Spring Wedding Amongst Olive Groves

We adore the stories that couples send us about their beautiful wedding days, especially when they have so much sentiment & detail for us to share with you, lovely Dotties. Today’s wedding, captured by Richelle Casson Photography, was held with a backdrop of rows of beautiful olive trees & featured a much-loved four-legged friend! Mahoshadi & Justin’s spring wedding amongst olive groves has all the feels. Mahoshadi tells us about they met, and their glorious wedding…

I never thought in a million years I would bump into my soul mate 1000s of miles away from home but I did and it’s been an amazing journey together. There’s so much magic when two very different cultures collide and that was exactly how we felt at our spring wedding.

My husband and I met through the good old Tinder app. You might think it’s very cliche but yes, we did. I came to the city of churches to do my Masters from the beautiful Island of Sri Lanka and never intended on staying here. I remember the first night after uni, I wanted to get something to eat but the whole city was dead by 5.00 pm and I thought this was not for me. I joined Tinder from pure boredom and Justin was the only guy I went on a date with due to his persistence to meet up. Here we are now married – 5 years and a German Shepard later!

We had family and friends come from all over the world for our wedding. I am a Sri Lankan and I made sure to add a little bit of my heritage and culture to the wedding. With the weather being really bad following up to the wedding weekend and the outpour and wind we were so afraid and disheartened that we might not be able to have the beautiful outdoor ceremony. We were so lucky that the rain gods decided to stay clear just till after the ceremony, photos, and cocktail hour to shower on us. The rain made the reception so beautiful with the twinkling lights outside, cozy heaters inside, and lots and lots of scrumptious food.

Justin wore a clean black and white suit custom tailored from Peter Shearer Menswear & Suit Hire. We went for a classic editorial look for the groom and his groomsmen.

I wore a Willowby by Watters Hearst Gown from The Bride Lab. I loved the dress as soon as I laid my eyes on it. It gave me Jane Austen from the beautiful rose embroidery to the flowy romantic tulle skirt and neckline. The dress was ivory in colour.

My mother brought with her my father’s great-grandmother’s hairpin made from gold and beautifully decorated with pink gems which I pinned in my bouquet. I also wore my mother’s silver anklets that she got as a gift from her father.

The ceremony and wedding were at Lloyd Brothers Olive and Wine Company in Mclaren Vale, South Australia. It was love at first sight. The winery makes a grand entrance with a beautiful olive grove and then nestled among the trees and a beautiful lake is a barrel hall. The barrel hall had the clean white look we were looking for and the dance floor outside with the festoon lights were breathtaking on a spring evening.

I am a big lover of romantic novels and wanted our wedding to reflect that. We went for a romantic, minimalist wedding along the beautiful olive groves. We incorporated a lot of olive leaves into the colour and theme of the wedding. The main colours we went for were white, green, and blush pink.

I walked down the aisle to “Can’t Help Falling in Love” by Elvis Presley. Being a multicultural wedding, I wanted to incorporate a small part of my culture at the ceremony. My parents walked me down the aisle and did a traditional handover to my husband and then we proceeded with a Western-style ceremony. The ceremony was light-hearted and fun, we had the most amazing celebrant Sally Cameron, who worked with us to create a small story about how we met and everyone loved it including us.

The most amazing part of our big day was the weather. We woke up to a moody, rainy morning with the smallest glimpse of sunlight coming in and out. We wanted to have our ceremony in the olive groves and I was so afraid we wouldn’t be able to. A big shout out to our wedding coordinator Mark from Lloyd Brothers who always reassured us that if the weather is not on our best side, he can move the ceremony within a couple of minutes. I don’t think I prayed so hard that day but we had no rain for the ceremony and the sun was out till we all went in for the reception.

We had two groomsmen, Justin’s best friends, and my two bridesmaids my best friends who flew all the way from Sri Lanka to be part of the day. For our florals, I went with olive greenery and baby breath with mixed seasonal white mums, roses flowers, and some peachy pink carnations throughout.

Richelle Casson was our photographer and she was beyond amazing. She understood what I was after and was on it from the first point of contact. She did and redid the timeline for the day and recommended so many amazing vendors which we are beyond grateful for. She made sure she captured the most important parts of the ceremony, the wedding, and also our most important people and we were just so in love with how the photos came out. Our videographer – In The Mood For Love – was amazing too. They coordinated the photos and videos very well.

We hired a caricature artist Allan Addams for the day so everyone could get their faces drawn. This was perfect considering the weather and not being able to have a lot of outdoor entertainment for the day.

It was very difficult to organise a traditional Sri Lankan wedding in Adelaide being away from home and not having my family throughout the entire process. I got my parents to get a local craftsman to make our wedding favors, a unique heritage treasure of Sri Lanka also known as the Laaksha Wooden Jewellery Box. Laksha is a traditional folk art of Sri Lanka (famous mostly during the Kandyan kingdom). Its uniqueness is derived from the special wax coating used called the ‘lac’ – a form of wax obtained from lac insects. The craftsman designed 50 unique boxes with individually painted artwork for each of our guests.

I made the stationery for the day – the menus, place cards, and table numbers for the reception!

My 2 brothers live in the USA and could not make it to the wedding, but they surprised me with a beautiful speech that got projected on a screen on the day and it was so special.

Our first dance was to “You and Me” by Lifehouse.

All our vendors were exceptional and went beyond what they had to to make our day extra special. My advice would be don’t stress about the smaller details closer to or on the wedding day. You are the only one who knows it and no one would care. Your big day goes so fast so enjoy every minute of it!