It is the finale, of Rosina and Kayli’s glittering, rustic winery wedding that first had us fall in love with the story for The Gold Issue. The pair donning sparkly, sequin frocks, and executing a killer first dance that was well and truly the highlight of the night.

But the highlight of the day? As evidenced by the utterly beautiful photographs captured by Stone & Wool Photography, is how these two personalised their day. They honoured traditon- but the tradition that was important to them spiritually. The pair honouring Earth, Fire, Wind & Water throughout their day – like in an intimate handfasting ceremony. Allowing them to not just make their day their own, but hold the significance of the occasion close to their hearts.

The pair, lovers of wheels, met while rollerskating. They explain “After crossing paths for many years unknowingly, we finally officially met at a Roller Derby party. We played for rival leagues at the time.” The proposal, despite two elaborate plans, was rather spontaneous. “We both had elaborate plans to propose. Kayli was arranging an overseas holiday to propose to Rosina in the Dolomite mountains in Italy. Rosina was arranging to take Kayli to a friend’s gig and surprising her mid-set with a song and proposal.
Then one New Years Eve Rosina had a few too many drinks and just couldn’t hold it back anymore. We ended up becoming engaged at home!”

Both Kayli and Rosina wore lace gowns. “We chose dresses that suited our styles but also complemented each other and our wedding style.
Kayli wore a beautiful lace gown with a small train. Rosina wore a gorgeous beaded gown with a train. We stuck to our usual way of dressing for events, we call it ‘same, same but different’.

The beautiful blush and white floral arrangements for the day were styled by The Little Flower Stall. Rosina and Kayli telling  “We just googled flower bouquets that caught our eyes in our colour theme and sent them through to our florist. From there she created beautiful bouquets and decor. She also created our vision of lanterns with flowers instead of bouquets for our wedding party.”

The brides each walked down the aisle themselves. “We both walked down the aisle separately” they share. “Rosina walked to “She Keeps Me Warm” by Mary Lambert. Kayli walked to “Melody of You” by Sixpence None The Richer. “

The couple put a lot of importance on their wedding ceremony, making sure it reflected what was important to them. They chose Cloud Nine Ceremonies to officiate it. “Our ceremony was heartfelt, down to earth and true. Which is exactly what we wanted. Many guests were crying happy tears, which was so heartwarming.
We were married outside under a stunning tree, overlooking the Toowoomba range. Our celebrant wrote a beautiful poem about us and our love, which was one of the readings. It is titled ‘Roller Derby Romance’ – by Carmon Dillon. Another was a poem titled ‘How Falling In Love Is Like Owning a Dog’ – by Taylor Mali, and the third reading was titled ‘Blessing of the Hands’ which was read while our handfasting was taking place.
We wrote our vows and had so much input into the writing of the whole ceremony. It reflected us perfectly.”

With its incredible views, there is no wonder these two chose Preston Peak Winery for their day. They tell “We chose Preston Peak Winery as our venue. Reasons include the stunning views, the relaxed beautiful atmosphere, the Bridal Cottage, the luxurious facilities and the hospitality from the staff, especially from our wedding planner. The fact that they offered everything we needed. It was wonderful to not have to factor in cars, transport and wasted time on the road.
Preston Peak staff helped us from start to finish and made us feel at home along the way.”

These two have three great pieces of advice if you are planning your wedding “Don’t ever forget why you fell in love.
Celebrate the small things, always.
Planning your day is meant to be fun so if it starts to get too serious or stressful, help each other make it fun again.”

For Rosina and Kayli, this was a day about tradition, but not about family tradition, about tradition of rituals important to them. “We made sure we included all four elements throughout our day. Earth, Air, Fire and Water. A particular inclusion was the rosemary as its scent is known to help memory and we wanted everyone present to remember our day. The rosemary was made even more special, as we grew it all ourselves from a single sprig that Rosina’s dad gave us as a housewarming gift.
Our handfasting ritual was drawn from ancient wedding traditions, it represents connectedness. Not only with each other but with nature as well, as above so below.

We didn’t include traditions or heirlooms from our direct families. We did however include traditions from our spiritual beliefs which is more true to us. Our whole day is a special story to us. A dream we thought could never come true, but it did.”

The couple loved every moment of the time spent with their photography duo, they tell “Our photographers were so wonderfully laid back. They made everyone feel so comfortable in front of the camera which produced the most authentic shots.”

“We had close friends, nieces, an aunty and uncle and our pup in our wedding party. The boys who we named our bridesmen, wore navy suits, including vests and blush pink shirts with brown shoes.

Our bridesmaids wore navy dresses, knee-length with beautiful lace detailing at the top. They wore blush pink shoes. They also had cashmere shawls to match their shoes. Flower girls wore navy dresses with white bodices. Their shoes were blush pink glitter. Our pageboy (Eli, our pup) wore a suit collar and bowtie.”

Rosina and Kyali put their special touches on the day, starting with dried herbs and flowers. “It is hard to create a day that reflects you without creating some of the décor yourself. We started with drying olive leaves and rosemary sprigs. The olive leaves were to make up the bulk of our confetti, which also included, dried rosemary leaves and blush pink paper cut into tiny squares. Our confetti smelt beautiful and was also biodegradable. The rosemary sprigs were dried for our bonbonnieres. These were glass bottles filled with olive oil and rosemary sprigs. We got stickers printed for them with our wedding details and the saying ‘Olive our love to you’. Who doesn’t love a good pun?!

We made the cups for the confetti throwing. We also made wreaths from fresh olive branches for each of our tables. These were placed around our candle holders as centrepieces. We made the cord for our handfasting ritual. We also made our aisle decorations which were small glass bottles with fresh rosemary sprigs in water. Our getting ready robes, we bought online and had one of our bridesmaids press the letters on the backs. There were so many small details that we DIYed!”

And in true golden girl style, the newlyweds took to the dance floor for an epic first dance filled with the best kinds of moves. They explain “Our first dance was so much fun! We wanted to avoid the awkward slow dance that most newlyweds do. So we hired a dance teacher to help us choreograph something worth watching.

Our dance started with ballroom type moves to “In Your Dreams” by Stevie Nicks….. then halfway through that song, we edited in a record scratch, which then changed the song to “Country Girl Shake It For Me” by Luke Bryant. We changed into a line dance at this stage that our wedding party one by one joined in on. We had so much fun with our dance and our guests loved it. Special mention to one of our bridesmaids, who managed to fall into a garden mid-dance, pick herself back up and join back in the dance!”

The biggest of congratulations to you both Rosina and Kayli! What an honour to be able to share your beautiful wedding. Thank you both and thank you to Stone & Wool Photography for sharing today’s beautiful celebration.