For Jacinta and Brad, their day was so very ‘them’. “It was us, it was handmade, it was funny and it was perfectly imperfect – just like us!” After postponing their day in 2020 and changing up their plans, Jacinta and Brad’s day turned out to be as perfect as they could have dreamt. Colour, handmade details, epic photo and photography by Smith + Archer make this story one you’ve gotta settle in for!

We have a soft spot for Jacinta’s love of all things sentimental – the bride making sure she was able to add personal touches whenever and wherever she could. “Our day was fun, relaxed, COLOURFUL, boho, eclectic, a bit vintage, autumnal, crafty. DIY. This wedding was a riot of colour AND it was mostly a DIY wedding – I’m an interior stylist so I did a lot of the styling!”

And full of personality comes as no surprise when you get to know Jacinta and Brad’s story, the pair who shared a first date over hot chocolate at Southern Cross station and fireworks at Docklands. “We had dinner and I was so nervous I hardly ate a thing.” Jacinta laughing “Brad on the other hand talked nonstop for the entire time – I should have known then that I would be the quiet one compared to him!! After we ate and watched the fireworks, we held hands and walked around the city for hours just chatting!! We shared our first kiss that night.
Brad was so busy texting me on his way home he caught the wrong train home!!”

Brad proposed on the Great Ocean Road, although it didn’t quite go as he planned! “We got engaged on November 25th 2018” tells Jacinta. “We went for a drive to the Great Ocean Road, on the way we passed some water paddle boat thing, I wanted to stop and Brad said no so I cracked it. He then asked if we wanted to stop at a lookout and I was like fine. Once we were at the fence I was saying how lucky we are to have such beautiful places we can visit. He then said “there’s something in my pocket, maybe you should have a look”.

I was frantically reaching into his pockets but they were empty.. thinking this was a mean trick.. he said to “try my chest pocket”.. all of a sudden a busload of Asian tourists rolled up and Brad got all spooked and said so quietly “will you marry me?” I burst into tears and everyone was looking at us!!
We tried to take a photo but it was so windy and I was crying, so we went back to the car. Everyone was staring and I’m pretty sure they thought we just broke up!!!!”

The groom and groomsmen wore mismatched looks with pieces from, well everywhere, laughs Jacinta. “Brad wore a very cool and different suit from Politix. Brad loves Connor McGregor and isn’t afraid of pattern or colour – we are two peas in a pod!! He picked this suit as it reminded him of Connor!!
After going to every suit store & not finding anything, they only had black or Navy – we knew we wanted something different but found it so hard to find, we fluked it at DFO Essendon, found the suit – they had a sale on 2 suits for $600!!! So he had two options!!! And found his dream shoes marked down half price!! Luck was on our side that day! Brad’s suit was the first thing we picked! His shirt & vest was from David Jones, tie & pocket square from Politix, and boots from RM Williams.

The boy’s outfits were tricky to sort out because boys being boys hate shopping so much! Their chino pants were a $20 target clearance bargain!! Shirts from Uniqlo, and jackets from Asos & Politix. Their ties & bow ties were from Etsy.”

The bride’s beautiful lace long-sleeve gown was a design by “I wore a dress from Oleg Cassini . I had a rough idea of what I wanted but found it terribly hard to find in my size, inquired with quite a few stores and stalked their websites & Instagram. We went to Oleg Cassini (our second bridal shop) and I knew I wanted to try this dress on (looked very different on the website) and when I tried it on – my bridesmaids were like “OMG CINNA”, Maddy started getting super emotional, Trinh held her hands to her face with her mouth open and was frozen in time for like five minutes!! And Kellie just had the biggest grin on her face. Then I saw the dress and I’m like, yep I think this is the one!!!
We had such an amazing experience in their showroom, we laughed, we joked, the sales assistant Catherine was awesome! She was so fun and genuinely excited and helpful and just made the experience so amazing.”

The sweet country venue of Kerrie Hall  had all the charm these two were looking for says Jacinta. “Originally we had booked with another venue but had to postpone due to COVID, however, we think there was a bigger plan for us in store!
We had originally had the Kerrie Hall on our to-see list but picked the other venue beforehand.. we chatted about wanting to do more creative things and not have to have so many rules on what we can and can’t do or what time we had to finish, and pay extra to stay an extra hour etc.. so after postponing in 2020, we decided to cancel our wedding there and look for something more…. us.
We made time to check out the hall & the old Kerrie school and it was perfect – everything was SO EASY, Marlene who was in charge of the bookings was amazing and so easy going and we couldn’t wipe the smile off our faces! The forest around the school is magical – when we were there it just feels like everything had happened for a reason and this was meant to be. The hall is a little charmer – so much potential and you can do anything in there! It’s a blank canvas.
Around the school are the most amazing Douglas fir trees, planted as a memorial of all the people in the local area who served in the war. The forest is just amazing and makes the most perfect backdrop for photos. Kerrie is a very small part of the Macedon ranges, just outside Riddells Creek & Gisborne – it is truly a wonderful hidden gem!”

