Saraid & Darryn

With Autumn here, and limited chance to actually get out and enjoy it, we need to live vicariously for a year. And with Saraid and Darryn’s beautiful rustic Autumn country wedding, we’re giving you a chance to do just that.

From the stunning country setting to the bride’s beautiful custom made gown (those sleeves!), fiery orange autumn trees as the backdrop and cosy open fires to gather around. This is what Autumn dreams are made of. Luckily for us, we’ve got all the details, all the moments, captured beautifully by Clarisse Photography to share!

The pair met while looking for flatmates Saraid filling us in on all the details. “The story of us meeting is actually pretty cool! We found each other on flatmate finders (an alternative to tinder it would seem ;)). I needed a housemate and he was overseas at the time. When he returned we met up and yeah, I thought he was cute from the get-go, but more importantly, he seemed chilled, kind and loved the animals, which was super important to me and I needed a housemate I could trust as it was just him and I living in the house.

Over the next few months, we hung out heaps (very platonic – played it much smarter than we would have in our 20’s) and ended up falling in love with each other before we even kissed! It all came out when we went for a snow trip together and I ended up plucking up the courage to say that I fancied him and luckily he did too. Mind you, I ended up breaking my shoulder trying to impress him snowboarding, which would have been helpful to know he already thought I was pretty cool beforehand! A definite “try before you buy” scenario!!”

Saraid worked with d’Italia to design her dream gown, sharing “Definitely didn’t have an idea in mind going in, looked at everything from $500 to $5000! My mum flew down from QLD to go with me and it was far more enjoyable an experience than I thought it would be.

After trying lots of ready-made dresses, we ended up going to a fabric store d’Italia in Malvern. I had tried a dress I liked, but there were a couple of small changes I wanted to make if I could. I showed my design to the girls there, got told which fabric to buy, got to choose my lace and got partnered with a dressmaker. Over a year, I went there every few months and we worked together to create my dream dress. I absolutely adored the experience and the outcome of course, and it turned out I chose a style very similar to my mother’s own gown which was pretty special.
The side note to my outfit is that I wore RM Williams boots (much to my mother’s dismay!) and Storm Trooper socks as we got married on international Star Wars day – May the fourth be with you”.

Dog Lucy was the star of the show, Saraid noting her presence in her list of favourite memories as “Number one was our dog, Lucy, it was so cool having her cruise around the dance floor with everyone and in between the tables as people were eating.”

Saraid and Darryn chose the country venue, Gum Gully Farm for their wedding, noting “Gum Gully Farm was perfect for us as we wanted the ceremony and reception in the same place and it had the wonderful country/relaxed vibe we were after.

We loved the large open fireplaces and thought they would be perfect for the weather. We are also huge animal lovers and I absolutely loved the idea of all the farm animals on the property and also the opportunity to get photos with the deer. Also, it allowed our beautiful little dog Lucy who was the dog of honour to be present during the ceremony and off-leash at our reception which was crucial to our day.

We ended up having our ceremony in “the chapel” which had this amazing atmosphere of being cozy, warm and intimate with the rain pouring outside and allowed us to decorate how we wanted.”

Saraid chose Vance Joy’s “Fire & the Flood” for her walk down the aisle, as an only child, she chose to have both her mother and father guide her down the aisle.

The couple chose Lucy Gransbury to officiate proceedings. “We wanted the ceremony to be relaxed, funny and short. We wrote our vows which were very important to us and one of my very dear friends from childhood read Union by Robert Fulghum. Our celebrant Lucy Gransbury is an actress and comedian as well, and I knew that she would speak well and land all the emotional and less serious parts perfectly.”

“Every vendor was incredible that we chose and it’s super hard to choose, but it would probably have to be our celebrant Lucy” shares the bride when asked her stand out vendor. “We just loved her from the start and she made the whole process of designing our ceremony so enjoyable and she set the mood from the start for our whole wedding. She was the one who got us truly excited to be getting married.”

 

The newlyweds loved working with their photographer, noting “Mark was just fantastic, super relaxed and made us laugh constantly. Darryn was a little camera shy, so it was important for us to have someone that didn’t make us feel posed or fake.”

“I love the photo of Darryn holding my dress up as we walked back through the mud to the venue” shares the bride “I have this super fancy dress and then you can also see my boots and socks haha! Just kind of signified too, a man who always has my back.”

Dreaming of Australian native blooms in Autumnal colours, the couple chose Valley Blooms to style the wedding day blooms. Saraid noting   “The florist I chose was amazing at helping me decide which flowers to chose and my favourite parts were the proteas and vintage roses.”

Saraid created much of the wedding decor herself saying “I did all the table settings and set up for the ceremony, confetti, wedding favours, signs, photo board, bridal party gifts and other decorations.”

  

Saraid shares “Our MC was a good vet friend of mine, and she just rocked the entire night, everyone was in stitches the whole time and the whole night just ran so smoothly under her watchful eye.”

This was a wedding where family and friends were taken care of, explains Saraid. “One of the most important things to us was that there was enough food, we chose to have large sharing platters on the table so everyone could feel like they were sitting down for just a big family dinner at home, passing dishes and talking to people they hadn’t met before.”

 

“My mum’s speech would have to be up there for me” notes Saraid. “She knocked everyone dead with it I think, not a dry eye in the house.”

“Our first dance was very simple,” remarks the bride, “Our song was “Only You” by The Platters. No fancy moves, just us swaying on the dance floor.”

Big congratulations to you both Saraid and Darryn! Thank you for sharing the stories of your day with us. Thanks also to Clarisse Photography for today’s beautiful images!