Sarah & Alex

When it comes to all things spring, we knew we needed to share wedding s that completely summed up the season and today’s certainly hits the mark. A beautiful sunshine-filled day, laden with layers upon layers of fresh flowers. Sarah and Alex, the stars of the show, chose to flip their day on its head, they wed overlooking the water, heading straight into their celebration- a glorious lunchtime reception. Then, once the partying was complete, they spent the afternoon with their wedding party, capturing photos. We’re pretty sure that there couldn’t be a better way to celebrate the most marvellous of spring days. Luckily, we have all the stunning photos by Photography by Renata to prove it!

But first, we need to set the scene, Sarah tells the tale of how these two met. “We met in university. We were always acquaintances but didn’t end up properly chatting until final exams were over – when he offered to give me a lift home and we didn’t stop talking for three hours!” Alex surprised his future wife by popping the question on a weekend away to the Hunter Valley over a decadent dinner at Bistro Molines. “He was uncharacteristically nervous all weekend” remembers Sarah.

It was all about romance for the bride, who chose a beautiful Liz Martinez gown. She tells “I wanted a dress that was off-white and not traditional. It was difficult to find but I was so happy when I eventually stumbled across Liz Martinez who makes the most beautiful, ethereal gowns.”

Sarah and Alex held both their morning ceremony and the lunchtime reception at the waterside venue Sergeants’ Mess.

Sarah and Alex joined their guests immediately following the ceremony for the reception, a conscious decision, they say “Neither of us was into the idea of a giant, extravagant stressful wedding that lasted the entire day. We wanted our wedding to be fairly efficient – so the ceremony was only twenty minutes followed immediately by the reception which was over in three to four hours. Making sure that the guests were well fed was one of our priorities – so even though we had a lunch, we made sure it was three courses and had an extra candy buffet for the guests.”

Sarah and Alex worked with stylist Anna Wang to create a flower-filled celebration, Sarah explaining “My vision for the wedding was ‘woodland,’ and fairly rustic, but elegant. We wanted a lot of greenery and a hanging ceiling piece to give that feel. All the tables had little olive trees as centrepieces with glass baubles.

Alongside a table of sweets, stood a three-tier floral adorned wedding cake designed by Stacy Brewer Cakes. “We wanted a rustic wedding cake to fit the cream and blush colour scheme” tells Sarah. “Importantly, we wanted the wedding cake to be delicious. It was three-tiered – the bottom tier was vanilla bean + lemon flavoured, the middle tier was chocolate cookies and cream flavoured and the top tier was caramel and peanut butter flavoured.”

And once the party was over? It was time for photos! Sarah telling “One of my favourite parts of the day was after the wedding reception was over – we went and took our wedding photos with just the immediate bridal party, which was much more relaxed and a lot of fun.”

A big congratulations on your marriage Sarah and Alex! Thank you for sharing your beautiful stories! Thank you also to Photography by Renata for sharing today’s celebration!