Brad’s favourite moment of the day? “My nerves & emotions! I’m used to performing but nothing prepared me for this! But when I saw my boofy walking towards me I knew it would be the best day ever.”

Jacinta walked down the aisle with both her mum and dad to “Just Call” by John Butler Trio.

Jacinta & Brad’s’s ceremony was performed by Custom Celebrations By Dee. “Dee was awesome!” raves Jacinta,  “She set the tone for the whole day, she knows how deeply Brad & I love each other and what matters to us most. I love re-reading her words at the ceremony as I feel like she knows how to write everything that’s in your head but you can’t figure out how to say it! She is a wordsmith that’s for sure! She brought great energy to the day and everyone felt it.”

“We wanted our wedding to be fun! We had to postpone from 2020 due to Covid, so there were so many emotions in the lead-up. We wanted people to enjoy themselves and didn’t want the day/night to feel stuffy and fake and serious – that’s not us at all.
Dee our celebrant, I’ve known her for almost 10 years! She ran a course called Make Craft Your Business and ran craft markets I had stalls at. So that was amazing to have our celebrant be someone who knows us, knows our real personalities & quirky traits. The ceremony felt so genuine, entertaining, fun, light-hearted and just like a warm hug. Dee wrote the most amazing ceremony, referring to our love like a handmade quilt, a project we work on together, slowly over time stitching layer upon layer to create a love that you can both snuggle into. The story she told was just amazing, so lovingly written but with plenty of laughs!
Our ceremony was hilarious! We laughed and cried so much, I put Brad’s wedding band on the wrong hand!!! And then it got stuck! The photo when we realised what we did is hilarious!!!
My grandma said “I loved your wedding, the ceremony was so great and funny! All the brides are so serious but you were so happy & laughing so much. It was great!” Quite a few people said the ceremony was amazing and so funny & entertaining! There were a few happy tears shed too!”

Jacinta’s favourite part of wedding planning? “I loved it!! I loved creating all the little details, picking the colours, the dresses, the suits, the flowers!!!! Brad is colour blind so he left most of it to me hahaha I just loved the creativeness of it all! And the little details that just made it so…us!”

“The good luck charms I got after the ceremony were amazing,” notes Jacinta. “The ones from my parents were the ones that mum was given on her wedding day – one even still had the confetti inside it!!” remarks Jacinta, “My auntie made me one which had the lace from the bridesmaid dresses from her wedding, and my other aunty wrote one from my late-grandparents. I’m such a sucker for all of this stuff – I get so emotional about it!”

Jacinta styled the floral arrangements herself with a little help! She explains “I love flowers!! I wanted colourful, happy, and a mix match, ‘just picked from your cottage garden feel’. I had a blast deciding on what flowers and also had so much fun making all the arrangements with my Mum, Aunty & bridesmaids! Kellie made the bouquets & my aunty made all the buttonholes! It was a huge team effort!
I ordered the bunches from Babylon Flowers in Brunswick (Proteas – pink & white, Tulips, roses, silver dollar, amaranthus, scabiosa, celosia, anthurium) & from the flower farm in Murchison Avonlea Flowers (Stocks, roses, dahlias, Lisianthias, amaranthus, disbuds, snapdragons, chrysanthemums) I also sourced and grew myself Pampas grass, bunny tails, dusty miller.
The flowers were SO FRESH, they last three weeks in vases before they were composted! I love that we gave the flowers to our families & friends to take home and enjoy while we were off on our honeymoon. They were too stunning and so glad they were enjoyed for weeks!”

Jacinta and Brad give all the greatest praise to their photographer. “Our photographer Ali was the bomb!! She is fabulous! From the first time we contacted her she was a deadset legend. I’d send her random messages asking for advice or recommendations on vendors and she always came through with the goods.
Ali is easy-going, relatable and best of all real – she’s no bullsh*t and makes shit happen for you. Nothing was ever a drama and she was amazing on the day. A few guests commented on how good she was, professional but still real, had a giggle with us and was just SO. EASY. to have around.”

“I had two maids on honour, Kellie & Trinh who I went to RMIT with over 12 years ago and are still as close as ever!!” explains the bride. “Maddy and I went to high school together many many years ago! We lost touch after year 12 and randomly bumped into each other at Flinders Street station at 3 am one morning and our friendship picked up right where it left off!
We had so much fun with the wedding party’s outfits – although it was so hard to find what I had envisaged, we ended up finding the perfect dress for each bridesmaid. I knew I wanted them to be comfortable, and hopefully, one day wear the dress again, I knew I didn’t want it to cost too much and most of all I wanted them to be happy with what they were wearing.”

