Brittany & Sara

We talk a lot about making your wedding your own around these parts, and for Brittany and Sarah, making their wedding day reflect exactly who they are, was at the core of every plan they made. “Our favourite part of the wedding planning was bringing aspects of our personalities into the wedding. For example, we had a lot of dorky puns and daggy dance songs.” We’re so delighted to bring you this story, set in a rustic barn hidden in the Blue Mountains, Every detail accompanied with beautiful photos by Chris Gray Photomedia,

It was a blistering hot day when these two met, and in their own words  “We met on an online dating app. Sara was Brittany’s first online date. Brittany was two weeks into her working holiday in Australia at the time. Sara arranged for them to meet at a small bar (Blacksheep) in Newtown, NSW. It was a 45-degree day and the bar’s air condition wasn’t functioning. Despite this, the date lasted 8 hours and the rest is history.”

The majestic Sydney Harbour was chosen as the setting for Sara to pop the question, although it didn’t quite go the way she’d planned! “Sara arranged for a small yacht to take Brittany around Sydney Harbour for the day. She planned to pop the question mid sail but was too nervous. After the trip around the harbour, Sara bought some champagne and we sat, drinking out of plastic cups, and watched the sun go down over the harbour at Rushcutters Bay. As Sara was proposing, she was interrupted by a giant dog who wanted to be part of the action.

Little did Sara know, Brittany was planning to propose the following week. Brittany created a Spotify playlist with all the songs that reminded her of Sara. She created a Lovebook filled with cartoon stick people versions of them called “You make it easy.” Brittany prepared a meal favourite, tacos, for Sara played the playlist while cooking and gave her the book to read. The last page of the book was a stick version of Brittany asking Sara to marry her, Brittany got on one knee and asked Sara to be her wife. Sara said yes!”

“We used The Italian Job Catering Co for all of the food” note Sara & Brittany. “They created the most amazing grazing table filled with our favourite cheeses, meats and other delicious snacks. For the main meal, they cooked up fabulous wood-fired pizzas and delicious salads. The food was truly a big hit with our guests.”

“Our celebrant, Colleen Wearne was also incredible” tell the brides of their decision to hire Colleen Wearne – Treasured Moments. “She created the most fabulous ceremony for us. She personalised every aspect of it and was truly so wonderful to work with. The ceremony that Colleen arranged really exceeded our expectations and there was not a dry eye in the place!”

Meet the ring bearer! “Our dog Gus was the ring-bearer. He carried the rings on his bowtie that matched the bridesmen.”

“Our ceremony was meant to be outside, but due to unforeseen rain, our ceremony was held indoors. This changed what we initially intended the vibe to be but truly changed it for the better. It became a more intimate setting for guests and the wedding party. We wanted our ceremony to be very “us” – our vows included a promise to each other that we would never turn down a cheese board and a bottle of red. We wanted the words to come from the heart-so we wrote our vows. We had two readings the first was “17” by Pablo Neruda and the second was an excerpt from Robert Fulghum’s “All I ever really need to know, I learned in Kindergarten”. We had a live musician playing while the wedding party and the brides walked down the aisle.”

Seclusions was chosen by the brides for their big day. They tell “The staff at Seclusions truly went above and beyond all expectations to ensure that the day was truly special. Like with all weddings, there were a few little hiccups along the way. Malynda and her team re-directed, re-organised and re-designed things as necessary – sometimes at a moment’s notice. For example, due to the rain, Malynda moved our ceremony inside – she designed a new arbour and made the new inside venue look so incredible (in less than an hour!!). At the end of the night, we were greeted with a special note from the team, a bottle of bubbles and a roaring fire. This made for a magical ending to the most magnificent day.”

“Chris Gray was our phenomenal photographer. He was brilliant, witty, kind, professional, and incredibly talented. He brought his assistant Annaliese Bakes to help capture every moment of our special day. He loved the fact that he doesn’t overly photo-shop images. He kept them natural and captured the essence of us, our wedding party and our wedding.”

 

Creating a wedding that was truly theirs was so important to Brittany and Sara – their reception was not just dinner, but also gave a nod to their love of pub trivia! “While the wedding party were off getting photographs taken following the ceremony, we arranged trivia for the guests. We had guests pick a coloured band bracelet upon arrival and when trivia started, the teams were determined by the colour of their bands.

Besides the fact that all of our loved ones were there to celebrate our best day by watching us become wives, trivia was an absolute hit. We asked our local pub trivia MC to come and run it. He used some fun facts and anecdotes from our lives to lead into general knowledge/pub trivia-style questions (unrelated to us). Trivia ‘forced’ guests to mingle in a setting where they may have not. By the end of the night, everyone made new friends and lifetime memories.”

That cake? Another touch of handmade flavour! “Having our wedding cake designed and made by our friend Laura (as well as delicious brownies made by our friend Julie also available to our guests).”

Advice for couples yet to tie the knot? These two share “The day is about celebrating the love you have for each other. At the end of the day you, as a couple, need to walk away saying that was the best day ever. Also, don’t take everything so seriously, things will turn out differently than you intend, just roll with it and wait for the rainbow after the rain.”

One final touch you so need to know about these two! “We wanted to make sure that all guests had lined their stomachs before heading back to their hotels so we also had a cheese toastie station at the back of the dance floor. This was a very popular location towards the end of the evening and an absolute hit.”

The first dance? It kicked off with the parents, Brittany & Sara remembering “The first dance started with Sara dancing with her mum and Brittany dancing with her dad. The song was “I loved her first.” Halfway through the song, the parents handed the brides to each other and they danced to “Conversations in the Dark” by John Legend. Both Sara and Brittany thought having their parents bring them together was a symbolic representation of joining the two families together.”

A big congratulations to you both Brittany & Sara! Thank you for sharing our special day with us! Thank you also to Chris Gray Photomedia for sharing today’s images with us!