When Madilyn and Clancy tied the knot, a story over seven years in the making, it wasn’t so much about the wedding day, as it was about every experience leading up to it. “It’s not just ‘one day’. It is the months/ years of excitement planning and the life time of memories post” notes Madilyn. “Whether you want a big or small, fancy or low key wedding don’t let any one tell you its ‘just a wedding’. Savour the beautiful highs that come pre, post and during.”

And it is that the moments, the treasuring of the stories, that make this wedding day such an absolute beauty. Captured by And Ever Collective at a beautiful Gold Coast country venue, Madilyn and Clancy cleverly surrounded themselves with family and friends, for a day filled with details that were not only stunning to look at, but held so much weight and meaning.

After meeting those seven years ago through a mutual friend at university, “It took a few months for Clancy to convince me to go on a date with him! However I was smitten after the very first date”, it was an unexpected weekend away that led Clancy to ask Madilyn to marry him. In Madilyn’s own words “We had a quick weekend away and Clancy insisted on going for a hike. I am not the most outdoorsy girl so I complained about the ENTIRE hike. We got to the top and he somehow still proposed to me after an hour of complaining! I cried when he proposed, mainly because I felt so bad I had ruined the moment for him.

We laughed about it later and it didn’t go down how either of us had planned. 3 weeks later after my ring was resized, I came home from work and our bedroom was filled with candles and our song was playing. He proposed again! I am one lucky lady.”

And Ever Collective also captured this beautiful film of the day.

Madilyn’s dress was always going to be beautiful, and she chose to work with designer Jennifer Gifford to make her vision come to life. She remembers “I have dreamt of my wedding dress since I was a little girl. I wanted to try on every dress possible and savour the experience. I, unfortunately, could not find the perfect dress, which led me to the amazing Jennifer Gifford. I showed her my mood board and what my style is and she brought the vision to life. I then had a more simple silk number for the reception.”

The Gold Coast country venue Cowbell Creek turned out to be the perfect choice for this weekend’s celebration tells the bride, “Cowbell creek was absolutely beautiful. I had always had their Instagram saved pre-engagement as a potential venue, however, it wasn’t until we went to visit that we truly fell in love with it. We wanted a farm wedding but did not have time for a DIY. Cowbell Creek provided everything and had the most stunning views.

We loved having majority of our guests stay the night and then a place to continue the party the next day was amazing. It kept the high of the wedding going and allowed us to catch up with all of our guests given the day itself goes so quickly.”

Madilyn was escorted down the aisle by her father to Christina Perri’s “A thousand years”. Madilyn shares “I loved the walk down the aisle and noticing my husband tearing up. I had envisioned that moment since I was a little girl and it was everything I had hoped for.”

Madilyn & Clancy wanted their ceremony to reflect the gravity of the moment, asking Caitlin Healy to officiate. “I wanted the ceremony to be romantic and emotional followed by a fun, easygoing reception” explains Madilyn, “I did not want to rush this part as it was what we were both looking forward to the most. We are non-religious so we bulked out our ceremony with a speech from my Mother and Clancy’s Father. These speeches were very heartfelt and this freed up space in the speeches later on. We wrote our own vows & ceremony layout.”

Clancy lucked out with an incredible green suit just weeks before the wedding, remembers Madilyn, “Clancy being the carefree bloke that he is, left it until a few weeks before the wedding. He winged it and ordered his suit online and it was perfect. He wanted to stand out and not go with the traditional black and white.”

The fun and fresh colour palette extended to the flowers and the couple was able to keep it all in the family with the help of Thistle Flowers. “We are very lucky to have a few amazing florists in our family! My cousin Matt & partner Chris from Thistle Flowers offered to take care of it. I have always loved the vibrant pinks and reds incorporating roses, peonies and chrysanthemums. We did not want to be wasteful so we reused our ceremony flower arbour as the decoration behind our head table and we also used our bouquets as the head table flowers.”

Each guest took home a very special gift from Madilyn and Clancy’s own business (The Functional Skin Studio). “We thought it would be fitting to DIY our guest’s gifts” notes Madilyn. “We had our formulator make organic, hydrating face sheet masks in white slips. We then had our menus/ name tags for the tables printed and labelled onto the mask packaging. Each guest was able to take home the mask and use it for recovery the next day.”

Remembers Clancy “It was just amazing to have all of our loved ones together in the one place with us. The energy was high and everyone had the best time.”

Even the food gave a nod to the couple’s history! “Every one of our guests complimented the food! We are big foodies and wanted this to be a highlight. My husband once owned a Bagel Café, so we had our friends at NYC Bagel Deli cater for entrees and then we had feasting platters down the centre for mains.”

The first dance a gentle sway to a romantic version of an old favourite, tells Madilyn, “We could not decide on a first dance song until we heard our wedding singer Chris sing a cover of Tina Turner, ‘The Best’. We loved his version of the song and it suited the vibe for the day perfectly. Originally we had our beautiful dancer sister-in-law help choreograph a fun first dance for us. However, we soon realised we are highly uncoordinated and opted for a more traditional, slow sway haha.”

Congratulations on your marriage Madilyn & Clancy! Thank you for sharing the beauty of your day with us! Thank you also to And Ever Collective and Jennifer Gifford for sharing this one with us.