Jacinta’s advice to you? Make it easy! “Enjoy it all, enjoy everything. Enjoy the process, you will only do this once (let’s hope!!). If you’re fighting or arguing, you’re doing it wrong.

Also, things should be easy. If they aren’t, you need to find the right people to be on your team. If they’re chill, you’re chill. If they are hard work – it sucks and you need to move on from them.
Once we realized how easy the new venue was to deal with and how flexible and how understanding they were if things were to change with COVID, it was a huge weight off our shoulders. It re-iterated that I made the right call to cancel the first place – even though it was a lot of work DIY’ing and organizing everything ourselves.. we picked the right businesses for us.”

The wedding decor was very much personal, with Jacinta lending her love of all things crafty to the task. “Almost everything was hand made!! I love making & creating so I was in HEAVEN!!
My mum sewed over 50 metres of the most glorious bunting!! She also made a lot of the napkins too, and what wasn’t handmade was purchased from the op-shop and a few were purchased new. I made the cake-topper which featured little figures of Brad & I and our two chickens Sassy & Ginger!! The name place wood chops were cut by my dad & hand-stamped by me. The seating sign, confetti cones, signage, bridal jacket were DIY’d by me. The bridesmaid jackets were DIY’d by the wedding party. All the flowers were put together by myself, my mum, my auntie Linda and my bridesmaids!!”

This was a day filled to the brim with special touches that honoured Jacinta’s love of all things sentimental.  “I’m a very sentimental person and wore my mum’s earrings she wore for her wedding, along with a pearl ring & pearl bracelet that was my great grandma’s. Brad lost his mum five years ago, her name was also Kerrie – so that was a lovely coincidence (that perhaps she had something to do with!!) so we wanted to make sure she was there with us on the day. There was a photo of her on his buttonhole, and a photo of her at the reception. We know she was there with us on the day and made sure the weather was just perfect for us too.

Brad is a passionate guitar player and had his two favourite guitars on display at the reception – they were there for him ready just in case he wanted to play a little ditty! Brad’s watch that he wore, which was his last birthday present from his mum. The father & daughter dance was the Pride of Erin, the same dance Dad and I did at my deb. There was a beautiful brass vase that was my nana’s that I made a floral arrangement for – it was my favourite arrangement and thought she would have loved it too as she was a colour lover as well!”

Guests enjoyed the most delicious dinner catered byDigging for Fire BBQ Kitchen.   “That food….. YYUUUUMMMMM. Brad loves BBQing and a few of my family members are coeliac. It is SO HARD to find caterers who offer a lot of gluten-free options and are very reasonably priced! We ordered everything GF so there would be no food envy and everything was fabulous. My dad is a coeliac too and he was so impressed with the food – he couldn’t get enough. It’ll be hard to top the wedding food for him!”

“I loved the speeches, my dad’s speech will always hold a place in my heart” remembers Jacinta. “Brad got a great joke in on my dad and we all laughed so hard!!! My maids’ of honour speech was wonderful and so genuine and heartfelt, but Brad’s sister Laura stole the show!! Making a last-minute volunteer as Brad’s friend who was making a speech was MIA, Laura steps in. Strongbow in hand and nails it. Everyone was laughing so hard!! It was a legendary speech and will be spoken about for a long time to come!”

Brad’s favourite part of the day? “Everything that went wrong, ended up being right! It was perfectly imperfect!” Jacinta adding “I loved the colour & the happiness everywhere – from the flowers to the bridal party’s attire, my handsome husband’s suit, the bunting, the mismatched chairs & goblets! I just loved that everyone had the best time and it was all I could dream of and more! Oh and that I finally got to call Brad my husband! That was pretty rad too!”

Jacinta, a keen Swiftie, convinced Brad that their first dance should be Taylor Swift’s “Lover”. She tells “I’m a huge Taylor Swift fan – Brad is a heavy metal enthusiast, so naturally, I convinced him that Lover was a good song choice!!! We also had a confetti cannon at the end of our dance – which was awesome and also scared the sh*t out of me!”

The couple hired Salt & Pepper Weddings to captured a film of their day, A decision they recommend whole heartedly.  “Ryan from Salt + Pepper weddings was awesome. Recommended by our photographer, we fluked and he had our date available (in 2 months!! – left that to the last minute eek!!) Again, from the first interaction, it was easy, he was chill, easy-going, had some great advice and answered all our questions. We are SO GLAD we booked him! Our video is amazing, it captured everything just so perfect and it was money super well spent! We now have the whole ceremony, speeches and the wedding clip that we can watch again and again and again.. we have watched it A LOT already!!
We are so thankful we booked a videographer as Brad’s Dad had to leave after the ceremony to go to the hospital with a kidney stone!!! So he got to re-watch it all and didn’t miss out.”

Congratulations Jacinta & Brad! How lucky we are to be able to share your beautiful day. Thank you both and thank you to Smith + Archer for sharing today’s celebration with us.