Rustic Swan Valley Wedding With Shades Of Blue

Louise & Michael

Do you know what we love? Relaxed weddings days that are just full of relaxed beauty. There’s a natural backdrop, a sweet ceremony, a celebration and a story. That’s all we need to fall in love with a day, that and a beautiful story of love. That simple combination, and plenty of romantic, country style exactly what Louise and Michael had and exactly what we need to kickstart this work day.

With Woodvine + Co behind the camera, the pair took over a winery in the beautiful Swan Valley and set about planning a day that was all about their vision of a “rustic, romantic and fun” day. From the bride’s elegant lace dress to the hanging (yes hanging!) grazing table and the beautiful details in between. It’s just the ticket to kick off a week!

These two met as teenagers. “Michael and I met through our very good friend Luke when we were both quite young. I was 16 at the time and Michael was 18 and Luke invited me to a party which Michael was hosting, I’d never met Michael until this night and the next day I had a friend request on social media and a message from him asking if I wanted to hang out sometime…the rest is history!”

History which we get to share! Louise also filled us in on how the proposal unfolded. “Michael proposed to me on Christmas morning which was very unexpected. He was awake and out of bed before me and he told me to take my time getting ready he would go and make us breakfast. I love Christmas so I was excited to give Michael his gifts, he said to me as I walked out to the kitchen “just before we give gifts come out the back I have something out here to show you” and as I walked out I saw the words “WILL YOU MARRY ME” painted on our back fence with a bottle of champagne and breakfast laid out on a picnic blanket and Michael was down on one knee asking me to marry him. I was so surprised he had done all of this for me and kept it a surprise the first words that came out of my mouth were “NO WAY!!”, I quickly said, “oh no, that’s not my answer, YES, of course, I will marry you!”. Michael’s original plan was to use fairy lights but our labrador puppy Murphy had chewed the lights while we were out on Christmas eve so he had to go to plan B which was to wake up at 3 am and paint our fence in the middle of the night in the dark. It was the best Christmas morning and surprise I’ll never forget.”

“I would describe my wedding dress as modern, unique with a boho touch,” tells Louise of her beautiful lace gown found at Oxford Bridal. “It is beautifully detailed with lace. I chose my dress because I liked the way it fit me and it was very comfortable. I wanted a dress I could dance all night in! I loved the buttons down the back and the pattern on the material. My experience finding a dress was fun, it was the 3rd bridal shop I visited and I had my Mum and one of my bridesmaids were with me and as soon as I put my dress on all three of us knew it was the one.”

The beautiful Oakover Grounds played host to the celebration, shares the bride. “We chose to have both our ceremony and reception all at the same venue, Oakover Grounds. We had our ceremony on their floating island standing under a beautiful big tree overlooking their lake and our reception was in their marquee backing on to their vineyards under the lights.”

Louise walked down the aisle with her father to an acoustic version of “Is This Love” by Bob Marley.

Louise and Michael chose Dawn Turner to officiate their day, sharing “We wanted our ceremony to be about the both of us and the life we have built together up to the day of our wedding. We didn’t want it to be too serious, we wrote our own vows and included a poem called “Union” by Robert Fulghum. Our day ran so smoothly and all the details (big and small) totally exceeded our expectations and I would highly recommend all of our vendors.”

“I loved it all. I thoroughly enjoyed planning our wedding,” tells Louise. “I made sure not to stress about the little things and to remember things like this don’t come around often and to enjoy it- and I loved every minute!”

Louise and Michael included a very special guest. “We made sure we included our dog Murphy into the day, it was important to us to have him there at our ceremony and I’m so glad we did as he cried and howled through most of it!”

Clouds & Clay created the romantic floral details for the day, Louise sharing “One of my favourite details of the day was my bouquet, my very good friend made it for me. I had given her very little direction of what I wanted I was happy to leave it in her hands and she created the most beautiful array of flowers that totally blew me away. I chose to have Australian natives for both mine and the bridesmaid’s bouquets and I had lots of greenery for the flower decorations for the reception and on signage.”

Of their photographer, the bride shares “We had the wonderful Woodvine and Co. They are a husband and wife duo- Chris on Videography and Robin the photographer. They were a pleasure to have to capture our day. They made it very easy going, simple and a lot of fun from the minute we first met them. I’m so glad we had them both for our wedding day.”

With a cocktail reception in mind, a hanging grazing table enticed Louise and Michael from the beginning. “We both love food so when we heard we were able to have a giant wooden, round, hanging grazing board we didn’t think twice. It was the feature in the middle of the marquee for the guests to socialise and graze around at the beginning of the reception before the cocktail food was served.”

Guests took home favours designed by It’s Just Cactus. Louise remembering “I loved the wedding favours that we gave to our guests. “its just cactus’ created mini concrete pots painted grey and white with succulents in them and they looked fantastic.”

The first dance choice was a little unexpected, explains Louise. “Michael and I wanted to think outside the box and move away from too many traditions with our wedding so we decided to have a totally different first dance song. We chose “Let’s get it on” by Marvin Gaye. We both love Marvin Gaye’s music and thought it was a good fun choice of music.”