Emma & Troy

Knowing all their guests would travel to wherever the wedding was located, Emma and Troy chose the romantic and sweeping Byron Bay hinterland. Guest bags were thoughtfully curated, while the wedding itself was filled with soft florals, golden light and homemade limoncello. Photographer Shane Shepherd captured the day.

Having met while both in Melbourne for study and work, the two ended up together, and moved to Brisbane. Emma remembers of the proposal, ”I was down in Sydney one weekend and Troy (or I so I thought!) had stayed home in Brisbane. Much to my surprise, when I finished brunch with some girlfriends Sunday morning I had all these missed calls and messages on my phone from Troy asking me to come and meet him in the The Royal Botanic Gardens! It caught me completely by surprise! He was there waiting in a quiet, very private corner of the garden where he proposed with a ring that had belonged to my Grandma. It was perfect! We then spent the afternoon celebrating with family before heading back to Brisbane that evening.”

The groom and groomsmen wore suits from Peter Jacksons, while the bride wore the Sydney dress by Anna Campbell. She tells, ”I tried the Sydney dress on for fun, mum picked it out, and as soon as I put it on I knew it was the one for me! Never in a million years did I think I’d be wearing a sequined dress to my wedding! Anna Campbell were amazing to deal with! From the first time we walked in the door of their Armidale store I felt so welcomed and at ease. As I was placing an order from interstate I elected to go with their fast-tracked option, so they kindly arranged for me to have four fittings within two days, a couple of weeks out from the wedding. I was really nervous for the fittings, but they made me feel so relaxed and I ended up really enjoying them! The bridesmaids all found their own dresses – I thought this would be easier (and less stressful!) as the girls were living all over Australia! It wasn’t until the morning of the wedding that we realised that we hadn’t seen them all next to each other! Fortunately they all worked well together and looked great! We used their shoes (from Asos) and their bouquets to tie it all together.”

Held outdoors, under a magnificent fig tree, the ceremony looked over the Byron Bay hinterland. Emma shares, ”The ceremony was a very important part of our day – we wanted it to be serious where it needed to be, but at the same time we wanted it to be very personal, happy, fun and very ‘us’. We worked really closely with our amazing celebrant Benjamin Carlyle to make this happen – he did a fantastic job and we were thrilled with the result! We wrote our own vows which we left as a surprise for each other until the day. We had two readings that were read by the mother of the bride and groom, ‘Carrie’s Poem’ (from Sex + The City) and another poem called ‘These I Can Promise’ (author unknown). Mum and Dad both walked me down the aisle to ‘Perfect’ by Ed Sheeran.”

Incorporating family traditions meant a lot to Emma and Troy. Emma tells, ”My engagement ring originally belonged to my Grandma. Troy and my parents re-designed it before he proposed, so that was pretty special! My sister also wore another ring that had belonged to my Grandma on the day. My dad collects Veteran Cars, one of which I chose to use to arrive at the wedding in, a 1911 Argyll. It was very special to be able to use the Argyll for our day – driven by dad, my sister and I rode in the back.”

Full of soft and romantic flowers, the wedding was decorated with dusky pink roses, scented David Austen’s and orchids. The bride shares, ”We used Alstonville Florist Weddings for our wedding. We had seen some flowers that they had done at a wedding open day and after some further Instagram stalking decided they were the florists for us! Kerry and the rest of her team were amazing to deal with! Mum and I met with Kerry pretty early on in the planning process at The Earth House so that she could run through some ideas with us. I gave Kerry a few pictures of what we were after – soft pinks with lots of roses as we wanted it to look very soft and romantic and then we pretty much left it up to her to advise us on what she thought would work best with the venue and surrounds – we were thrilled with what they came up with!”

Not only did the bride and groom whip up some incredible limoncello for the day, they also put together incredible gift bags! They share, ”We love limoncello-spritz, so we made lots of limoncello for the bar staff to be able to serve on the day! The day ended up being very warm, so this was perfect post-ceremony! Very refreshing! We also made welcome bags for all of our guests upon arrival at their accommodation. My Mum sewed all the bags, which she designed to be re-used as shopping bags, and we filled them with local goodies from around Byron as well as a map and important information for the day (bus departure times and locations etc). My mother-in-law also made her famous shortbread to go in the bags. I also made individual cookies for the wedding as favors for the guests, and my mum made individualised denim jackets for all the bridesmaids in case they got cold later in the evening.”

Photographer Shane Shepherd captured every gorgeous detail on the day. Emma remembers, ”He’s a wizard and we can’t recommend him enough! We had so much fun getting to know Shane in the lead-up to our wedding and on the day – by the time it was all over we really did feel like we were friends! He was playing music during all the bridal party photos that relaxed everyone instantly. He captured the joy and happiness of the day in his photos, and we couldn’t be happier with them! All our vendors were  amazing, and we wouldn’t change any of them! They worked so well together and they all spoke so highly of each other. They made the planning a really enjoyable process, and on the day we didn’t have to worry about a thing because we knew that they were all over it.”

Holding the ceremony and reception at the one venue suited Emma and Troy perfectly. They share, ”We chose the Byron region initially as we knew we would have family travelling from all over Australia so we wanted somewhere that was going to be easy for guests to get to, but also somewhere that was convenient for us in the planning process. Since moving to Brisbane we had spent many a weekend around Byron and we particularly loved the hinterland region. As soon as we walked down the drive of The Earth House we knew that was the venue for us! It was perfect! There was plenty of space for our guests to mingle prior to the reception, and The Earth House itself was just the most beautiful building that we could add our own style to. We also used the paddocks behind for our photos so that we didn’t have travel any further on the day. Dealing with the Earth House in both the planning/lead up to the event and on the day far surpassed any expectations we ever had! Munro and his wife Fiona who own and run the venue are incredible! Nothing was a problem and they were onto everything! They could recommend suppliers/vendors for everything and they worked in seamlessly with all of them. We opted to stay at Elements of Byron and let our guests know this in advance too, I think we ended up with about 70% of our guests staying here. The staff were AMAZING! They happily handed our guest bags out at reception upon arrival. It was so much fun having everyone in the one place and it really did extend the celebrations!”

Thank you so much to our gorgeous bride and a groom for sharing your wedding day with us, and congratulations! Thank you also to Shane Shepherd for your beautiful images.