Kate & Banjo

If you’re sitting here today, thinking that all you really want, is a wedding without the fuss, a wedding where you can pad from your living room to your vows with no cars, where you can look out over the very same place you said “I do” every day over your morning coffee. Then let the charm, of Kate & Banjo’s backyard celebration, inspire you. “We knew all along we wanted our wedding at our home, so it could be relaxed and people could party on as long as they wanted” explains bride Kate. “We definitely did not that the feeling of having to pack up and head home at 11 pm when the venue closes.”

These two invited Cybelle Jones Photography along for the celebration, and we’re pretty tickled pink to be sharing their story today.

It was over music, that these two first met, sharing “Long story short they met when Kate attended one of Banj’s gigs with an ex-boyfriend. Banjo got Kate’s sister Amanda’s number, and a few months later when Kate moved to Melbourne Amanda told Banj to take Kate out and look after her because she didn’t know anymore. Needless to say, romance blossomed and the rest is history!”

And we travel another ten years in time before Banjo decided, the time was right to propose. “Banjo proposed to Kate after we had been together for nearly 10 years. It was my birthday and I was 12 weeks pregnant with our first child (Banjo was annoyed about this as he had planned to propose already on this date, well before we were pregnant!).

He planned a big treasure hunt with clues all over Barwon Heads, where we were living. When I woke up, the first present was a clue and a riddle telling me where the next clue was. We rode our bikes all around our favourite places and I had to find clues on the beach, at the river…. all over! There was one point where he had planned to plant a clue across the river and we were going to row a blow-up boat across, but in the end, he was too stressed he would lose the ring and his pregnant girlfriend in the water!

We travelled across Melbourne to the Yarra Valley where we had massages and fancy dinner and stayed overnight. There was meant to be a hot air balloon ride but unfortunately, the weather was bad and we had to cancel that bit! Also, the whole day I was so sick with morning sickness! But it was a super special, magical day that Banj had put so much effort into. After the proposal, and our firstborn, and then another baby a few years later… it took another 5 years to get to the wedding!”

Kate and Banjo worked with Erin K Floral Design on the arrangements of brightly toned native florals. Kate telling. “Originally I had planned to do them myself, not quite realising how much work weddings are…. when I realised I had bitten off more than I could chew I knew Erin would nail it (much more than I even could have!). I liked native Australia flowers but I left it up to her to do whatever she wanted, and they were amazing!”

The bride donned a two-piece look with amazing red shoes for the day, explaining “My outfit was white Zimmermann pants and a white cami from Asos. Shopping for a wedding outfit was not enjoyable AT ALL! I knew all along I didn’t want a big white wedding dress, or something too plain, and it was really hard to find the right thing. As soon as I tried on the pants though I knew they were it… only a couple of weeks before the big day!”

Kate and Banjo’s children – Baxter and Poppy, were very much a part of the day. “We loved having our kids there to be a part of it. It’s so nice for them to be part of that memory,” tells Kate.

Kate and Banjo enlisted Good Day Club to not only deliver and set up furniture for the day, but to also ensure everything went together smoothly. “We loved all our vendors, but up there was Kate from Good Day Club, her style is so spot on.”

Of her walk down the aisle, Kate reminisces “I walked down the aisle to our beautiful friend Davin Hanna singing his own version of Meghan Trainor “Like I’m gonna lose you”. It was so special! I walked down the aisle on my own, which was really important to me. I felt like we had already been together for so long (14 years), with two kids, a dog, a house. We’d been through so much and I felt strongly that this was not about anyone giving me away, but me choosing on my own to walk up the aisle to Banj and say ‘yep, we’re doing this!'”

Kate and Banjo chose Michael Webb – Marrying You Two to officiate their day, noting “We wanted a very relaxed ceremony. On arrival, we had our bar open and all our guests had time to mingle and grab a drink before settling on our hill to relax and chat. We wanted it to have a feeling of love and fun and nothing formal or stuffy at all. We had one reading called Union by Robert Fulghum because we felt it perfectly summed up what marriage is about.”

And then, it was time to party! Kate and Banjo opting for a cocktail reception that made the most of the backyard setting, thanks to Good Day Club who also produced the wedding, Kate explains  “The most important detail for me was all the furniture – we wanted a relaxed backyard wedding but I knew very early on that it had to be taken to the next level. The Good Day Club pieces are amazing and I knew early on that I wanted them. They are so classy and stylish and it took it from backyard BBQ to extra special.”

“The food was super important” tells Kate of the couple’s decision to hire Happy Camper Pizza Truck and The Snag Society, alongside Boss Bar Hire to cater the day. “It had to be delicious, and it had to be us! We wanted pizza & hot dogs and the foods we love to eat. We both hate when you go to a wedding and there isn’t enough food… or when you get to 10 pm and you just need a little some else. We had the hot dog stand arrive later in the evening so that people wouldn’t get hungry, and we are still trying to replicate them at home. So delicious!!”

On her advice for future couples to be, Kate says “Don’t do anything you don’t want to do! We didn’t have any wedding favours (sorry family & friends) because we didn’t feel it was necessary to give out some random thing no one really wants anyway, that would take a lot of effort to get together! We didn’t have a proper cake or ‘cutting of the cake’.
The only thing I regret is not having a video of Davin singing, and the speeches. It would be nice to be able to rewatch that, as it all went so fast.”

When asked for her favourite detail of the day? The bride notes “Definitely the furniture, and all the little details like the flowers and signs, but it was just having all the people we love most in the world altogether. Despite the rush of getting married in a new house, it was just the most special house warming!”

 

The bride’s favourite photo? The one of her family of four, just as they are. “I love the one of the four of us down on the river at the back of our house when we just took a moment to have a drink and a piece of pizza together and soak it all in. Poppy is eating pizza looking filthy and wild, Bax and Banj are pulling silly moves, it’s just so real and so us, in our most favourite place in the world. It’s perfect!”

Kate and Banjo loved working with their photographer, sharing “Cybelle is also my very amazing hairdresser, and when I saw her photo’s and video’s I just immediately loved her style. She is so relaxed and I didn’t even see her all day, she’s like a little photographer ninja! She managed to capture the most special photos without any stuffy posing and spending hours off away from the wedding to get them. She’s so talented!”

Kate and Banjo- thank you or sharing our stories with us! Thank you also to Cybelle Jones Photography and Good Day Club for sharing today’s celebration with us!