Kick off your shoes, because the laidback mood of Tanya & Stephen’s gorgeous wedding day is just the ticket for your Wednesday! “We made a conscious effort to make the wedding “us”,” explains Tanya, who along with her beloved, made sure they did their day, their way. “It was laid back and informal, which we loved.”

Choosing one beautiful venue, and handing over the detail (and stress!) to the pros at The Wedding and Event Creators and photographer Alana Taylor Photography, these two were really able to stop, take a breath and enjoy their beautiful day for every bit of family & friend filled, chamapgne filled, and beauty filled day that it was.

The perfect way to celebrate a random meeting back at Terrigal Beer Garden in 2017 – “We went on a date a week after meeting each other and we have been inseparable ever since.” The proposal? A festive season surprise! “Stephen popped the question a few days after Christmas in 2020 while we were on a walk at the Botanic Gardens in the city. He completely caught me off guard. It was simple and not over the top, which is exactly how I wanted it.”

Guests were invited to celebrate Tanya & Stephen at Shoalhaven wedding venue Worrowing. “We chose Worrowing because it ticked all our boxes. It was the first and only venue we looked at. I spent a few months researching some South Coast venues but nothing was really jumping out at me. I stumbled across Worrowing one afternoon and felt an instant connection just via their Instagram. We drove down from Sydney a few weeks later to view the property and we locked in a date straight away.”

Regrets for these two? Only two things Tanya wishes she had done differently. “I would have paid less attention to the weather forecast leading in, because it kept changing, even the morning of. We ended up having rain and going to our backup plan, but it was still absolutely beautiful.

I would have made more of an effort to actually spend time with Steve during the night (which I know sounds bizarre), but you don’t realise how distracted you get talking to all your guests. You wake up the next day and think “did we even see each other all night?”.”

Tanya was accompanied down the aisle by her father to “Two Strong Hearts” by Ainslie Wills.

 

The couple were married by Stephen’s mother! Remembers Tanya “Surprisingly the ceremony was our favourite part. That’s the part I was dreading the most because I hate attention on me, but we both loved it.
We wanted the ceremony to be short and sweet, we aren’t the most religious people so we didn’t have any religious readings. We did have two other readings, however, Extract from Captain Correlli’s Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres, and an anonymous poem that my mother read.”

Tanya’s simple, yet elegant gown was a Grace Loves Lace creation. She tells “I chose a dress from Grace Loves Lace, mainly because I like that they make the dress to fit your exact measurements. Similar to the venue-picking process, I picked the first dress I tried on. I knew the style that I wanted and this one was it. I had researched dresses online for months but didn’t find any that I liked until Grace Loves Lace released a new collection with “Bella” being one of the dresses. I knew straight away that I wanted to try that dress on.”

Stephen opted for a pared back look. “Stephen went relatively basic with his outfit. He didn’t want to wear a full tux or go too formal. We landed on black chinos with a white shirt, and black tie, tan belt and tan shoes. His jacket was a greyish colour from Politix.”

Wanting stress free day, meant these two were happy to hand over their wedding day styling to  The Wedding and Event Creators and flowers to  Leah Mitchell Floral Design. “Booking WEC for on-the-day coordination and styling was BY FAR the best money we spent. It took so much pressure off us, not just on the day but the months leading in as well. They thought of every single detail, and I had all confidence in them on the day. I didn’t feel stressed at all because I knew they had it covered.

The flowers and decor were not a main priority for us. We still wanted it to look beautiful and classy, but it wasn’t our biggest concern as the venue itself is already stunning. We went with earthy tones, greens/whites/beige, as I didn’t want to take away from the natural beauty of the venue. I think those colours complimented the bridesmaid dresses perfectly. I didn’t really have a strong vision of what I wanted, so I left it in the capable hands of our florist, Leah Mitchell.” Tanya even had Leah weave very special jewels from her grandmother into the ribbon of her bouquet.

The most special thing for Tanya and Stephen? Their guests of course! “Majority of our friends and family are from the Central Coast and Sydney, so it was nice to get everyone down to the South Coast for a mini holiday. We had pre-wedding drinks at Husky Pub the night before so it was nice to see everyone before the big day (it also took the pressure off to talk to everyone on the actual wedding day). It’s rare to have all your loved one’s in the same room at once, so we both felt really lucky and privileged to have people from all aspects of our lives celebrating with us.”

Of their photographer, Tanya and Stephen give all the gold stars. “Alana Taylor was an absolute dream to work with and made us feel so comfortable. Our photos are amazing and she captured the day perfectly. She worked well with the crazy weather changes throughout the day too (hot, cold, sunshine, rain…) She was so polite and we had so many people mention how great she was after the wedding too.”

Tanya’s golden advice? It all comes back to remembering what is important. “Pinterest and Instagram can be your best and worst friends. I often felt overwhelmed when I would open social media and my whole algorithm was wedding related. I had to keep reminding myself that my wedding doesn’t need to look as extravagant as what you see online and that I need to trust myself and the vendors we picked.”

“Steve’s Dad has sadly passed, so I wanted to make sure we incorporated him in a way that’s more personal than just a candle. His dad loved beer and everyone knew this, so I got a sign made that said “Butch’s Bar” to have at the bar. His family loved it.”

Stephen’s favourite part of the day? The private photo session. “It gave us a chance to take a small break from everyone and spend some time just us two (and Alana of course). You don’t realise how important those small moments are with all the chaos going on around you.”

Guests enjoyed a casual reception, complete with cocktails from Henry Clive Caravan Bar and pizza from Wandering Woodfire Oven. Tanya telling “In terms of the vibe, we didn’t want our guests to feel restricted and that’s why we opted for unassigned seating. We still had plenty of seating for guests, but it gave them the option to sit wherever and with whoever they wanted. We were stoked with our decision to have Wandering Woodfire as the caterers. At first, I was worried people wouldn’t eat much if they had to go up to the table and serve themselves, but we heard nothing but positive feedback from guests.”

Remember that vision for a fun big day? Well, Tanya and Stephen decided that since neither of them is big fan of wedding cake, they’d ditch the sweet stuff and instead treat their guests to a gorgeous Champagne tower.

And then the dance floor kicked off, to the newlywed’s debut – the song “Mad Sounds” by Arctic Monkeys. Says Tanya “We didn’t want anything too “corny” as it’s just not who we are. We don’t show PDA a lot, so the first dance was a bit nerve-wracking for us. We only danced just us two for the first half of the song, and then invited everyone else onto the dance floor for the remainder.”

A big beautiful congratulations to you both Tanya & Stephen! Thank you for sharing your wedding day story with us and thank you to Alana Taylor Photography &  The Wedding and Event Creators for sharing this one with us.