When it comes to celebrating a month of country weddings we knew we had to look beyond the farms and valleys. And today? We’re headed to outback Australia. with the most delightful of country wedding stories. The wedding of Rach and Dean is a delight, because what do you do when your wedding is in the middle of nowhere? With no fresh flowers and endless teams of vendors around?

Well, you make magic happen. And you do it in utter outback style, complete with stars blazing and rich red soil. “Having a wedding in such a spectacular location was so special in itself, ” shares Rachel “being able to watch the sun go down over the red plains, our awesome photo opportunity with the old Haul trucks, we made sure we had good tunes and plenty of cold cans.” The duo invited Blue Media Weddings along for the celebration to make sure every detail was captured.

The couple, who planned an epic celebration (including post-wedding road trips to Exmouth and camping on the property) was all about celebrating what they love, the life they live, and what brought them together. So of course, aptly, their story started in the Pilbara too. “We met on a mine site in the Pilbara, I lived residential while Dean was FIFO. I was a Store person and Dean used to come to the store daily to book out tools and equipment that he most definitely did not need! One night on nightshift he finally built up the courage to leave his phone number. From there, our love story began!”

And a romantic camping trip, was just the moment Dean chose to propose. “We were camping at 80-mile beach between Port Hedland and Broome”, remembers Rach. “We’d spent the day swimming and relaxing with a couple of bevvies. It was late afternoon as the sun was going down, we had just finished eating tacos off the back of the Ute when Dean gave me a Love Book with our story in it. He then got down on one knee and proposed.”

“My husband wanted something comfortable with a little class, after all, it was our wedding day,” tells Rach of Dean’s wedding day outfit, which was purchased from Tarocash. “We chose colours that would pop with the landscape and of course, my husband’s good looks finished off with a matching buttonhole from Boho Blooms.

Rach had a distinct vision in mind for her gown, and she found it! A gown by Laure de Sagazan was purchased from Carte Blanche Bride. She tells “I had always wanted an open back dress or as long as I could remember, once we had set a date I got to searching online for my dream dress; living so remote this was quite a challenge.

I finally found my dream dress scrolling online and was on a mission to find it, to only find out it was by a French designer Laure De Sagazan and would never arrive in time amongst Covid. I did however manage to find the same dress on a second-hand website, luckily it was a sample dress from a Melbourne bridal boutique; the owner Anastasia was amazing, she posted it over, I gathered a few close girlfriends, some bubbles and we had a virtual fitting in my friend’s living room; turns out it fitted absolutely perfect.”

“My best memory was the reveal of my beautiful Bride to be” remembers Dean. “Everything was absolutely fantastic and we had the most memorable day. It was unfortunate that not all of our family and friends could attend but the ones that were with us made it just as special. I really enjoyed the following day dusting off a bit of a hangover with awesome food and swimming in the beautiful gorges the Pilbara has to offer.”

Rach also notes this part of the day as her favourite. “I loved the reveal before the ceremony, having that moment to sit back with a drink, just the two of us and soak in all the goodness that was awaiting us.”

The couple hosted their day, and the celebration surrounding it at Cheela Plains Station Stay. “We wanted to have a Pilbara party with all of our friends and family and this was the perfect venue” explains Rach. “Robyn and her team were absolutely amazing hosts and to have us all set up and all camp around the lovely grassed area under the awesome Milky Way at night time was super special! From our incredible station hosts to our absolutely delightful food caterers to our brilliant photographers as well as Hilary, our beautiful calm and supportive celebrant. It’s hard to choose a favourite vendor, they were all amazing.”

With Rach’s parents unable to attend the wedding due to COVID travel restrictions, the couple decided they’d walk down the aisle together. They chose a David Guetta cover of “When loves takes over” sung by Astrid S.

The couple were married by Hilary Van Eldik. Shares Rach “Our incredible ceremony location represented the life we have built together; we wanted an intimate ceremony that was personal, we share such a strong love connection between us that we really wanted all our friends and family to feel a part of on our special day.”

“Due to Covid travel restrictions and the casual vibe we opted for no official wedding party, we did however have Dean’s best friend and my sister for our signatories and our close friend as our incredible captain/hostess.”

“Plan, prepare, relax and have fun!” advises Rach for those of you yet to tie the knot. “It’s always going to be stressful but in the end, it’s all worth it (if we could, we would have hired a wedding day coordinator instead of relying on friends/family). Make sure your day is a reflection of you, your partner and the love you share, don’t worry or stress about what others think.”

“Cat and Vee were absolutely amazing!” raves Rach of the couple’s chosen photographers.  “They were clearly excited to showcase the vibrant colours and landscape the Pilbara has to offer and we are so fortunate to share this experience with them. It’s like they were an extended part of our family!”

Rach carried a beautiful bouquet of dried & faux flowers, having it made by Boho Blooms. “I knew having a simple dress that I wanted a large abstract bouquet. I also knew that with no local flower vendors my only option was dried preserved flowers. I came across Boho Blooms on Instagram and after our initial catch up I knew straight away they would create something stunning, and that they did…despite the 1600km distance between us.”

The couple handmade much of their decor for the wedding. “Being in the Pilbara and thousands of kilometres from anywhere, online shopping was our favourite friend here. Everything was pretty much DIY. We made an awesome pallet bar and bought what we could online with furnishings, decor etc. The evening before we went out bush on a mission and collected a whole heap of local flora, topped it all off with festoon lights and our reception was complete.”

“Being a DIY wedding we nominated a mate to put all the drinks out before the ceremony, he forgot the stash of Sav wine which went unnoticed until the next day…we have only just gifted the last of it 12 months on hah. While we were off on our photo shoot, half of the festoon lighting had come loose from a gust of wind and our friends and family were frantically running around making repairs! We were none the wiser and didn’t have a clue.”

Guests were gifted shooters, put together by the couple as wedding favours.

“Keeping with no traditions we opted out of an official first dance as we all danced the night away together; the boys did however participate in quite the spectacular Eagle drop.”

Congratulations Rach and Dean on your marriage. What an incredible celebration! Thank you to Blue Media Weddings for sharing this story with us today.