Kirsty & Andrew

Love takes many forms, but the best we get to see often, is when it’s found in another person. The overwhelming feeling of that love is exactly what Kirsty and Andrew’s day(s) was all about! From deciding to do a private ceremony with only their families on the stunning clifftops of Flinders, to the quaint and rustic backdrop of Tanglewood Estate, Daniel Brannan was there to capture each loving look and moment. The Bride, Kirsty shares their story and all of the details of their spectacular two day wedding!

We met in 2009 at a house party that Andrew technically wasn’t invited to. Andrew was a friend of someone (who also happened to be one of Andrew’s groomsmen) who lived down the street from the party. We had all attended an all-girls high school so Andrew’s groomsman was invited and was told to ‘bring lots of men’.

We were officially married on Wednesday the 13th of March, which was our 10 year anniversary. We chose to have our ceremony on the cliffs at Finders with just our family, photographer Dan and celebrant Lara.

We then had our wedding on Saturday the 16th of March at Tanglewood Estate. We had a small ceremony in the chapel and our reception in the winery.

Our favourite photograph was from our cliff top ceremony. We were standing on the edge of the cliffs in a patch of light and our photographer took the photo from another ridge across the water.

The cliffs at Flinders (our official ceremony location) were recommended to us by our photographer. We went for a walk on the cliffs and loved it.

I chose Cathleen Jia as her dresses were non-traditional and the fabric was really soft. Cathleen was very easy to work with and patient working with someone as indecisive as me. I looked at her collections and tried on styles that would suit me. Then I looked at her Instagram photos and found a dress that she custom made for me.

The groom and the groomsmen decided to get their suits custom made through Bell and Barnett. However, we didn’t have a good experience with them so I wouldn’t recommend it.

I walked down the aisle to ‘You’ve got the love’ by Florence and the Machine. It was a popular song from the year we started dating.

Our celebrant was an easy choice. Lara was super relaxed and friendly. She made the process so easy for both of our ceremonies. We had so many lovely comments about her and the ceremony from our guests.


We only had a simple ceremony as I didn’t like the idea of being the centre of attention.

One of the favourite parts of the day was enjoying running through a petal confetti shower out of the chapel.

Poppy culture posted a photo on their Instagram of their first wedding at Tanglewood Estate. We weren’t engaged at that point and Tanglewood, being a new venue, didn’t have a website yet. I kept following them on social media and we eventually went to look at it when we started looking for venues. I liked the rustic look of the venue and the forest-like location.

My bridesmaids were three of my university friends; Jade, Steph and Megan. Andrew’s groomsmen were three of his school friends; Hamish, Andrew and Kris. We then had my friend’s daughter Gabby as our flower girl and my nephew Harry (who was 6 months old and slept through the ceremony) as our “ring bear” (yes, he had bear overalls on).

We chose Poppy Culture for our flowers. I had been following them on Instagram for a while and had seen all the recent weddings that they had done at Tanglewood Estate. We decided to go with a range of white flowers with green foliage to create lots of different textures.

We added sea holly so that there were little patches of blue in the bouquets. The sea holly also dried nicely after the wedding and is now decorating a vase in our house.

We chose Dan Brannan as our photographer. He was recommended by a few venues that we had visited. He had also done weddings at Tanglewood before which we thought was important because he would know all the good photo locations. He also recommended the cliffs at Flinders, which we loved. He was an easy choice.

In terms of DIY elements, we did a bit!

  • Invitations – We ordered simple invitations from Mickey Loves Jacqui Letter Press. We wanted to tie navy linen ribbons around the invitations however they were extremely expensive. So we bought white linen from Spotlight and dyed it navy. We then ripped the fabric into ribbons ourselves.
  • Bonbonniere – We collected 70 salsa jars during the time we were engaged. I used them to make handmade candles. We tied navy ribbons around the jars with a place tag with each guest’s name of them. We used them as bonbonnieres and place cards.
  • Welcome sign – Andrew made our glass welcome sign using the glass from a large picture fame. We displayed it on an iron easel that we had custom made.
  • Candle dishes – I bought small glass candle dishes from op shops throughout our area. We had mismatched dishes with tea light candles on the tables to complement vases of flowers.
  • Napkins – We bought navy napkins from Kmart as it was cheaper than hiring them from linen hire companies.

Our wedding was rustic, relaxed and blue!

We had a few vendors that stood out to us. We saw Gina from Miss Ladybird Cakes at a bridal expo and a venue open day. We tried lots of flavours and ordered a cake for both our engagement party and our wedding. We didn’t even look around for anyone else.

We had a few recommendations for catering. We went with Moreish purely because they got back to us with a quote so quickly and Elle knew everything that was going on and gave us great advice. She even organised hot chips for the tables to go with dinner.

Special heirlooms that I included was wearing my Mum’s pearl earrings that my sister also wore at her wedding. I also wore a simple necklace that my grandma gave me for my 21st birthday.

A favourite detail of the day was that we had our wedding cake knife engraved with Mr and Mrs Lewis and our wedding date.

Advice for future couples? Follow your vendors on Instagram. It will give you ideas and help you make decisions about which ones to choose. I really wanted a floral chandelier but was talked out of it by my friends and husband. I am glad we didn’t spend money on the things we really didn’t need.

Ms Zebra Says: Congratulations to Kirsty and Andrew! What an amazing line up of events – and with some of Australia’s most beautiful backdrops! Wishing you both the world of happiness as husband and wife.