When Lucy and Elle fell in love with the winery wedding venue Zonzo Estate, they developed a clear vision for their country wedding day. “We didn’t set out to have a theme but it was somewhere between rustic mixed in with natives and earthy tones” explains Lucy. “We wanted to celebrate the beautiful backdrop of the winery we were holding the wedding at and felt those themes would suit best.”

And with wineries on our mind all month long, what better story is there to tell? All thanks to the beautiful images captured by Love & Other Photography.

Lucy and Elle’s story, however, began many years ago; it began when they both attended the same three-year-old kinder! Says Lucy “We have known each other since three years old kinder but didn’t become friends until we were about 13 years old when Elle moved to the same netball club Lucy had played at for a few years. Growing up in small coastal country towns we always knew of each other and our families but grew a lot closer in those high school years through netball. We both played representative netball and in the State Netball League which is when we started to grow closer as friends. It wasn’t until after high school that we decided that the relationship was something special.

It was Elle who decided the time was right for the age-old question, “I had wanted to propose to Elle for a while, so I found this fantastic local Jeweller in Cushla Whiting where I was able to book an appointment, pick the design of the ring and the stones to be used and styled a unique ring. I didn’t want a traditional diamond engagement ring so I went with something very different in a rose gold blue/green sapphire surrounded by 12 small diamonds.

We had planned a trip to Nepal in August 2019 to trek to Everest Basecamp so I decided to organise a hike in the Dandenong Ranges with Elle. The proposal was to be somewhere where it was just the two of us (and our dog) as Elle never likes to make a big fuss over anything. We were both very overcome with emotion more than we thought we would be and it was so special to enjoy the moment with just the two of us.”

Of course, there were not one, but two beautiful gowns for their day, Elle wore Made With Love while Lucy found her gown at Madi Lane. “Elle and I both chose our dresses completely on our own without a clue of what each of us was going to wear” explains Lucy. “The experience itself is pretty surreal and it was hard to go in with an idea of what style dress we would like as, like most other people, had never tried on a wedding dress before! We both went to a few appointments at a few different stores, but it wasn’t long until we picked out the dress we loved. Elle chose a Made With Love dress Louie in Ivory.
I chose a Madi Lane dress Miles which was a straight strapless dress and wore a detachable cape with floral lace work around the edging. The dresses looked perfect together and complimented both of us.”

The floral arrangements kept in with that earthy, rustic vibe of the day. Elle and Lucy chose Botanics Of Melbourne as their floral designer for the day. “We chose natives as our flowers, again really wanting to compliment the colours the bridesmaids were using along with the backdrop of Zonzo” explains Lucy. “We had full faith in our florist from Botanics of Melbourne. We used Pinterest a lot and sent a lot of inspiration through email leading up to the day. I guess because flowers are seasonal and due to covid, we weren’t 100% sure what we would receive on the day, but once they were delivered we were so blown away. Elle messaged me when she received her flowers saying how amazing they were!”

Lucy and Elle fell in love with their chosen venue Zonzo Estate from the first time they visited. “The first wedding venue we went to were Zonzo Estate in the Yarra Valley, Victoria, and it was the only venue we went to. We chose Zonzo because they did it all, from the food, the venue, the setup and the hospitality staff. We had both our ceremony and reception at the one place and were able to use their grounds for photos. Zonzo was an absolute delight on the day and in the lead-up, professional and had full confidence they would deliver the day we hoped for, and even more so, may we add.”

The brides both walked down the aisle with their parents, Lucy sharing ” I walked down the aisle to an acoustic version of Shania Twain’s “You’re Still the One” by Bailey Rushlow and Elle walked down to an acoustic version of One Direction’s “Little Things” by Laura and Carlos.”

The couple chose Celebrant Kate to officiate their ceremony, Lucy remembering “The ceremony was the first time we told our story from the beginning which was something we wanted to make sure we got right. We had hidden our relationship from everyone for so many years and we wanted to share the love we had for each other. We left this in the hands of our amazing celebrant Kate Mac.

We sat down via zoom and spoke about the life we had shared so far, and the struggles in that we found finding out feet together and learning to accept our relationship for what it is. We didn’t have a reading but more so a powerful saying that was read out which read: ” You can’t be what you can’t see” referring to the power of role modelling.

We wanted the ceremony to be filled with love from all our family and friends and set that through music in the lead-up to the wedding. We were honestly just so blown away by all the love in the room we felt, it was beyond anything we could have ever imagined.”

Lucy and Elle had a few sentimental touches for the day, including something special that honoured Lucy’s grandmother. “My Dad’s cousin is a seamstress who altered both mine and Elle’s dress. She had sewn in my great-grandmother’s engagement ring on the inside of the dress for me to have during the day which was special. I also wore my Dad’s mother’s ring during the ceremony. She passed away young and was important for me to have something of hers with me on the day.”

 

Luc and Elle made sure they were surrounded by their very favourite people. “We had seven within our wedding party altogether, Elle had three and I had 4. We wanted everything to blend in nicely so decided that each bridesmaid was to wear something different in dusty tones. It made it a little difficult in Covid but we didn’t see all the dresses together until we were at the altar and they just looked amazing. We had the girls choose their dresses as we wanted them to feel comfortable in whatever they were wearing. I had a male on my side also, so who wore a white shirt, light grey pants, suspenders and a dusty pink bow tie which tied in perfectly with the rest of the wedding party.”

“Our photographer was Kyla from Love and Other” remembers Lucy. “Absolutely amazing, laid back, fun and made both of us feel so comfortable the entire evening. We had a slight change in plans with speeches due to the timing of the sunset, and Kyla just came up to us and let us know so we could make the most of the sunset time and we both loved that. Not having to think about anything else on the day except enjoying the company of each other and our guests, and trusting they would do the best job was fantastic.”

“We both had had grandparents pass away so wanted to ensure they were included and mentioned within our ceremony. We also included them in the reception by having a photo of all our grandparents and parents on their wedding day. This was set up next to our wedding guest book and allowed everyone to have a moment to have a look at our family history.”

In keeping with the relaxed mood of the day, Lucy and Elle only chose the formalities they loved. “We didn’t do the first dance! Elle and I aren’t huge dancers as such and wanted to keep the formalities to a minimum to enjoy the majority of the evening with our guests.”

Lucy and Elle’s advice for you for your own wedding? “Our advice when organising is to do whatever you want and not worry about what anyone else will think about it, because it gets too hard worrying about that! On the day, spend as much time with each other as possible. It’s easy to find yourself apart talking to other people but that was something we made a conscious effort to do.”

The biggest congratulations to you both Lucy and Elle! Thank you for sharing your beautiful wedding day with us and thank you to Love & Other Photography for sharing today’s celebration with us.