Zoe & Matthew’s Perfect Country Wedding

Zoe & Matthew

Take a (virtual) trip to Dayelsford with us today to celebrate the marriage of Zoe and Matthew. This couple initially met through mutual friends at university and were then politely encouraged to go on a date via a good friend/work colleague, who could see how much they had in common! A cheeky message from Zoe then prompted a drink at Neighbourhood Wine. She knew things were looking good when they had talked so much they didn’t realise the restaurant was empty! Fast forwarding to their wedding, the couple wanted authenticity. This meant nothing over the top, and they also wanted to showcase good produce in an Australian setting. And that they did! Below, Zoe details how their special day came to be and how it unfolded…

We married in November 2019 at The Burrow in Daylesford. We loved the area and fell in love with the venue.

I enjoyed the process of finding a wedding gown, but accidentally ended up with two dresses, which was quite stressful. I chose a price point and went for a dress trying experience with my mum and sister for some fun. I was keen to purchase a recycled/pre-owned dress, but couldn’t quite find the right one.

I then found one at a sample sale and it was the right price point, so went with it, but wasn’t in love with it. However, I then couldn’t get out of my mind visiting Georgia Young Couture in Carlton on my “trying on” day where everything was modern, beautifully made, designed and created locally. I felt flawless and elegant in her gowns and wanted that feeling on my wedding day. I was able to sell my original dress on Still White and did not regret my decision in any way.

Matthew’s suit was easy! He was measured to precision by Andrew at CECIL in Melbourne and the suit made within six weeks, with a perfectly made to measure shirt as well. Andrew had an excellent range of fabrics and Matthew looked so sharp in a perfectly fitting suit. We purchased his bow tie and pocket square from Le Colonel Moutarde in France, who have an excellent range of liberty print fabrics and are beautifully made.

On our wedding day, we wanted a relaxed morning and completed all our photographs prior to the ceremony. This meant we could capture those first reveal photos and have most of our photographs with perfect hair and makeup. The best part was we could then enjoy canapés and meet and greet our guests, without missing out! It made the afternoon flow so much more smoothly.

Flowers was one of the easiest decisions. Matthew first purchased me flowers from Mary Mary Studio and I fell in love with everything and anything Kate made. I gave Kate a basic colour palette and let her be as creative as she pleased. My only request was to include some orchids as my dad grew a stem of standard orchids for my mum’s bouquet.

We wanted an intimate bridal party. Matthew had his best mates from high school (Nathan) and university (Simon). I had the pleasure of my two incidentally perfectly matching friends, Louise from high school and Olivia from university.

Matthew played soccer with our photographer, Alex Motta of Motta Weddings, when they were both in school and always wanted to use him at our wedding, as he loved his ability to capture colour and moments in a photograph. I am so glad we did. He was professional, organised and creative. Alex was a pleasure to work with and we had our complete range of photographs within four weeks.

We wanted to utilise one venue with the ceremony and reception on site, as we have really enjoyed this in the past. We loved the setting of The Burrow in the Wombat State Forest, with the Australian bush as a backdrop.

I tried to surprise Matthew with ‘Perth’ by Bon Iver as it’s one of his favourites. Then he insisted on adding it to the list about two days before the wedding. We still went with it and it was a perfect song to enter to.

We wanted a personalised ceremony all about us, that told our story and celebrated our relationship and achievements thus far. We selected our incredible celebrant Lara Williams after seeing a photo of another wedding that raved about their celebrant. In the photo Lara wasn’t centre stage, she was off to the side letting the couple have their moment, which was exactly what we wanted. We selected a modern reading about love, which we then translated into French as we had some special French guests attending.

The reception space was modern and stylish and a blank canvas to work with, but we also wanted to minimise decorations and enjoy the view. For DIY, we purchased 130 of each dinner/side plates, vases, water jugs and napkins from Kmart and have since sold them on. We hired cutlery and glassware. We decorated the centre of the tables with gum leaves and baby’s breath and placed candles (IKEA) in glasses (from Daiso) for additional lighting. We also printed our invitations and place cards at Officeworks and thank you cards online through Optimal Print.

We also hired the wonderful team from Trufflepig Catering and Shelley was a pleasure to work with. We wanted to feast on share platters down the centre of the table, like one big family and great food is really important to us. Shelley did a remarkable job accommodating various dietary requirements. The food was wonderful, locally sourced where possible and we have received great feedback on the quality and quantity of produce.

I particularly enjoyed selecting vendors and ticking things off the list in the first six months of planning. It was fun and exciting to be planning our day, exactly as we wanted it.

We had a few dance lessons with a local instructor who was fantastic, we chose ‘Chateau’ by Angus & Julia Stone and have had so many compliments on the dance and song choice. It pays off to have a lesson or two.

We wanted our dance floor to be very active and we selected Tom from Melbourne Entertainment Company who played live saxophone and DJed. It was incredible! We didn’t get off the dance floor all night!

My advice for brides and grooms to be? Google spreadsheets are amazing for planning and organisation as they can be accessed anywhere and edited by multiple people simultaneously.