could keep in my home as a reminder of our wedding day.

Toby’s suit was actually the first decision that was made for the wedding. Two weeks after we got engaged, Toby asked completely out of the blue, if he could wear a purple suit. I was pretty thrown by this and spent months researching, only to find it’s very difficult to find a purple/burgundy 3 piece suit! I found a local suit maker (Jeff Gibson Suits in Torquay) that was able to source us fabric samples and make the suit from scratch.

We wanted a festival/camp vibe wedding and loved the idea of having a weekend long wedding, where guests could stay on the property. They had the option to BYO tent or stay in one of the ‘glamping’ tipi’s or alternatively, stay in the camp bunk dorms in the homestead. The property was 50 hectares on the Brisbane ranges with stunning views over the valley, Australian bush with plenty of wildlife which reminded us of home – and great facilities to use!

I walked down the aisle to ‘Bloom’ by The Paper Kites.

We actually moved our whole wedding at the last minute due to horrible weather. Originally, both the ceremony and reception was set up on the hill site. The ceremony was moved to under the gum trees and the rain held off until we said “I do”, but we then had to run inside for the signing! We just wanted a relaxed ceremony. We had a bubbly, amazing celebrant Jessie Belle. We didn’t have any formal readings but my best friend Doug sang & played piano for us. He played “I’ll keep you safe”by Sleeping At Last.

A really special detail of our day was that we asked our mums to be our witnesses to sign our marriage certificate! It was a really beautiful moment.

A favourite part of the day was going on our bridal photoshoot! I really enjoyed it and we had a quiet hour by ourselves to enjoy the day and location while our photographer captured it.

Our photographer Louisa was so amazing! We actually booked her very early on, before anything else. I loved how colourful and vibrant her photos were and she has a great easy-going personality.

We had so many great vendors it’s hard to choose our favourite or best one. All of our guests raved about the delicious homemade pizzas from Roam’n’Pizza and how great our celebrant was. Especially moving the whole wedding smoothly inside when it started raining mid ceremony.

Our DIY elements included the invitations/stationary, signage, macrame felt boutonnieres & hair pieces, décor, and the wedding cake that I made!

We took dance lessons at the Geelong School of Dance, we found it such a fun date night leading up to the wedding. We had our first dance under festoon lights surrounded by loved ones to the song ‘You are the reason’ by Calum Scott.

Our advice for newlyweds-to-be is – and it’s going to sound very cliché, but don’t overthink things and get hung up on the details, as things don’t always go to plan. I also thought “that would never happen to me”, but when it came to our wedding, we had horrific weather and our marquee flew away. Even our backup weather plan had to change! But don’t worry, because on the day and looking back, you realise how silly those small details and timelines are and things will just flow. Also, trust your vendors and ask for help! I would have been a wreck if it wasn’t for my bridal party and coordinator on the day!

Ms Zebra Says: These two simply look SO in love and we wish them all the happiness as they start their new venture as husband and wife! Thank you for sharing your special day with us!