As we celebrate the Australia Issue, we wanted to get back to basics – how do you infuse that quintessentially Australian style into your wedding? How do you reflect the beauty of what we have? The landscape? The flowers? The little details that you know nowhere else in the world does quite as well.

So today, we’re exploring all the ideas to bring a little Australian style to your wedding day, and we’re doing it all alongside the most beautiful, images that are so very Australian, from Amy Skinner Photography. How stunning are those Aussie native filled bouquets from Olive & Ivy? We couldn’t help but be inspired by the combinations!

Look to the landscape for colour inspiration

We love marsala and blush pink as much as  the next person, but to create an Aussie vibe at your wedding, why not embrace the colours of the Australian landscape? Escape suburbia and take to the wide-open plains. Look to the colour of the sky, the sea, the dried grasses, the soils. Consider tones like what is pictured here – rust browns and dark olive greens, combine sandy taupes with slate blues, copper reds with browns and oyster shades. Earthy tones are always stunning and they’re a beautifully unique way to infuse Aussie originality into your wedding styling.

Mix Australian native blooms with classic flowers

Roses are much loved for a reason, but why not take a look at Australian flowers to add to your floral styling for the day? King Proteas are everyone’s favourite, but there are plenty of more unique alternatives. Banksia, Grevillea, Flannel Flowers, Rice Flowers, Wattle, Waratahs – there are endless blooms and they’re all stunning to look at, and even more stunning for wedding styling.

Take to the country
Throughout The Australia Issue, we’ve championed city weddings just as much as a country, but there is something about the Australian countryside that is quite magical. Choosing a regional area of Australia is a beautiful way to honour a special place, but to also bring that quintessentially Australia style to your wedding day. This is where the “Australianess” of a venue shines because the options are endless. Think wide open fields, converted shearing sheds, country community halls, working farms, even drought-affected areas turned wedding venues. Think outside the box.

Add Australian Details

Want to get Aussie on your wedding day? Embrace your childhood memories. Serve up a cake table groaning with iced VoVo’s, lamingtons and Tim Tams, Anzac biscuits (try Ms Honeycomb’s Chocolate Dipped Anzac biscuits here) pick your favourite childhood cakes from the Australian Women’s Weekly cookbooks,  give each guest a jar of Vegemite as a wedding favour, use old Australian goods tins as wedding decor.

Consider what details, what quirks of Australia there are and work them into your day. Serve up freshly brewed tea and drinks in hot billy cans, serve up dessert on crockery recalling the days of nanna’s plates – matching sets of teacups saucers and plates, lining up bottled fruit in vacola jars on a wall, getting old wares that your parents will remember as being in their own kitchens growing up, farm tables, shearing shed wool tables, rusty horseshoes, faux ivory-handled flatware, old milk cans, wool bales that are full and ready for market, sheaves of wheat or cotton.

Share Australian Food In Australian Ways

Australian bush produce is so under utilised, especially when it comes to weddings. Work with your caterer to use Aussie bush spices and Australian produce for your first meal together. Serve up your wedding meal Australian BBQ style (a glam-er-que?) or a classic Sunday roast lamb dinner. Treat your guests to old favourites like scones with golden syrup, meat pies, damper, pavlova and of course lamingtons. Create a burger bar with old favourites like tinned beetroot and pineapple – and be prepared for laughter and memories.

Consider styling elements that reflect all the charm of that bbq or Sunday roast – lazy chairs or wooden stumps around a campfire, dining tables set with shared platters of food ready for someone to ladle out.  Platters made of natural Australian woods groaning with produce sourced from the local area.

Drink Only Australian

Create an Aussie brew bar of just Australian beers, serve up Australian sparkling for toasts, adorn cocktails with Australian bush spice garnishes, create cocktail recipes with gins and whiskey from Australian distillers.

Embrace greenery

We’ve already talked about flowers, but let’s talk about the foliage. Go big, go plentiful and make the most of the stunning Australian foliage available Think beautiful eucalyptus, the beautiful leaves and berries of the pepper berry tree, raw and rugged saltbush. Create beautiful oversize garlands for your ceremony backdrop, place them down your reception tables, hang them overhead in glorious installations. What about foraging for foliage dried by the sun to enhance your garlands and bouquets – dried grasses, sundried wheat, dried thistles, dried seed heads – all will add that golden hue that is so Australian.

Work with natural & already there textures

Raw tone buildings, worn wood walls, corrugated irons – these are the textures and tones that say “Australia”. Work with them and embrace them, Add modern elements like acrylic stationery details, or keep with the rustic vibes by choosing flowers that complement their beauty. Keep them raw and don’t seek to cover them up – long wooden tables with a backdrop of corrugated iron is a stunning combination. Warm the spaces up by adding plenty of floral details, plenty of colour and plenty of furniture. Think unusual natural textures too for your decor like budding cotton plants and even gum nuts and berries.

Choose local designers & Australian fabrics

There are amazing Australian brands, who know exactly what is different about the Aussie climate and sense of style, and they embrace it. Support local designers who are doing amazing things. And consider typically Australian pieces – RM Williams boots, Drizabone coats, moleskins and reinvent them in uniquely modern ways for your wedding attire.

Think about Australian fabrics – Australian merino wools for example throughout attire and decor. What about creating table linens from fabrics printed with Australian native blooms? You can even dye beautiful silks with Australia flora and foliage for something completely unique.

Arrive in Style

And how can you not arrive in a quintessentially Aussie ute? Whether new or old, this Australian icon will really bring cheers from the crowd!